Thinkpads Forum

What's anyone's experience with having their thinkpad sent in for any structural hardware issues?

I just bought a secondhand x60 for a bargain price and wanted to get one of the hinges fixed. The right hinge is a bit loose/moves forwards and back when opening/closing the screen. The laptop doesn't look like it's been dropped & all the screws are tightly screwed in.

I'm in the UK at the moment ( but will be in the US in a few weeks). IBM UK say they might need to charge me $110 (£60) just to look at the machine if they decide that the fault is mine rather than build quality. Repairs will also be chargeable. I'd hate to have to pay

any advice??

tx

get the hardware maintenance manual..
and see if you can pinpoint the problem with the hinge..

if you send it in and they determine that it is user abuse, that thinkpad will be eternally tainted.. probably until you pay a high price for repair..

you might drop into a repair dealer in the US when you are here..

eyeball to eyeball things go better..

BillMorrow wrote:get the hardware maintenance manual..

I agree that's the best thing to try first. Go here to download the HMM for the X60.

Bill & pianowizard - tx for the fast awesome posts. exactly what I needed!!

good call on not sending it in - the machine would have been branded for life. it looks like the hinge sits inside a little box which is part of the base cover. It's made of metal of course and it's cracked open: http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id ... 607&size=l


Got 3 options:

1 - find a repair dealer (who will probably just order a new part and fix it on)

2 - I find a new base cover and attach it myself using the maintenance manual (problem here is that I can't find this part for this model on ebay or by googling it. Any ideas where I can order one?)

3 - superglue the crack back together. not sure how strong the bond will be keeping in mind it's metal


any suggestions very welcome!


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You can order it form IBM directly. You did not provide a model#, so I looked up a random base cover for a X60 (FRU 41V9736) and it's just £50.74 + s/h.

wow - didn't realise ordering TP parts was so easy! tx

I sent my T30 in for the RAM slot deal. It took two tries to get the system board installed correctly and they cracked my case.
Hope that helps.

I guess the bigger question i've got is what defines USER ABUSE ?

how does the service centre figure out when to charge or not? when key components screw up during the warranty (like HD, motherboard etc..), it's clear IBM need to step in and sort things out.

But when it's a structural issue, surely they can always just say "sorry, looks like it's your fault - these components don't just crack". Thing is I don't think the machine has ever been dropped, and even if it has there are no marks on the outer case to indicate a force large enough to crack a metal component

$100 and I could repair it myself but I have this thing called a 3 year warranty and I relish using them - they just reinforce my belief in the goodness of globalisation & the pleasure of being on the receiveing end of top quality customer service

@ginoT,

Do not use superglue for the crack. If you are handy with a soldering iron for plastic, do grab a piece of black durable plastic from the junk and use a cutter to cut out a few pieces from the junk plastic and use the soldering iron to melt the plastic and apply the melted mould over the crack. Do NOT accidentally use your soldering iron rod to touch your thinkpad, if not it will melt your thinkpad. Use a flat piece of thing to spread the mould over the crack. (maybe a diskette or a card)

I have done this on my lecturer\'s thinkpad previously and it has proven to be more durable than applying superglue over the crack.

Let the mould cool down and test the plastic for durability by flexing your LCD hinge (open and close it several times to see if the moulded plastic crack again). It should NOT crack. If it does, PM me and i will tell you what to do next.