X120e melted speaker

i really liked this netbook, but something happened today to it that totally puzzled me.

the x120e was unobstructed, plugged into AC outlet, and i was watching a movie via the HDMI out. the x120e started beeping and the right speaker melted. i immediately powered down.

any ideas? i have to return. do they still charge restocking? anyone with ideas? i guess the bad thermal design is true.

 

Melted? How do you know it melted? For the record my x120e tosses hot air out the left vent, but the unit itself stays cool even playing half life 2

On an unrelated note, I installed vanilla Windows 7 Ultimate and installed lenovo drivers and sp1. Unfortunately, a post-sp1 patch is causing my boot to BSOD so I'm doing a system restore as we speak

 

I have a hard time believing that the right speaker "melted." On the right side of the machine, there are pretty much no components that generate a significant amount of heat. There's the HDD (minimal heat output, usually), Bluetooth module (minimal heat output) and WAN card if you have it installed (outputs some heat, but never requires active cooling). The CPU is on the left side, near the heat exhaust.

If you do obtain an RMA number for a machine that is deemed faulty, no restocking will be charged.

 

it wasn't super serious or anything. it's just for a machine 5 days old i was surprised. i've had my w500 for 2 years with no issues. i'll describe what i was doing. i was watching an HD movie via VLC with an HDMI out. There was a beeping sound, burning plastic smell, and the result was a dime-sized melted spot on the speaker grill half way between the middle and right screw.

 

There is always 1% out of 100 chances of failure on any brands. You were just a part of the 1% of the unlucky ones.

Call Lenovo and get a replacement or warranty repair.

 

i am not shying away from lenovo but i think the x100e/x120e chassis could have issues. i wonder if others could try playing a 1080p mkv file via VLC and see if they run into any issues. any case, melt spot is on the top part where the keyboard handrest is and at the bottom where the speaker grill is. the left speaker still works fine, but the right speaker is dead.

makes me think about waiting for the x220. well it does cost 2x more.

 

Could you upload some pictures of the damage, and if possible, remove the bottom cover and take pictures of whatever is there?

Unless something really crazy is going on, that part of the notebook should not even be getting warm under load. As seen in NBR's temperature measurements here and here, it's the coolest part of the chassis. If your issue were actually caused by high CPU/GPU load, then the upper left corner of the laptop would the the part "melting," if anything (and besides, the laptop would auto-shutdown before it got to that point anyway).

The culprit in your case could potentially be some sort of short circuit. Again, it would be great if you could upload pictures.

 

I seams like something was wrong with speaker.

 

things happened really fast and i was about 2-3 feet away from the x120e. as soon as it happened since i smelled something funny and saw smoke, i powered down, then unplugged AC adapter. do now, ask questions later.

images showing damage which happened about 2 seconds:
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Imageshack - img7680.jpg


the thing i kept thinking about was that i usually run my computers 24-7 since i moved away from desktops and only have laptops which all have negligible noise and heat output. what would have happened if i wasn't home? i almost sure there would have been an electrical fire. the whole metal backing was hot too. i opened it up to install the 4GB sodimm so i was aware of where the APU, memory, harddisk were situated. i've been using computers for more than 20 years, so yes i know my way around.

 

this is fixable under warranty, so give them a call. Something must have shortcircuited.

 

Best thing to do is call up Lenovo and see about them fixing it or replacing the unit. As far as I know this is not a known problem with the x100e or x120e. My old x100e got really hot, but nothing like that ever happened....

 

You must have very bad luck recently, any other story of your misfortune. I think you better call Lenovo to have your laptop fixed.

 

Tis a fluke. I would imagine Lenovo would respond pretty quickly to such an issue. Maybe they will cross ship you a new one.
Yikes! Scary picture though.

 

Nope, things were going pretty swell. I got in on the No-OS deal for it and got a good price - brought it to work and was impressed with the battery life, liked having HDMI out instead of having to use an displayport-to-hdmi adapter in my W500, and really enjoyed the keyboard.

I do hope it was a fluke. I wish there was a larger sample size. That is why i was hoping for others to use the x120e to play 1080p movies on VLC while using HDMI out. Play the movie for about 1.5 hours.

 

I also hope that it is a fluke, since I am in the same boat like you. Now I am thinking of hibernate my x120e when I go out.

 

Holy moly, that's just 5 days of normal use? Guess x120e is outta my list of ThinkPads to collect lol..

 

Freak accident happens. Let me reassure you that the x120e is a great machine.

 

You don't need to insure him anything. If someone comes on a forum and makes up their mind based on a single thread and a single freak incident (so-far) then their mind is already made up or was never after anything to begin with. Specially when there are quite a few positive reviews out there that are very insightful in covering the different aspects of this laptop from top to bottom along with the many accounts from other X120e owners which have also been quite good.

