Just to update people who are still within the 21 day rule:
I contacted IBM Tech Support to get a case number (to then call Lenovo to get an RMA number/return label), and the IBM rep I spoke with had heard of this issue before, and issued a case number within like two minutes.
Lenovo was just as easy. Called in, let them know I had a case number, confirmed customer info, let them know what the issue was, and they issued an RMA/UPS return label to me.
So if you're within the 21 days, I advise taking them up on the return option. Not sure of what I want to do next (whether order a different Lenovo system or find a different product).
Just figured I'd post this, so if anyone else runs into this, they can read a prior experience on it.
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Cheap plastic creaks!
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My 15.4 inch T61p developed this too, but only in the right hand edge below the track pad.
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lineS of flight Notebook Virtuoso
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lineS of flight Notebook Virtuoso
OK. There has been some movement at my end too.
This morning, the creaking (righthand side of R400) got very irritating. With no response from Lenovo, I got very frustrated and called the Lenovo India Head Office. I told the person who picked up the phone (probably the telephone operator or receptionist) that I was mad as hell and wanted the contact number and email address of the Manager (India) for Customer Service. She put me on hold while she tried to connect me. We went through the exercise 3 times (we were getting disconnected for some odd reason). Finally, in the grumpiest mood I have been in as far as I can remember in recent times, I demanded the email address of the Lenovo (India) Managing Director. I was surprised for without a fuss, she gave me his email and name. I thanked her. Got off the phone. I then checked out whether the name she gave me was real or not on the web. The name was real! So, I shot off an email - I was polite, but my irritation was perhaps quite apparent - to him with the log of events that I was maintaining (as lead_org advised me to do). Then I took a shower and went to work.
Just after lunch time, I received a call on my mobile phone. It was from Lenovo. A contrite sounding Manager of Service and Warranty told me that my problem had been brought to his attention and that my problem would be addressed in 48 hours. When I asked how the problem would be solved, he said that I would be called by a Service Engineer within the next hour seeking an appointment to visit me - either at my place of work or residence - who would fix the problem. He confirmed my address and got off the phone. An hour or so later, the Service Engineer called to make the appointment. He will be coming over tomorrow to do what needs to be done.
While it may be too early to celebrate, at least there is some movement! As and when the problem gets fixed, I will email the Lenovo India MD again and will thank him. And, incase the problem is fixed to my satisfaction one other thing would have happened - I will probably not buy a laptop other than a ThinkPad again!
Cheers! -
I check the a computer lab in my school that is full of R500, and none of them had this problem.
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lineS of flight Notebook Virtuoso
Anyways, let's see what the Lenovo guy does tomorrow..err...later today.
BTW, the Lenovo tech will be seeing your video tomorrow! The Manager who called me did not believe his ears when I told him that videos showing this creaking problem across ThinkPad models were on the web!!! -
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Yup! Please let us know how it turns out. We'd love to be able to refer to your case and seek for their help fixing it.
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lineS of flight Notebook Virtuoso
Yeah...of course. Will do!
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And ... cancel that return and switch to service!
Housemate spilled about 15oz of coke DIRECTLY onto my ThinkPad, RIGHT as I was printing out the RMA return label. Glad I bought the 3 year warranty upgrade with accidental coverage and have backup computers.
Maybe the palm rest creak will be fixed when they repair/replace it. =P
Now, I'm off to kill my housemate! -
lineS of flight Notebook Virtuoso
The IBM Service engineer showed up on time and saw the problem. He took off the palm rest and refitted it. At first he thought that that would solve the problem. He was disappointed! He then took off the palm rest and checked the tabs on it and the slots into which the palmrest slides into. I think he found a problem with the slots (which are on the frame of the machine). He took a video copy of the problem and he is coming back sometime tomorrow to work things out. The options possible are as follows:
(1) Replace palmrest. If it does not solve the problem
(2) Replace the frame of the machine. If that does not solve the problem
(3) Replace the machine. If this happens, then they will handle whatever issues arise with transfering the OS and with the transferring of my data and other apps.
On my part, I showed him the email I sent the Managing Director of Lenovo (India) and he was a bit startled to see that. It put him in the right frame of mind to do his work, I guess.
Will keep you folks posted on what happens next.
Cheers!
EDIT: He seemed shell-shocked to see video!!! He asked me to email him a copy of the link to him and to the Service Manager in India!!!! So, you see, your video has helped in some way and thanks to you. Rep follows! -
Wow. Yeah it's amassed over 250 views now--I wasn't expecting that kind of popularity! LOL. Glad to hear things are in progress for you. We look forward to hearing tomorrow's outcome.
