ThinkPads are so Tough? Anyone have this happen?

The plastic supporting the screen latch release cracked on my 3 month old T520. I don't know how it happened. Previous to this, I've also noticed a hairline crack in the palm rest in another area. It is too small to photograph.

The only reason I'm starting this thread I suppose, is because I am curious if anybody is experiencing the cracking of plastic parts on their T series, without dropping or abusing it?

A quick search seems to bring up a few failures on 400 / 410s / 500 era machines.

 

Ouch, that looks bad. See if you can get a replacement part through support.

Never had any issues with my T500 or X120e, although in general I tend to take very good care of all electronics. There are some known issues with palmrest cracking in the T400s and T410s that have been resolved in the T420s, but I haven't heard of any similarly widespread issues with the main T-series machines.

 

My X200 Tablet and X201 had a chip in the palmrest over the ethernet port. Just cosmetic damage.

 

Not seeing any on my W520 yet.

 

A bit unfortunate there, I haven't experienced such cracking on my T420...

 

T420 and T410 here -- no cracks, despite plenty of travel and some rough handling.

Then again, the plural of "anecdote" is not "data".

 

My T410 has creaky palmrests, I hope it doesn't develop cracks like that --knocks on wood.

 

I toss my X220 around like a sack of potatoes and so far nothing to show for it in terms of damage. I buy ThinkPads because I know I abuse laptops, don't intend to change my ways, and so need something that's built to take it.

It's odd to see a crack of that size for no reason. That's the kind of damage I'd expect to see if it got stepped on by a child or something. Even if you lived in an extreme temperature environment it should take years for that kind of crack to form, not 3 months. Call Lenovo, that needs to be dealt with, there is some type of structural integrity issue in the plastic IMHO.

 

My T500 has been with me for 3years and 4months. No cracks. Maybe the newer design is not as durable?
I do take care of my laptop but I'm not OCD about it.

 

i want to say call lenovo and see if they can take care of you. but i know for a fact that they won't. you have to fight for the repair really hard. lenovo customer care is among the worst i have ever experienced.

here's what to expect. when you call for the tech support, they will be surprisingly helpful and will give you an impression that they will take care of the problem. DO NOT BE FOOLED.

the nightmare usually begins when the notebook arrives at the repair depot. they will inspect ur notebook and will flat out say that it won't be covered under warranty and that you would have to pay for the repair. their attitude will be terse at best, and most likely, downright rude. explain ur side of the story and prepare to make multiple calls. of course it will lead you to nowhere but you still have to take these steps. once you do that, tell them you want to speak to "customer satisfaction specialist" or something along that line. and then they will elevate your case to this new person. and then you basically have to start all over... but at least you will have a better chance at the repair.


good luck cuz u are gonna need it.

i just noticed that OP is posting from canada. my experience is based on lenovo usa. hope lenovo canada has a better attitude.

 

hum interesting, it shouldn't really happen, but i guess it could happen.

it doesn't look something caused by a drop or anything like that.

Try to call support and see what happens, if you get no love from them, i guess you could always try to post this over at forum.lenovo.com and see whether someone can help to escalate this for you. But that is just my 2 cents.

 

Those images are a little disturbing especially given that the OP says that he did not drop or otherwise stress out his unit. I did have creaking palm rests on my R400 and I was afraid - perhaps unconsciously - that something like this would happen and thus insisted on having the palm rests either replaced (they tried but it would not work) or the entire laptop replaced (which they eventually did). The important thing to note is that I did not waste too much time to report my concerns to the Service/ Warranty folks - the longer you delay the more difficult it gets to explain the case for obvious reasons!

I fear that the OP may have to struggle to convince the service people that this was not self-inflicted mostly because this is not the "norm" - at least where ThinkPads are concerned. That being said, generally ThinkPads are very durable (nothing new in that as everyone knows this) and they can take a fair amount of rough handling (not that one should handle one's machines roughly).

 

Only damage on my W520 is the left locking hook is broken off, and part of the grid in from of the cooling vent broke off. However, I don't baby my laptop, so I'm not too surprised.

As for OP's laptop, I'd call up Lenovo and complain about it.

