Dark dots on LCD, cracked base -> Bad Warranty Experience

[wildchild]

I noticed that gray dots appeared on my screen last week. There are around 50 of them in the same area. Called them last friday and they said they would send me a box on Thuesday this week. Today I received a call from Lenovo asking me more questions and the guy on the phone was very insistent on the fast that usually those dots are caused by a hit or pressure on the screen and that they weren't covered by the warranty. This ThinkPad never took any hit and has no apparent scratch after 3 years. Also, after receiving the call, I inspected everything more closely and I took pictures all around it in case they break something (it happened with Toshiba and it caused me a lot of trouble). While inspecting it, I noticed that the case cracked near the left lid support. The crack was probably caused by the pressure that happens when I open the lid. I found this support loose in the last few weeks but I never checked the cause. When I raise the lid, the crack open, which confim the cause to me. Is it something usually covered by the warranty? How are the odds that Lenovo's support service is going to cause me trouble? There is only 1 month left on its 3 years warranty and this causes me some stress...

You can see some pictures of the problems there:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/picasawildch ... dR51Public

The first picture is about the crack, and the second picture is about the gray dots. The upper part show where they are located and the bottom part is a close up where you can see them. It seem these dots are behind the LCD panel as it's impossible to clean them and they are not dead pixels.

Thanks!

[BillMorrow]

i took a look at the pix and i can see the crack in the base and the dots..

IRT the crack:
it might be stress caused from opening and c losing or it might be from dropping the thinkpad..
i don't see and signs of it having been dropped..

my take on this is they might take a look at a near perfect exterior other than the crack and if the hinge is stiff and obviously causing the crack they might repair it..

IRT the dots, i don't know what will be said..

again, if there are no signs of rough handling then you might get lucky..

good luck..

[wildchild]

The laptop is on it's way to Lenovo's repair center (sent yesterday). About the crack, it's probably caused by the weight of the screen as I noticed that the plastic is kept separated as long as the lid is raised. I hope to get news from Lenovo soon!

[wildchild]

This is bad... My Purolator tracking number doesn't give any arrival scan on Lenovo's side. Purolator is unable to tell where is the package and Lenovo is also unable to tell where it is... The box was supposed to arrive on their side last Thursday (overnight). Has it ever happened to someone? Should I worry about where is my laptop?

[wildchild]

They now have had my machine for 3 weeks. For 1 week, the CS service was unable to tell me that my machine arrived at the repair center. The next week, they were unable to tell me what was going on with the repair. In fact, the last element they had in their log was the information about the box they sent to me. I finally got a call telling me they would replace the LCD panel but not the crack as it wasn't considered as manufacturer defect. I've been fighting with them in the last 1.5 week to get this crack repaired as the hinge is clearly pushing on the plastic and the crack widens when I raise the lid and when it's in the raised position. I've been escalated to the customer care service just to get the same answer that an engineer took a look at the crack and that it wasn't seen as a manufacturer defect. Now, I just hope my machine won't get back in a worse condition than it was when I sent it. I'm also very frustrated about the quality of the service I got with them. I bought this ThinkPad to replace a Toshiba notebook that gave me a lot of trouble. It was always broken and their CS service was very poor. I paid $2100 for this ThinkPad, including a 3 years on-site warranty service that I couldn't even get, for a notebook less performant than what I could get from other manufacturers, just because the ThinkPad had a great reputation. I was expecting, at this price, to get a good computer and I hoped to have a nice service if any problem would happen with it. Now, I think I got a worse service than Toshiba and this will clearly puts Lenovo on my black list for my next notebook purchase. I just hope my R51 will stay as a whole for a long time from now, even with this crack on the base because I don't have the money to replace a notebook every 3 years, especially after I paid that much on this one.

[Troels]

I really understand your frustration, and i'd be frustrated too if that was me. Three weeks sounds like too long a time, just to determine what goes under warranty and replace the LCD.
I think you lucked out with them replacing the LCD, since the dark spots look like dust specs inside the LCD which every manufacturer usually try to deny being a problem. It's a large problem with laptops, because they are transported, so dust quickly gets between the lcd layers.
It was also lucky because the LCD is much more expensive than a base cover.
I know you paid for a 3-year onsite warranty, and i think it's unacceptable that it isn't honored, and that the crack should be covered by the warranty either way. But if you're willing to replace the base cover by yourself, a new base cover seems to sell for around CAD $46 over here (directly from IBM), and will probably be cheaper in US or Canada.
It will most likely void the warranty doing it yourself, but if it's soon out of warranty you could wait for that perhaps.

[wildchild]

My warranty ends on November 15th so there is nothing left to void now. As for the cracked base, they are charging me $140 to replace it... This is ridiculous for a molded plastic part. I'm not yet done with them. First I have to get the notebook back and I'll try to every doors I can to have this solved. I expected a much better service when I bought this ThinkPad at $2100 instead of a Dell with similar specs at around $1400. I also feels ripped off, having paid for an on-site warranty service they wouldn't even give to me.

