What is Lenovo's customer service / repair like?

Long story short: Had a little relative get on my X300 without me knowing it, and the end result is I have a Winlogon.exe error that brings me a repeating BSOD @ startup, and my recovery partition was erased. My recovery discs that I made through the Thinkvantage software does not restore my machine (I made 7 CDs and none of them help? ) I can get into Safe Mode, but everything else (safe mode with networking, last known good config, etc...) doesnt work.

Anyway, I googled the problem and I can't figure this one out. I will have to call up support tomorrow about this since I can't figure it out. Can anyone comment about Lenovo's support? What about sending in a Laptop to them to fix (if I have to)?

 

call lenovo and ask for a restore disk (dvd) for you computer.
that will get your hard drive back to the factory condition.
Tell them that your recover CDs don't work, hopefully they won't charge you the $50 for the recovery DVD.

First, try backing up your data in safe mode if you havn't already.

 

Sounds malicious...

How can someone messing around end up deleting your recovery partition. I could understand screwing up your windows install but wuuuh?

So when you said your recovery partition is gone, do you mean the backup of the OS? Or the actual Thinkvantage boot partition?

I am not sure what to say about your backup CDs you made. I guess it doesn't boot off of it? I am not familiar with lenovo's recovery CDs, since I wiped my machine and used an image I had.

I guess worse case is you have to pay lenovo for some discs...

 

when i first got my T400 about this time last year i had a problem with the sleep mode functioning properly.

i called up Lenovo and the tech diagnosed it as a faulty mobo so...

next day i received a box from DHL and sent it out the same day via DHL.
i received my laptop back two days later and the problem was fixed.

 

This services sounds very good to me.

One thing I like the IBM/Lavono notebook is that they provide you with very detail step by step maintenance instruction manual. It is not easy to dissemble and work on a notebook without that. I used to have a T40 and with the instruction manual, I can add the bluetooth module, replace the wireless network cards etc. by myself. I have also a Sony SZ320P notebook which at one time I need to replace a deflective cooling fan. I can get a replacement fan from eBay but I cannot find any maintenance manual from the Sony site. Obviously Sony don't expect their customer to fix it themselves. I have to spend some two weeks time searching through the Internet before being able to find some instruction that allow me to fix the issue.

 

Their service is excellent!

Renee

 

I've gotten a chance to diagnose it a little bit more.

I still have no idea what he (my relative) did for this to happen. When I start the laptop, the windows load screen comes up like normal, then goes to the log-on screen but shows a Visual Runtime C++ error regarding winlogon.exe. After I click OK the screen remains windows sky blue and then a BSOD comes on. Laptop restarts and the cycle resumes.

I did the "Last known working config" when i hit F8 @ POST. That didn't work either. Safe mode with networking and command prompt did not work either. Regular safe mode did work. I ran a virus scan and malware scan with symantec corporate and malwarebytes. Trouble is those virus definitions were from February. I'm guessing the computer tried to restore back to a backup I made in February of this year. Either way, nothing was picked up.

Regarding the Discs, I put them in originally at startup, the rescue and recovery appeared to be loading the whole process of backing up and then it gave an error saying the recovery partition could not be found. Found this odd and figured that there was some partition on the drive meant for this. Went back into safe mode and went to computer management in the admin controls. Sure enough the recovery partition was "unallocated" like someone formatted the drive.

I'm pretty sure some trojan was picked up or he really knew what he was doing to mess things up. Either way, I'll be able to call support later and get a restore disc from them. I don't mind paying $50 or so (hopefully it's this amount) rather than sending it in and possibly getting damaged in shipping.

 

As far as I know Lenovo repair is handled by IBM, whose service is better than Lenovo sales (the latter sucks).

On another note my LCD has some defect and may be sending in for a change. Does anyone know how long does it take to get it back?

 

It's like any other manufacturer's service/repair. Most of the time it's good, and occasionally it's awful. What you read in forums like this is usually about the times that it's awful.

 

I ordered the recovery disc twice for free via UPS 2nd day. First, they sent me the Ultimate version (My X200 came with Home Basic though I purchased Ultimate Disc later). Although it works flawlessly, it seems to mess up the partition size.. Q has 20GB when it uses only about 4GB.

Anyway, so I called IBM (not Lenovo) and they sent me another one for Home Basic. I haven't tried it yet because I need to finish my 4-month Win7 feedback program.

I think IBM does all the technical support as far as I'm concerned and they're top of the line.

On the other hand, I had so much trouble when ordering a laptop through Lenovo on the phone.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself. People mostly come here to get/give help and advice. For the most part it works out pretty good, but the dark side of the issue is when someone comes along with a particularly bad issue and it gets fugly. Now another new person comes along and sees this and thinks this is the way it is when it's really an isolated indecent. It skews the perspective.

 

I got a chance to call them up the other day. It was nice that the call center I connected to was in Atlanta. Spent about 10 minutes on the phone. I made sure I was clear that I wanted the restore disc for XP Pro. Cost was about $50 including UPS shipping and tax. Hopefully the restore disc will do the trick now.

 

I don't know if anyone is too worried about the UK in this discussion but Long story short [my blog post on the matter], I got my x61 repaired by Lenovo UK, and it came back nice and sealed and fully functional, but with the internal wireless antennas disconnected, rendering the wireless useless. I didnt want to send it off again so I opened it up and reconnected it myself.

Does anyone know exactly how screwed my warranty now is?

 

That's pretty fast to tell you the truth. Does the customer have to pay the shipping cost when shipping the box back to Lenovo for technical support or the box is paid for by Lenovo/IBM?

Thanks.

 

IBM/Lenovo pays for the shipping each way.

 

Thanks for the reply. Have other people who have sent their notebooks to Lenovo been happy with them fixing the problem? And in their turn around time?

 

Turn around time is very impressive, you can get it back within a week. As for fixing the problem, it depends on what problem it is. They may not be able to reproduce the symptoms. Unrelated things could also get messed up during the repair causing you to send it back for a would-be-unnecessary repair--but again, with very impressive speed. (I say it is very impressive speed because I have an extra laptop to use while the other was sent in. I guess if I am left with no laptop to use during the repair, I may complain it takes too long even if it's away for 3 days. I think that's why they try to have it back to you as fast as possible.)