 

My T61 is almost 4 years old and there is NO cracking anywhere on the unit. I'd say its a defective part for sure.

 

My day old T520 came with a warped case bottom right out of the box. It makes the computer wobble a bit when typing. Already talked to Lenovo and they said they'd refund it no problem. So now I'm debating whether I should keep it or send it back for a refund.

 

Send back for refund and re-order better machine with better specs and lower price tag if you can find one

 

I'd just use super glue before all that.

- fast, reliable, no headaches, no time lost.

 

I'd get the refund... I have a T400 for work and had a T500... T500 is dead (screen failure in addition to the horrid build quality meant there was no reason to sink money into it) T400 stepped on it fairly lightly... LCD panel snapped in half... stepped on my mac and elite book much harder... no issue...
my T400 as the same build quality of my 12inch HP touch smart (consumer) pc.

I'd get your refund HP Elitebook's and Dell latitudes are the way to go. few buy one of those and return to lenovo.

 

Except super glue on an FRU part will likely void the warranty, I'd avoid this piece of advise. Trust me, I've seen repair depot void warranties cause the plastic pieces over heatfins were broken and had nothing to do with the actual defect (this from working in a tech shop 2+ years).

 

"lenovo customer care is among the worst i have ever experienced."

That's not at all true in my experience.

Renee

 

To add to that, I just called IBM (the people that actually support Thinkpads; Lenovo only takes warranty calls for non-Thinkpads) and had a great experience. Just a matter of a short description of the problem, a remote connection to confirm my issue, and within ten minutes I'm getting a free part that'd cost a pretty penny if bought retail.

 

IBM is such a pleasure to deal with, while the numerous IdeaPads I had to fix were such a pain through Lenovo. But only in America (at least to the best of my knowledge) is where IBM takes cares of Lenovo's Think brand moniker, but someone chime in if I'm wrong.

 

At least as of a couple years ago, IBM handled service for Lenovo ThinkPads in the UK as well.

 

Yep, I have cracks in my T61p.

 

They do, but unfortunately they didn't gave me a favourable impression until I got some assistance from the Lenovo forums and Lead_Org (♥ in particular.

 

Yeah, my experience with UK support a couple years ago was less than stellar. Actually, it was poor.

The US support response, on the other hand, was flawless. One ESC+ issue, and I had a replacement CRU on my door step a day later.

 

While I can't comment on the part in bold, I can, however, say that I have had a very good (albeit, at times frustrating) experience in India.

The problem involved my R400, which when I got it, creaked quite badly and one side of the palm rest moved around about 2 or 3 mm. I had long discussions about this on this forum and Lead_org, among others, were very helpful.

At the end of the day, the Managing Director of Lenovo got involved as did a VP of the ThinkPad Div out of China. My machine was replaced for free and I got a number of apologetic emails and other communications from the aforementioned bigwigs. So, I'd say that in so far as ThinkPads are concerned, they were very sensitive to my complaint - though, arguably, my problem was not really a major one.

 

no cracks on my 2+ year old t500, knock on wood

it has survived some college abuse. In my backpack, it fell from hook about shoulder height to the hard bathroom ground. It also fell naked from an armrest to a hard ground. Other than that I have been careful with it. I'm so thankful for the rollcage, also I've been really lucky I guess. Best laptop I've ever used.

 

My battery arrived at my house in less than 24 hours. Wow...

 

I owned about 4x of the T40/T41 series. Out of 4x of them, 3x of them cracked just to the left of the Fn key, between the corner of the Fn and the edge of the laptop. Did it affect functioning of the laptop? No. Did I ask my employer for an exchange or repair? No. I waited until the keyboard went bad.

These days my family uses T42 laptops and avoid carrying them by the lower left corner of the machine, with the display open, and haven't experienced any more cracks.

If your crack is cosmetic it may be more trouble than it's worth to get it repaired.

 

i feel like if one calls in for a newer thinkpad (any of the -20 series) they'll get great support, and anything before that it's very hit or miss. the only things i've gotten from them quickly so far are recovery discs and a hard drive. they kept one computer for 2 months, another for 1 month, and i'm still waiting for a DVD burner (how can a company be out of DVD burners?) since the beginning of november.

my W500 seems to be developing the same hinge problem as the 15.4" T61s. it's newer (may 2010 build date) so it's pretty disappointing. i haven't really used it much either since i use a tablet PC for school.