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lineS of flight Notebook Virtuoso
Update on the palmrest (right hand side creaking) matter:
The Lenovo guys are doing this somewhat methodically. Their Service Manager called early this morning to tell me that they have ordered a palmrest with a different FRU (I did not quite understand what he meant by this - perhaps someone here can explain. I always thought a different FRU number means an item either manufactured by a different company (like the keyboard scenario) or an item specific to a different machine or class of machines).
An engineer will come to my residence in the evening (after calling me and making sure that it is convenient for me) and will install it to see if the problem is solved. If not, then they will move to the next step - replace the frame.
Will keep you folks posted.
Cheers! -
lineS of flight Notebook Virtuoso
Another update:
The Managing Director of Lenovo (India) was kind enough to reply to my email. That was a very cool gesture on his part. He also cc'd a copy of the mail to the Head of Service (India) with the ominous (to the Head of Service) statement that he wanted to be kept updated on how my complaint was serviced. I must say I am impressed.
I have received 3 calls and 1 text message from Lenovo staff over the day. They informed me (very apologetically) that the palmrest that they requested from their warehouse would only arrive on Monday and if it was ok with me. I said no problem and they have fixed up an appointment to again come over to my place and replace it and see if there is an improvement.
I am going to reply to the MD either on Sunday or on Monday. I am sure that now my problem will be solved - one way or another. In my email, I will, first express my thanks to the MD; second, I will gently point out that it is a waste of his time that he has to intervene to get such matters fixed; third, I will congratulate him on his attention to keeping a customer happy and satisfied; and lastly, I will assure him that I will remain a loyal ThinkPad customer!
Cheers! -
lineS of flight Notebook Virtuoso
It is now obvious that the Lenovo (India) MD's intervention has worked. I have been receiving calls and emails from the Heads of their Service and Channel departments/ divisions. Tomorrow (Monday) is when I expect the problem to be finally resolved. The outcome of this is the following:
(1) I have learnt that top management are actually sensitive to customer complaints and don't just brush off these issues;
(2) When the top management does get involved, there is a flurry of activity;
(3) The problem from the customer's side is that they do not take the trouble to direct their problems to the top management - admittedly, it is a problem getting the relevant contact info, but as my experience shows, persistence pays. I don't think, as customers, we do enough to 'rock the boat'. We need to do this more often. This will shake up the customer-facing structure of the company and will, in time, compel it to be more responsive to us; and...
(4) I don't think (all things remaining constant) I will opt to buy any other machine other than a ThinkPad.
Final update will be tomorrow and then this chapter - for me - is closed. Now, after this, the next thing I will do is buy a high capacity mobile HDD, back up my files and do another fresh install of the OS.
EDIT: I should also apologize to you folks for perhaps boring you with all this. But some of you did want me to keep you updated on how things panned out. -
Well at least everyone has some sort of public record of how things are handled in different parts of the world, in terms what can be done or can't do when it comes to repair and customer vigilance.
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My W510 has the exact same issue with the left palmrest.
Looking forward to your progress guys. Might be calling Lenovo as well soon. -
lineS of flight Notebook Virtuoso
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Unfortunately I don't have the photos (or the Thinkpad) any more, but I had an easy fix to the problem on my T60 in 2008. It involved removing the palmrest and putting felt pads under it - not elegant, but very effective - nary a creak for the two years I owned my Thinkpad:
"That mushy feel and creaking sound wasn't what I was expecting from a Thinkpad, but I fixed it.
I wanted to use some small rubber pads that i thought I had laying around - couldn't find them. So I just took a few 1cm diameter sticky felt pads about 1.5mm thick and stuck them on the underside on my palmrest. Here are the photos:
Felt Pads (click pic to enlarge):
See the white dots (click pic to enlarge):
There is still a slight flex under the fingerprint reader, but I didn't want to mess under there because of the electronics. The Left side was ok for me. I tried a couple pads near the edge, but it didn't really help.
Hope this helps.
Last edited by dlhuss : 01-03-2008 at 04:40 AM."
Of course the shell over the express card slot flexed, but just forget about it - that's how it's been at least since T60's. It's not a defect - it's designed that way, like it or not. -
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lineS of flight Notebook Virtuoso
So, now I am waiting for the machine to show up with the service people. This should happen sometime this week. I am actually impressed (after taking into account the initial rough times) by how Lenovo/IBM took care of the problem. Once I am satisfied, I will email their Managing Director (India) to express my thanks! -
That is most impressive lineS of fight. I can never imagine IBM service department is going to treat the problem in any way like yours.
The last time I mentioned it to them, the tech says they CANNOT warrant on this issue...... they send a guy to replace my palm rest for some other reason, which does not solve the problem.... -
lineS of flight Notebook Virtuoso
So, I guess when the MD of any company starts taking a personal interest in a specific matter, things start moving. Can you believe it, I send him emails on a weekly basis updating him on how Lenovo/IBM have handled the case and I do mention names!!!