I really understand your frustration, and i'd be frustrated too if that was me. Three weeks sounds like too long a time, just to determine what goes under warranty and replace the LCD.
I think you lucked out with them replacing the LCD, since the dark spots look like dust specs inside the LCD which every manufacturer usually try to deny being a problem. It's a large problem with laptops, because they are transported, so dust quickly gets between the lcd layers.
It was also lucky because the LCD is much more expensive than a base cover.
I know you paid for a 3-year onsite warranty, and i think it's unacceptable that it isn't honored, and that the crack should be covered by the warranty either way. But if you're willing to replace the base cover by yourself, a new base cover seems to sell for around CAD $46 over here (directly from IBM), and will probably be cheaper in US or Canada.
It will most likely void the warranty doing it yourself, but if it's soon out of warranty you could wait for that perhaps.

[wildchild]

I was told last friday that they wouldn't repair the crack. I expected to get back my notebook on Monday or at most on Thuesday. It's still not back... This is ridiculous...

[RealBlackStuff]

Download the Hardware Maintenance Manual for your R51.
Then start looking on eBay. You can get a used crack-free base for about $10.- plus shipping.
Then take an afternoon off and swap bases.
Cheaper than have IBM/Lenovo do it for you.

[wildchild]

I got the laptop back today. As expected, the crack wasn't repaired and the LCD was replaced. The bad part is that the new LCD has two darker stains, a stuck pixel and has a lot of superficial scratches but they don't affect the picture. The replaced LCD panel had no stuck pixel and was virtually scratch free. It is now in a worse condition than when I sent it for repair and now it's out of warranty since last Saturday.

[tfflivemb2]

I got the laptop back today. As expected, the crack wasn't repaired and the LCD was replaced. The bad part is that the new LCD has two darker stains, a stuck pixel and has a lot of superficial scratches but they don't affect the picture. The replaced LCD panel had no stuck pixel and was virtually scratch free. It is now in a worse condition than when I sent it for repair and now it's out of warranty since last Saturday.

I am sorry to hear about your problem...

Try calling them anyway, even though the warranty is expired. They might still work on it, since they had it through the warranty expiring...

[wildchild]

I already e-mailed the customer care person I was in touch with about this... I'm really looking forward his reply.

[wildchild]

I took a small video of the action of the hinge on the plastic. We can see that the hinges seems loose and the corner of the base gets disformed when the lid is raised/lowered. I'd like your opinions about it. Like I said, I really feel the crack was caused, over time, by the pressure of the hinge on the plastic. I would like your opinions about this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVB5LH_NUYs

Thanks!

[Truthfinder]

It looks to me that the crack is located right in the area of the slot where a security cable would go...... This, to me looks like a week area and with the flexing of the hinge each time the lid is opened and closed could very well have caused the crack. The area of the crack is the weakest point, just in line with the hinge itself. They are spending more time blowing you off then just taking care of the issue at hand. This is a prime example of why companies go out of business.

Additionally, the plastic on these units is mass produced in China and we all know what that means. They use their better plastics in the dog food if you get my drift.


Best of luck and keep on fighting until you get justice.

[dr_st]

Additionally, the plastic on these units is mass produced in China and we all know what that means. They use their better plastics in the dog food if you get my drift.

Yay for more bigoted comments. We all know that if it was US-made, it would have been so much better and rock solid.


Back on the subject, while it does seem from the video that the hinge is pushing the plastic, thus causing the crack over time, I don't think that is the case. Otherwise, 80% of the machines would end up with cracked basis. My guess is that you just got unlucky. It's probably not your fault, but since it is indeed not a known defect, you might be hardpressed to prove that it isn't your fault.

[underclocker]

Well, at some point, pretty much everything will fail in some way.

That being said, I've seen several R5x machines, both 14 and 15" models that exhibit this "failure".

The reason always appears to be the same. The one internal hinge screws becomes loose over time and transfers the stress of opening the LCD to the back corner of the base, which is plastic.

Loose screws is not unique to the R5x, but it can result in a cracked base especially with the units that have slightly tighter hinges. Pretty much every laptop has or will have loosened screws over time. I've yet to remove an LCD bezel and find all the LCD screws factory tight.

The best way to prevent this is to remove the keyboard bezel on the R5x and tighten that screw once per year (more often if you feel the LCD wobbling at all).

[Truthfinder]

Yay for more bigoted comments. We all know that if it was US-made, it would have been so much better and rock solid.

First of all, my comment was NOT bigoted....... It is a fact that China has been putting Melomiene in the dog food as well as baby fomula..... Read the new!

And, yes, if the parts were made HERE in America, they would in fact be more solid. If this hurts your feelings, oh well !

At the end of the day, Lenovo should have replaced the bottom case as this is what customer service is all about.

MY 2 cents, like it or not !

[underclocker]

I just swappd the base on an R5x due to the same type of crack at the back left corner hinge area.

Here is what I found;

-all four of the hinge screws on the back of the base were loose
-the two internal screws that secure the hinges were also loose

I also noticed that the LCD panel seemed to be loose between the LCD cover and LCD bezel. So, I opened up the bezel to investigate.

Here is what I found;

-none of the eight screws that secure the LCD panel to the hinge assembly were tight!
-six of the eight screws had fallen out completely!
-only two screws on the left side of the LCD were loosely holding the LCD panel to the hinge assembly

Bottom line, all of the LCD weight and stress from opening and closing the LCD was being directed to the left hinge. Hence, the damage to the base.

Design flaw? Hard to say. Perhaps the design flaw is that so many screws loosened over time from use. Like I said above, it's hard to find any laptop without loose screws after a year of use.