 

Warranty support for ThinkPads is handled by the same service centers and the same techs, regardless of generation.

 

I know this, but there's a huge lack of parts for any thinkpad that's not the latest generation unless it's memory or a hard drive, or something like that. A laptop should not be sitting around for 1-2 months doing absolutely nothing because IBM can't find any parts.

 

Generally Thinkpads are tough, but you can't expect it to be flawless. There will always be a scratch or other cosmetic damage on some machine.

 

t420s, popped out of nowhere a couple of days ago...

 

Call support.

 

Assuming you are referring to the little ridge to the right of the Thinkpad logo, it's probably been there for a long time but you have only just noticed it. I have the same feature - it's only noticeable under certain lightling conditions.

John

 

this is a when the screw is overtightened or wrong size screw is inserted.

 

Except there's no screw in the vicinity of that hump. It's above the battery.

John

 

Battery is in the back, not in the front...
I think that's roughly where one of the screws is, actually...

 

Its not T420, its T420S, so I believe its battery actually IS in the front

 

To update you guys. +1 Month and my Display got semi-dead, vertical 1px line from top to bottom of dead pixels + 5 minutes later horizontal line. I gave up and left this "piece of notebook" for local lenovo support to fix. I've been told that this palmrest issue should be taken care of under warranty too.
Anyway I think no more Lenovos for me, I'm little from being sold to Dell's M4600 but then again I found a disturbing thread of Dell's IPS display issues.

 

There are screws under the battery for the palmrest in the T4*0s. A lot.

 

was looking for a change of luck with my new T420s.
I have a W500 that has been babied and rarely ever left the house (needless to say never dropped).
in addition to one broken hinge, I can count at least 4 cracks on the palm rest and one on the screen bezel...

Any ideas what could have caused the crack on your t420s? are you not going to contact Lenovo about it for a fix?

 

It's no crack, just a miniscule ridge. I wonder if it is a moulding deficiency. I notice it only occasionally: It needs the right lighting conditions because the ridge is shinier than the surrounding plastic.

John

 

Hi rkj,

I had something quite similar - noticed it when my T520 was a month old. The fracture started like yours did, then snaked its way up and along the top. At the time, I thought I must have done something inadvertently to cause it. That being said, it might have been delivered to me already cracked - I'll never know.

Impulsively, I yanked the bezel and glued it after drilling a couple of tiny holes to halt the spread of the fault lines on the top. No doubt a lousy strategy with regards to warranty repairs and resale, but I didn't have time or desire to go through dealing with Support. I had already invested a slew of hours setting up my techno-world and wasn't prepared to go through the repair dance. I also figured I would just replace the bezel at some point, but I can't find them specified anywhere. Oh well.

Warning - the maintenance manual diagram is wrong about the screws you must remove to get the main top bezel off. There's a screw underneath the disk that isn't shown in the diagrams

I repaired it using epoxy on the fracture and superglue on the top crack. It's holding up fine after a month of heavy use.

 

Your repair will probably last.

If you are interested in a new replacement part send me a PM.

Brad

 

my x201 kept on shutting down abruptly after sleeping and i called the lenovo support but was transferred to IBM. As others have said, they do remote connection to confirm the problem (which they weren't able to because it was intermittent) but they still went ahead and initiated the repair anyways. I have onsite and i had a person come to my house to replace the motherboard, no questions asked. Overall i was pleased with the experience. Even though some of you guys might not have on-site support but the phone call was pleasant as well.

 

I've noticed a weird problem with my W520. Whenever I'm running F@H and I close my laptop, it will go into an endless "boot loop" when I try to resume. Happens on both AC and battery (when F@H is paused). Lights will flash, the DVD drive will make a short noise, nothing, repeat until I force shut down and reboot. It might be because I disable hibernation, though I'm not sure. It's not a major issue though since when F@H isn't running and I want to resume, it works fine.

 

Interesting... This exact scenario has happened twice for me (minus DVD drive), except I don't run F@H.