T61 nightmares....

I bought the T61 in beginning of last month. But for a month from the day I received the laptop, I'm not able to keep the laptop for more than 5 business days. The laptop was sent to service dept for numerous repairs 7 times already and it's getting frustrating. I really want to return the laptop but they won't let me without 15% ripoff fee. What can I do with the laptop?

In case you are curious why I sent the laptop back for repairs, here's a list
1) Back of the screen has a lump and not flat (not fixed)
2) Drive bay cover loose, replaced/repair the cover 3 times but still did not fix the problem (not fixed and they never will able to)
3) Left side of palm rest doesn't latch to the base, therefore, it left a gap between the base and the palm rest right above the PC Card slot. (not fixed)
4) Speakers blown (fixed)
5) Lump on volume control tab on the keyboard (fix)

 

1) I believe that your issue is simply the roll cage in the LCD creating a small hump in the lid.
2) You mean that you can move the drive around inside the bay? I can move my drive up and down due to a huge gap between it and the chassis. Same goes for my dad's T40.
3) Did you try reseating it yourself?

 

It's an engineering design that it is slightly lumpy and not flat.
http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=19

 

Well like everyone else said problem number 1 isn't really a problem. It was designed like that. Your second problem is common on all notebooks that I have ever used (unless they are a slot loader). Take a picture of problem number 3. I would like to see how big of a gap you are talking about.
Tim

 

Did you buy it direct from Lenovo? Or someone else?
With a credit card?

Often the credit card company will accept a charge-back and force it on the seller, if the goods are defective and numerous repair attempts have failed.

 

problem number 1 is more like an excuse to me than a feature. It's obviously malformed, Lenovo just refused to admit it.

Picture took from back of the machine, there's a fairly thick curvedly gap between battery and the screen.


Problem 2 pics, no it's not common for other laptops because I have HP, Fujitsu, Sony, another T61 and T60p, all 5 laptops do not have loose hard drive bay cover like this one.



Problem 3 pic,

 

It looks ok to me. You don't have anything to worry about; the gap isn't large at all.

 

Yeah my laptop is just like that in the first picture. And yes it is a feature. Read that one link that was posted.

In your last picture is kinda looks like the palm rest isn't snapped in place. I would unscrew the four screws on that hold that down and try refitting your palm rest to see if that helps. That gap seems a little weird. I don't have that on my laptop, but I noticed a gap when I didn't get the palm rest installed correctly after installing ram.
Tim

 

I re-sit the palm rest several times already. The latch just won't snap to the base. The palm rest problem was there right after I receive the laptop from last service depot visit. They gave me a bad palm rest or whatever, so they will be taking it back for repair - AGAIN.

 

Just curious.....did you take the palm rest out and check the connector? The dipwads and the depot sent my T61p back with a non-working palm rest/touchpad. They sent me a replacement. When I went to install it, come to find out, the aforementioned dipwads had plugged in the connector BACKWARDS!!!! I turned the connector around and the touchpad worked great!!!

Just food for thought.......oh yea, and make sure you double check your memory....they also replaced the planar and "forgot" to send me back all 2 gigs of my memory. Had to have them send me a 1 gig module to replce the one they "forgot".

 

You seem like a very picky person to me sir. If you believe that the world is against you I would suggest that you invest in a bomb shelter.

 

Just request a replacement palmrest, they'll ship you one if you want them to. It's what I did on Saturday; mine was supposed to have shipped out today.

 

Looking at picture #3, um, you that the entire drive slides out, right?

The entire optical drive is hot-swappable, for a battery, or a hard drive carrier. It's pretty slick given the laptop's thinness. Try removing the drive before you sue them. There's a little slide lever on the side of the laptop next to the drive bay, move it, and a tap pops out, pulling the tab moves the drive so you can slide it out. The drives on your other laptops don't have the extra gap because the drives aren't removable.

Whoever designed the lid on the laptop, did make it strong. Yes the top has some run out, with the center being almost 1 milimeter higher than the center, but if you had been handed the open laptop by the edge of the screen, you might have not noticed that.

