T43, intermittent beeping, and EasyServe problems...

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Domain · #1 Post by **Domain** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 6:35 pm

Folks, need some advice here.

My T43's random beeping has gotten on my nerves, finally, and gotten to the point where it's too much of an annoyance to ignore anymore. It seems to be coming off the system bord, but I can't say with authority. It is NOT coming from the front speakers however.

So I initiate a trouble ticket... system goes off to the repair depot. Comes back with a letter enclosed saying that the Planar Board was replaced, and the BIOS upgraded to the latest version.

The BIOS was at version 1.24, I sent mine out with 1.29 unless I just have a faulty memory. I bit my tongue and said if it works, great.

I open the thinkpad, my Z key is broken off and floating under my screen. Wonderful.

Then I write an email a few hours later. BEEEEEEEP! Cripes. Not only did they break the keyboard (which they are replacing, one is to arrive tomorrow however) but they didn't fix the problem!

Okay, stuff's hard to pinpoint. It's very intermittent and I understand that. I can't keep sending this thing off though, I RELY upon this machine for school.

Is there any advice to deal with support to reach some kind of reasonable compromise here? Please understand, I don't mean to gripe about support, they are friendly if lately they take FOREVER to contact thanks to the Battery Recall Program, but I'm getting to the end of my rope here.

And for any interested parties, my machine is a 2686-NAU.

Thanks.

Edit: Support escalated my request..someone will call me back within 48-72 hours... anyone famliar with this? It is very possible I will get an entirely new machine... I hope!

Moderators: Apologies if I've posted this in the wrong forum or something of that nature, I glanced through and found this one to be what I thought to be the most suitable. Please accept my apologizes if I've posted to the wrong location in error. Thanks.

#2 Post by **Kyocera** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:27 pm

You picked the right forum so that is cool, this tiny writing is hard to read.

Check event viewer and see if the beeps are related to anything in Windows. Maybe run PC doctor for device errors or Dr Watson if there is an application error. There is a way to turn off system beeps, maybe someone can chime in on that. That might be a temporary way to calm the nerves, maybe a glass of boones farm whilst typing.

EOMtp · #3 Post by **EOMtp** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:35 pm

Kyocera wrote:There is a way to turn off system beeps

Start/Settings/Control_Panel ...
... System/Hardware/Device_Manager ...
... View/Show_Hidden_Devices ...
... Non-Plug_and_Play_Drivers/Beep/(right-click)/Disable.

Domain · #4 Post by **Domain** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:49 pm

Kyocera wrote:You picked the right forum so that is cool, this tiny writing is hard to read.

Check event viewer and see if the beeps are related to anything in Windows. Maybe run PC doctor for device errors or Dr Watson if there is an application error. There is a way to turn off system beeps, maybe someone can chime in on that. That might be a temporary way to calm the nerves, maybe a glass of boones farm whilst typing.

Event Viewer... nada

PC Doctor... pass.

Dr. Watson.. no app error.

Beeps... N/A here, nothing I can shut off. Believe me I've used that trick in the past. The BEEP in the dev manager only controls that coming out of the front speakers. Even with that disabled the beep still occurs.

Boones Farm?

Sorry about the small font, a habit from another forum for stuff that's not-so-important.

christopher_wolf · #5 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:58 pm

Did you check the Event Log Viewer right after a few beeps have occured?

That probably signals there is an internal hardware conflict that is important, at least to the system.

Clever use of fonts; I like it

#6 Post by **Kyocera** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:58 pm

Boones Farm? > Cheap Wine that gives an instant buzz.

Sorry about the small font, a habit from another forum for stuff that's not-so-important. >I was joking around a bit.

Domain · #7 Post by **Domain** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:59 pm

christopher_wolf wrote:Did you check the Event Log Viewer right after a few beeps have occured?

That probably signals there is an internal hardware conflict that is important, at least to the system.

Clever use of fonts; I like it

Been there, done that.... believe me I've tried EVERYTHING

AbsoluteRaleigh · #8 Post by **AbsoluteRaleigh** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 9:53 pm

If they replaced the system board, they must have thought the sounds were coming from the system board. The only logical explanation is that the new board has the same issue. Rare but entirely possible. If this is the case they'll be happy to replace it again.

