Spilled water on my T400

So, I spilled water on my T400...it was a pretty big spill. And unfortunately, I was in a rush to get out of the door (running late) and I forgot to turn off the laptop. Now the screen has problems...its flickering a lot and the brightness is severely reduced. Is my only option to send it in? And if so, how is the service?

 

They should be able to help you but it will be quite expensive unless you have Accidental Damage Protection.

But you spilled water and then left o.o?

 

Yeah, I have Accidental Damage Protection, thankfully.

Yeah, I tried to dry it off with a towel...but I was running pretty late and I was thinking "oh, liquid drains, it'll be okay"....it was not one of my smarter moments

 

In this case, I think there is almost no reason not to send it in for a free repair.

 

Hopefully your data is okay. But if you have ADP you should be fine as far as repair. Give them a call and get your laptop sent in!

 

The data is fine. I plugged it into a monitor and it was working fine...I think it's just the screen.

How's the repair service with Lenovo? Is it reliable? Additionally, how long does it normally take to get a laptop back? I'm actually moving out soon (college student), so that's probably going to be an issue.

 

You can have the laptop shipped home if you want (different return address). Take out the hard drive if you need it.

And Lenovo's warranty service is fine, though that's what you will use regardless. I have a motherboard replaced in a totally of 3 days (1 to get the box, received the next day and repaired, receive the day after repair).

 

Do they replace the hard drives or something? My laptop originally came with a 160gb 5400 rpm drive and i swapped it out for a 320gb 7200rpm drive.

 

No they don't but if you send it in when you don't need to you risk something happening. That's why if my laptop has nothing to do with the hard drive I would never send it in with it. Safety precaution.

 

I ALWAYS remove everything before sending it in. CDRom, Battery, Hard Drive, Extra Memory, PcCards. I don't want anything missing and they don't want to be responsible for something if it isn't related to the problem.

If you do send in the Hard Drive make sure you check the box to NOT re-image the drive which they may do by default if included. They won't swap it out, but it'll come back with a factory restore if you're not careful.

The instructions that come with the box will also tell you to document any bios or power on passwords etc. so they don't run into problems testing it when done.

I just sent my T61 in that my daughter uses, she hit the corner of the lid on a doorway and snapped the lid right off the hinge. It was literally dangling there. I have ADP and it only took them 4 days. One day for them to overnight the box, 2 days to fix and one day for them to overnight the laptop back to me. That's the longest any repair has taken them (from my experience). I've sent a few laptops back and it's common for them to fix it and send it back out the same day they receive it (so 3 days total in that case). They've always been great. The laptop was also missing a key on the keyboard and it came back with a new keyboard as well.

I think it helps to be specific with the initial support rep that sets up your case # on the cause so the tech doesn't assume it's something else. That way they can turn it around quicker.