You might be afraid that you are going to be stuck using your ugly laptop for a long time, given how it is made, you might : ) The Thinkpads are not the prettiest computer on the market, but they are better looking than the Toughbooks.

 

Yeah that^^

 

The problem is at hard drive bay, not optical drive bay.

 

I'm just not satisfy with the product, therefore, I would like to return it for full refund which can't be done without restocking fee.

 

Hi sovereignty68,

when your Palm Rest doesn´t fit and

you had already reseated it severely times,

then I agree with you and would sent it back, because of poor build quality!!!


Cheers

 

Call the guys at the Atlanta department. Order a new palmrest and a new hard drive cover while you're at it. As long as you have the FRU, they'll ship you whatever you need (as long as it's a CRU).

They next-day the parts to you (I got my palmrest yesterday, it shipped on Monday), so it's the least you could do. Trying that is better than just sitting there complaining about it.

 

What's FRU and CRU? Also, what's the Atlanta number? Although the T61p is all black, I'm afraid after prolong usage, the shade of black around the palmrest might fade due to sweat and chemicals. I know my grey colored Dell has more or less my palm inprints.

Might be handy to order the palmrests now.

Thanks.

 

The palmrest on my T61 doesn't seem prone to fading at all. I've been using it for over four months with any sign of wear; still looks brand new.

 

"I'm just not satisfy with the product, therefore, I would like to return it for full refund which can't be done without restocking fee."
The policy may stink, but many--if not most--computer vendors who do custom builds have the same policy. And Lenovo states it up front.

I do have to agree though--the plastic "skins" that surround the keyboard just seem flimsy, they creak under my wrists. Lenovo can and should do better on these machines at these prices. My comparison is a "magnesium" cased Compaq (DEC) Armada 7400 that has taken years of wear. Not so different in how the layers are, but I can't see the rough edges and "moving" parts of this computer lasting a decade in the same use.
The wrist rest creaking all the time is simply distracting.<G>

 

I have the same problem with the left palm rest. It's a design issue I think since there is nothing underneath (empty card slot) to really hold the bottom in place. I too though it waa a misalignment after removing it to install more RAM. Obsessed about it for awhile but said foget it. Also if you look will notice the left side of the screen lid appears arched. The T61 is no long an American engineered IBM product. Its a Lenono T61 now. Just accept it and deal with it.

 

If one orders a new palm rest what about the stickers? Will we lose the proud Vista sticker bestwed on us by the honorable Billy Gates? Seriously will we get another sticker?

 

Yes, you will lose them. My palmrest came sans the Intel and Vista stickers.

Sovereignty, call them at 1-800-426-7378. An FRU is just a service part number (specifies the specific part), and a CRU denotes "customer-replaceable unit."

I believe that this page gives you a list of all the FRUs. Quickly scanning, I don't see an option for the hard drive cover, but I may be wrong.

 

The creaking palm rest on my T61 was driving me crazy as well, mostly the part under my right palm. I opened it up and could see that the problem was that the magnesium "skeleton" under the plastic only supports the plastic along the front and back edges of the rest: The plastic spans the 3" width of the rest with no support at all, so when you rest your hands on it the plastic pushes down 1/16" until it touches the magnesium, and of course it creaks noisily as it does this.

I fixed the problem in 5 minutes with some double-stick foam tape. I put a small piece of tape on the magnesium skeleton under the palmrest, then put a small piece of cardboard on top of the tape. I pulled away layers of cardboard until the gap was perfectly taken up.

Worked great, no more movement AT ALL under my hands, nice and quiet, and the whole thing feels way more solid.

 

Not true. I returned mine and received a full refund. Granted it took A LOT of persistence and I only owned it for a week or 2, not a month+. Although, I never even had to send it in to have them try and repair it.

 

According to Flamenko, custom configured Dell laptops can readily be returned for a full refund (no restocking fee) during the first 21 or 30 days (depending on the country), if there is anything wrong with them. I am not sure if you have to pay a shipping fee, though,