That's the way the ThinkPad crumbles...

My ThinkPad crumbles.

I had my R61 since two years and all this time the case has been slowly crumbling. Even when doing nothing, various parts of it just fall off. I occasionally find bits and pieces of it either in my bag or around it on the desk.

It's like the case has been made too brittle. The bottom case is covered with long cracks, in the vent outlet 50% of ribs missing. Two long cracks on the inside, and a nail-sized piece fell off from under the USB post.
The LID cover seems to be made properly as it does not wear any cracks or signs of crumbling.

It's ridiculous. ThinkPad are supposed to be robust business laptops but this one feels like it was made of a digestive biscuit.

What can I do about it? The laptop is long out of warranty but do you think I could claim a replacement under faulty craftsmanship which covers goods for 5 years after manufacturing? If so, how could I approach Lenovo? I live in the EU, if it makes a difference.


Any ideas or comments welcome.

 

Plastic can become more brittle over time, but I've never seen any laptop reach that stage. What environment are you using it in? Is it usually used at home? Is it routinely exposed to direct sunlight?

 

No sunlight. It is used almost exclusively indoors on the desk, and rarely transported.

Here's how it looks: ImageShack Album - 6 images

 

A couple of details that OP has forgotten to report here can be seen in his thread on TPF:

forum.thinkpads.com • That's the way the ThinkPad crumbles...

 

OP's sig on TPF: "R61 15.4" - C2D T8100, 4GB RAM, 320GB Hitachi, NVS 140m, WSXGA+. Baked in oven at 210 Celsius

I wonder why its crumbling? Must be Lenovo's fault.

 

OTOH, he may have baked just the board. At least that's how you're supposed to do it.

 

I've never had an issue with a ThinkPad, usually they are damaged by the user do they become that "broken". Any laptop will break if abused, minus a Toughbook, but that is specifically made to be ruggerized.

That's like saying hurr durr my T420 is a piece of crap because I threw it out of a 3rd story building and it didn't survive, just plain silly.

 

I've had my T61 ( made around the same time as your R61 ) and it still looks brand new. I use it everyday for 4-5 hours a day of heavy typing, food around it, etc. It's been dropped two times. Once it fell off my luggage bag and hit a carpet from 2 feet, and the other time it hit a tile floor from about 3 feet. No dammage whatsoever. Oh, and I AM the original owner, I custom built this machine on Lenovo's website back in January 2008. It's very hard to beleive that you R61 is just crumbling away as you say. Something had to have happened to it before that lead it to it's current state. Whether the previous owner dropped in hard enough to cause one crack that just spread and spread until stuff just started breaking off, or something HAD to have happened. Laptops just don't start falling apart by themselves.

 

Given that the laptop was bought used, it might just be breaking due to the previous owner, it might have looked in good condition when bought, but that doesn't mean it was. Plastic definitely does not break like that for no reason. Something definitely happened to it and it's possible that it's breaking apart just now. The T420 I told my parents to get is in still almost pristine condition, minus one crack, despite being dropped twice (demolition dad).

OP already said he baked the mobo and not the whole laptop from what I can see at TPF. Also from TPS: "bought in 2010" (used) and "been crumbling for two years". Sounds to me like the guy who sold you the TP damaged it and either knowingly hid the damage when he sold or the damage wasn't visible but the casing was already weakened.

 

Well, if it was normal, I wouldn't be writing about it here.

That doesn't fit. The cracks are not all connected, and they keep happening. When I got it two year ago, it only had one crack. Now it has several, and bits and pieces are falling off it.

That is possible but unlikely. The only thing I can think of that the previous owner could have done, is expose the case to some chemicals that changes plastic's structure but not its appearance.
It is more likely that it just comes from a faulty batch - bad manufacturing, too much regrind or bad mold temp.

 

After looking at your pictures I am quite certain that a Lenovo engineer would tell you that this looks like typical drop damage (even when it's not the case). I don't think there is a chance of getting any kind of replacement. This kind of damage would not probably be covered when your machine is in warranty...

 

I had a R61e for 4 years before I sold it a few months ago and never had any issues with plastic brittling, I would say it was probably the most solidly built ThinkPad I've ever had. I did all sorts with it, even used it as a base for my pack of ThinkPads and didn't have any problems!



It even survived from a car accident when it got thrown into a ditch and it still was in good nick (no deformities on the chassis at all). I guess you're probably unlucky with your particular batch.

 

Sounds like a poor quality management of plastic processing. I've run into this numerous occasions in the automotive industry with parts just cracking due to too much or improper regrind, unknown filler (to save money), faster cycle times (more parts per hour), or just improper tooling temperatures. They become brittle like that. Melting temperature of most molded plastics are over 300F, so even if machine was baked with the plastic, at < 250F I highly doubt it would cause any fracturing of the plastic. That looks like a legitimate complaint and concern to me, although good luck getting anything out of Lenovo considering the age of the laptop and out of warranty.

 

My bet is on this. If Lenovo had a "bad batch" of plastics, you'd probably hear about it somewhere on the internet. Perhaps the former owner exposed it to UV rays (in a lab, or just constant direct sunlight exposure outside) or chemicals of some sort.