Hard drives and other things can make odd "beep" like noises- without actually hearing it I can only guess here.

If the people on the phone aren't sure, I would send it back in to depot repair & leave a note on the system saying: "the beep remains, either this replacement planar has the same issue or something else is intermittently beeping." You'll end up sending it back to get the part replaced anyways, so, mine as well bite the bullet- the wrnty service is as good as it gets in the laptop world and they will actually work to resolve it...

Domain · #9 Post by **Domain** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 1:51 pm

I said over the phone I *believed*,without full certainty it was coming from the system board.

They replaced the Planar on that, and probably couldn't reproduce the beep. I asked them to provide a replacement shell of a machine, but refused until it goes back again.

This is ridiculous. They said it would be going to a higher level of techs and an entirely different place - but it's going to the same depot again.

Sigh. I was really looking forward to investing in another ThinkPad a few years down the road, but I guess not. I'm not trying to slam IBM/Lenovo/Solectron, but I dunno what else to do at this point.

I'm packing up the ThinkPad for another depot trip as we speak.

Domain · #10 Post by **Domain** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 1:57 pm

Well, got the ThinkPad back from EasyServe.

They fixed the plastic part that I broke, likely though my own occasional bad carrying habits. I never even requested them to fix that. NICE.

As for the beep... I'll have to keep monitoring the situation. I'm skeptical. If it goes a week without beeping, I'll say the situation was taken care of.

On the invoice, it says a plastic part (my screw up) and "misc parts" were replaced. It also said that the bios was updated, but it again remains at 1.24. EC is at the 1.06 revision I believe.

When I started, I had an F11 query to start Rescue and Recovery. Never saw that before, maybe they pulled down the updates for me before they shipped it out.

After I booted, my computer went straight to Windows. MY PASSWORD WAS REMOVED... I wrote on the paper that I wanted them to use the Administrator account to login. Jeez.

I'm not going to hold it against them, though. Easyserve seems to have done a bangup job, especially one tech by the name of Norman J.

Hopefully my T43 is perfect, now, becuase it sure feels like it at this point!

Domain · #11 Post by **Domain** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 1:49 pm

Well, it beeped. And after prodding a CS guy a lot I got him to escalate the request.

Let the fun begin.

TechLee · #12 Post by **TechLee** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 4:22 pm

Keep sending it in ... I was told they replaced my system board 2 times by ez-serv. new memory HD etc... I think they were full of it Plannar Card they call em'... I think they threw it on a pile and waited a day to send it back to me. there was no way it was tested I on boxed my unit and same problem. After a few attempts you can prob esclate to get a new unit. Only bad news is there is a shortage of T43's from what I understand I guess they were pulled... The T60's so far running XP seem to be cranking with the DUO processor. Just started rolling them out last month at work...

Domain · #13 Post by **Domain** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 4:56 pm

A rep from IBM called today and they are sending an on-site tech to replace the CPU and memory.

I'm not buying this as a fix (she said that becuase they replace just about everything else short of the LCD...) but I'll give it a shot. It's onsite, which while not a new machine was a welcome gesture on part of IBM.

ZoneMan · #14 Post by **ZoneMan** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 9:02 am

Domain,

What type of warranty do you have?
Onsite?

Normally they dont send out a tech unless you have this type of warr, even after multiple attempts in the depot. Keep in mind that they WILL send your machine to the depot even if you have an onsite warranty (alot of them wont tell you have onsite so they wont have to process the field dispatch). You would have to tell them you want a tech out.

Has your problem been resolved yet?

Zone

Senser · #15 Post by **Senser** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 2:55 pm

Might be a bit unlikely you have the same issues, but my T43 beeps sometimes when TPFanControl isn't able to set the fan speed do to a conflict.

If you're running TPFanControl this might be the same issue?

Domain · #16 Post by **Domain** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 4:33 pm

ZoneMan - 1 yr depot... they DID send out a tech who did the work two days ago.

Senser - Beep differs from the one emitted out of the front speakers, and I have used TPFanControl so I know what you're talking about, unfortunately this isn't it. I wish it were as quick a fix

T43, intermittent beeping, and EasyServe problems...

T43, intermittent beeping, and EasyServe problems...

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