 

lol sheesh I was being sarcastic. That's still crazy how it happened...hope this is an isolated issue..

 

Out of possibly hundreds or thousands of x120e sold, only 1 with a melted speaker or whatever reported as of today.

Most of those hundreds or thousands of users with their x120e will not post about how good their laptop are running. What you see here are people having issues so do the math.

 

Wow, I would never have believed it without pictures... hopefully it is just a fluke. I'd be calling Lenovo support first thing monday...

 

Last time a machine had an electrical problem like that for me, it was replaced by the maker. The symptom might be a small part of a larger issue. I would not plug it back in or turn it on. I would also remove the battery (carefully).

 

yep i did all that. my main machine is a w500 with a dock. i was getting the x120e because i have alot of travel plans coming up. i'll be talking to the lenovo folks on monday to see what my options are.

 

Call me sceptic, but given that many, me included, have started to complain more often about problems with their ThinkPads I would pay attention to this case. How many of people owning x120e have used it exactly the way OP did?
Maybe if someone with x120e tried exactly the same use scenario same thing would happen again?
Lets see what Lenovo says was the reason for it.

 

The most prudent solution is for the maker (Lenovo) to send a replacement machine and have the customer return the defective machine. You may never know the results of their investigation.

 

Jonmlee,

Sorry this happened. A speaker can fail this way if the audio circuit feeds it DC power. I'm not aware of an issue with the X120e, so this may indeed be a fluke but I would like to ensure we take care of this, and have a carefully look at your system.

Please see my PM.

Thanks!

Mark

 

More often than when they cost upwards of 2000 USD and were typically only found in corporate environments? Yeah, I can believe that.

 

I dont understand what youre saying. Could you please elaborate?

 

I suspect that hanging around forums like this gives a distorted view of things. I'll admit I am prone to this myself -- when I ordered my T410s last December I was half expecting a shoddy piece of junk that would randomly shut down, crack the palmrest if you just looked at it funny, and have vertical lines all over the screen, all of which would give me plenty of material to gripe about here.

Instead I was disappointed to receive a beautifully built machine which has been completely solid so far.

Well, except for the noisy AC adapter which allows me to whine about its whining.

 

if ur adapter is noisy u can get it replaced under warranty.

 

Nope, I got one replacement (exact same part number) which made the exact same noises and then spent a lot of time on the phone with an IBM tech who checked 3 other adapters and said they all make the same noise. Tech support weren't willing to send me an adapter with a different P/N.

Since the adapter doesn't get really warm I wrapped a shipping envelope with bubble wrap around it and it doesn't bother me anymore.

 

IBM? Isn't it Lenovo now?

 

Fairly certain it is IBM still.

 

IBM handles Tech Support for Lenovo. I would highly suggest that you remove the bubble wrap around the power adapter, you may overheat the adapter, especially as the weather gets warmer. This is for your own safety.

 

Just to wrap things up, Mark and the folks at Lenovo did contact me and we did get some of this resolved fair quickly. I particularly liked the box they sent me since it has such a clever design. The cellophane/plastic is used to hold the laptop in place in the box just by having it be engulfed and then the tension is applied to keep things in place stretching the thick plastic over it.

 

I had a similar issue. I received my laptop the 11th and my speakers "died" on the 13th. Even with max volume I barely heard them even if I placed my ears next to them. With headphones plugged in they worked just fine. Updated drivers, etc. The right side speaker grill was a little "melted" similar to the image given here. The top (palm rest area) was not affected however.

Mine is currently at Lenovo Warranty service sent it on the 15th, last time I talked to them, my laptop was sent to "the engineers" to figure out what is wrong.

So I'm guessing Lenovo is receiving similar complaints, and mine was chosen for a biopsy... and they didn't send me a replacement, just waiting for my Lemon to be fixed.

Oddly, I'm an IT guy for a corporation that works with Lenovo's... so sad. -_-

 

I just had a very similar situation occur. Mine wasn't burnt nearly as bad, but still warm enough to physically melt the metal grill below my speaker. Only difference for me was that it's actually the left speaker.

VERY lucky that I didn't have the laptop on my chest like I typically do at night!

Did you have any trouble getting a replacement machine? I ordered mine online direct from Lenovo, does anyone have an experience with Lenovo warranties?

 

Don't worry, the plastic around one of the screws securing the palmrest on my T410 totally melted due to overheating, and locked the screw in place.
I would suggest you call Lenovo and see about getting it repaired. Take a bunch of pictures and keep your emails with Lenovo. I would try to get a case manager assigned, get his email address, and send him pics of it.

 

I never used mine much. Mostly for my last semester of my MBA back in Spring 2011, and now here and there when I travel. Mine just burnt out a week ago. I called Lenovo. No support because it's out of warranty. I just took it apart, and I got some pics for anyone who still cares to enjoy. Sucks to suck, I guess.