The clamshell lid is made up of a large metal rectangle on top of which a narrow plastic rectangle is attached. The plastic rectangle contains all the antennae, which would work much worse if the complete lid was metal. The plastic is attached to and supported by a pair of "Bunny Ears" on the top corners of the metal rectangle. The break point on the lid is almost universally at the base of the bunny ear where the lid rests against the expresscard slot (where there is has a LOT of flex, leading to breaks in lids, palmrests, and keyboard supports - why didn't Lenovo sell the x2[23]0 with ExpressCard blanks - would've saved insane amounts of broken palmrests, keyboard supports and clamshell lids).
I managed to repair the lid break (replicated on my primary x230 and x220) with the following method:
Following the instuctions of the x220/x220i Hardware Maintenance Manual:
- Unscrew, then unclip, then remove the screen bezel and place it aside.
- Unscrew the screen and place it on the keyboard (no disconnection required if you're careful)
- Flatten the empty clamshell lid as level as possible using books as shims under the clamshell base.
- Take a narrow but long screw (like the T420 keyboard screw), and remove it's head, so that you have 15 mm long spiral patterned metal cylinder (smooth won't hold as good)
- Move the Antenna cables out of their slot at the edge of joint where the plastic rectange is attached to the metal rectangle.
- Glue the screw in the slot along the outer edge using a 2 part epoxy (my father's sworn by Araldite the last 40 years, which is what I used here).
- Use a rope around the 2 rectangles to force them together
- Clamp the edges straight with a pair of wood strips between the teeth of a strong clamp to protect against bending of the joint by the force of the rope.
- Repeat on the non-broken side, shouldn't need rope or clamps there, as this is preventive. - Do this NOW if it ISN'T broken to protect against bad design decisions.
I haven't yet figured out the chassis repair, and probably won't as that x230 requires a heat-sink re-paste before anything else, which I haven't the confidence for, yet.
PS. The keyboard that Jake donated to me is the one that kept that x230 working for my kid for 2 years before the heatsink debacle.Statistics: Posted by samveen — Tue Apr 02, 2024 12:53 am
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