Lastly, it was thanks to a suggestion by lead_org to maintain a log of events that helped because that was the first mail I sent to the MD and it did not make for a very good read, of that I am sure!
Anyways, now waiting for the new machine! -
does anyone have this creak just above the whole to the left of the touchpad buttons on the sloped part of the palmrest?
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lineS of flight Notebook Virtuoso
Since I detailed an account of the creaking problem with my R400 palm rest here, the closing account of what happened in the end can be found here.
Cheers! -
I got my laptop 3 days ago, it's a T510. The first thing I checked for was this left palm rest creak I didn't have it, but I found out a different creak
It's on the right palm rest , near the screen latch. Here are the videos ( taken by my digital camera so the quality is bad. )
Does anyone have this?
YouTube - MVI_3986.AVI
YouTube - MVI_3984.AVI -
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But looking at the video, the palmrest replacement is not part of the customer replaceable unit, so i think it is best that you send it in first. If they can't fix it, then you should try the method that i mentioned. -
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I had track pad issues from day one, so I finally contacted Lenovo for repair. I have onsite service, so I didn't have to do without my computer at all. The fix was to replace the palmrest/bezel. I got to watch to make sure nothing bad happened in the process. All went smooth, the track pad now works perfectly.
As a side benefit, the left side creak/tapping is 90% better. There is no tapping at all and the creak is minor. It doesn't happen at all unless I try to make it happen. It used to be that it would do its tap,tap whenever I placed my palm on that side of the computer, like when using the escape or tab keys.
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lineS of flight Notebook Virtuoso
Reading all these threads about the palmrest creaks and having experienced the same myself, I can't help get the feeling that there is something seriously wrong with the current crop of Thinkpads across the various series (well, perhaps with the exception of the X).
I wonder why Lenovo does not check into this or if they do, then why don't they do something about it? It has got to be evident to them that there is something quite wrong here. -
At the end of the day, this is all bottom-dollar made in China stuff, and that includes the typical understaffing and disregard for quality control that normally comes with it.
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lineS of flight Notebook Virtuoso
You know, there is another strange thing I am coming to notice recently about these creaks etc. If you leave aside the problem that I had (it was a very strange problem), in my newly replaced machine, there was nary a creak when it was first unboxed in front of me. There was no creaking for the first two weeks that I had it on me. Suddenly, creaks started emerging, but this time from the left-hand side - just over the xpress card slot (just like some of the videos show) and right by the left touchpad button. Some of the creaking is still there, but the more I use the machine, the creaks seems to go away. This is like the machine is settling down or something! I wonder if this has also happened to others. Mind you that I am not saying that I am getting used to the creaks for the (increasingly) few times that it happens, it remains irritating, but for sure the incidence seems to be coming down.
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my machine was creaky from the first day out of the box. it's a design flaw. there is nothing keeping the upper and lower halves of the machine from moving on each other on the front lip.
try this: compress the very front lip of the machine. you will see the top and bottom half move past each other. this is the source of the problem: a lack of strength at the front edge. for whatever reason, they are not designed to mate solidly like other notebooks. perhaps this is for "durability". -
lineS of flight Notebook Virtuoso
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lineS of flight Notebook Virtuoso
Now, that's a hell of a way to achieve this. Increase noise pollution (within someone's personal work/play space) while at the same time increase "durability"!!!!!
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lineS of flight Notebook Virtuoso
@marlinspike...hmmm...it's certainly an interesting theory! Though I am still...well, how should I put it...! You know what I mean!
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crumple zone doesn't increase durability, it is actually quite the opposite. The whole idea behind the use of crumple zone in cars, was to absorb the impact energy of crash and use it deform the front superstructure of the car. Basically the crumple zone is there to decrease the momentum of the crash, which reduces the severity of the crash to the occupants.
Crumple zone also directs away the engine from entering into the car and crushing the footwell area... which is a common injury in old cars at moderate speed head on collision.
At 30 km per hour collision, the modern Benz would suffer more damage to the front end, then a Benz from 1960 without a crumple zone.
The creaking is due to the poor tolerance between the parts. There is also not enough points of contact between the palmrest area and the magnesium rollcage underneath.... In addition, the differential movement of parts would also cause the creaking, when one surface move across another. -
BTW, MB was already using crumple zones in 1960... -
I should say early 1960s Benz, which did not have the crumple zone.
I think the creaking of Thinkpads are not due to durability concerns, but a result of thinner external PC/ABS casing materials, which saves weight. -
T510 (and T410) left palmrest creak video
Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by Mutnat, Apr 3, 2010.