 

T400s/T410s palmrest were infamous for this, BUT there were newer FRU's that fixed the problem.

 

I don't think that was flawed plastic; that was due to the construction of the palmrest area of the T400s and T410s laptops (replacements would crack as well).

 

I've worked in the comp repair for 5 years now, for nearly 4 years I've personally tested a lot of chassis/plastics under abuse. Salt water, UV lamps, shock, fire, and flexing.
Thinpads have pretty much scored consistently at the top (apart from toughbooks, even old ones are bloody expensive). From T40s, T60s to T4** and T5** and one W520. I have not included consumer model Lenovo's due to "rarity" for some weird reason, also I think they're complete crap.
Others that have been tested: Elitebook's (C2d-Core i5 2nd gen), Latitudes (C2D-Core i5 1st gen), 3x Dell Precisions (m6500/M6600/m4600), pavilions ranging from c2d to core i7's, dell inspirons, gateways, acers, apple macbook pro's (unibody/plastics/non unibody alu: the aluminum ranked below average).
Elitebooks faired very very well but I've found them to be badly designed as far as internals go imho. (robust, but dumb designs)
Macbook Pro's I've found to be some of the most ridiculous high end laptops due to the entire aluminum construction. The internals are well designed, (thermals could use serious work) but the choice of all aluminum makes the MBP not a very durable laptop in terms of resistance to shock, flex (non existent), fire, and for some freaky reason salt water. The screws would tap out the aluminum really easily after the chassis soaked in salt water).

the only times we've received laptops with brittle plastics are people whom often leave their computers out in the sun, sometimes soda (mostly on some plastic keyboard cutouts, for some reason they get pretty brittle), or my favorite hairline cracks created from improper or repeated dis-assembly of older laptops.

 

You probably bought it used because it is more than 2 yrs that the R61 is no longer in production + such laptop was not as good as the T61.

 

Impactor, based on what you've posted here and in the thread on Thinkpad Forums, you have no outside line of recourse at this point in time. The system is out of warranty, which means Lenovo won't cover it. You also bought it second-hand, which means the UK law does not apply in your situation.

This means it's up to you. You could try gluing the pieces together if you really like the system and want to keep it. However, your best choice seems to be purchasing a new system and moving on.

 

I had several ThinkPads (X60/ T410s/ X220T/ W520/ X1Carbon and most of them had built issues ore engineering issues like a poor cooling system(w520). After several problems and the poor display in the X1Carbon i decided to leave Lenovo. Now i bought a Retina Macbook Pro 15" and i'm happy. Lenovo has to improve the quality controle, and especially the displays!

 

Core engineering issues?
Sorry it's just I've worked with the W520's. Cooling system isn't the best but provided you keep it on a hard surface you shouldn't have many issues after repasting, and tweaking RPM control. The stock paste, and Lenovo fan control are... sad.
The systems I worked with were core i5 dual or i7 quads with 1000m/2000m.

Your choice was a MBPr?
I bought it to replace a Dell M4600 (I ended up with a M6600), returned a few hours later after I hit 96c in approximately 30 seconds using P95 and furmark. throttling occurred. 90c+ and throttling isn't uncommon on MBPr's. I didn't bother to test it further, prolonged usage at about 90c-100c for a long period of time can easily lead to the power system degradation, even the best capacitors for desktop motherboards (chemicon) are rated for 105C but loose nearly 20% efficiency at that temperature and only get worse with time (month/year periods).
Here's this vid:
Retina Macbook Pro Stress Test (Asymmetrical Fan Challenge) - YouTube

 

I had a core i 7 2820 and 2000m. The problem is the throttling. The fan runs on max rpm and i applyed new thermal paste on the cooler nothing helped and stopped the throttling of the 2000m. The MBPr has high temeperatures but nothing throttles down. And i'm not the only one who has complaints the forums are full of this issue.
I dont think the high temperatures do damage to the capacitors because all temperature are measured inside the core not outside on the motherboard. And if there should be some damage i have apple care.

 

My temperature readings are from the CPU not surrounding area you are right but saturation will occur for prolonged usage that's where the risk of failure will occur, if you look around on youtube a gentleman posted a video with a thermal camera of a MBPr's heat spots. You can see that after a few hours saturation occurs, and you get a very hot laptop. Capacitors aren't the only thing affected by heat.

Throttling does occur, under W7 P95/Furmark I got the MBPr CPU to throttle almost immediately after hitting 95c. The fan was also very loud. I've also confirmed this with another member.

Warranty is another issue, I am just stating serious core flaws.
As far as your W520 overheating, I am unsure what to say, sorry it didn't work out. Did you control the RPM fan speed or leave it stock?

 

I set the fan to maximum with TPFan Controle and i wasnt able to play any game it thottles instantly. Is there any similiar programm for the macbook pro retina with bootcamp?

 

I see. Weird.
I am unsure, I was let down by the MBPr's thermals, their fan is quick to go to max speed at around 96c-100c~.