What's this small hole on the bottom of my T42? Picture here

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giasoldacastlar · #1 Post by **giasoldacastlar** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 7:33 am

Hi,

sorry to bother all of you. I own a T42 2373-4WG. My video card died and I got the motherboard replaced under warranty. Once I got back the laptop from the repair center I noticed a small hole at the bottom of the laptop.

This is the picture of the small hole,

and this other picture is meant to indicate the position of the hole (red circle)

It might be the case that the hole was there also before sending the laptop to repair but I never noticed it. Unfortunately I do not own any other IBM laptop nor I know anybody who does. So, I'd like to ask if you also have this small hole.

Thanks in advance.

#2 Post by **GomJabbar** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 8:02 am

Holy cow! My T42 has it too.

zepp · #3 Post by **zepp** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 8:24 am

IF I'm not mistaken, it's the hole to let liquid drain through should you spill it on the keyboard.

USSS · #4 Post by **USSS** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 8:27 am

My T43 has it, too.

Might be an extruded post inside for positioning and/or orienting the motherboard or some other component. Just a wild guess on my part...

EDIT:

IF I'm not mistaken, it's the hole to let liquid drain through should you spill it on the keyboard.

So who will volunteer to test zepp's theory? LOL

DarkMark · #5 Post by **DarkMark** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 8:34 am

zepp wrote:IF I'm not mistaken, it's the hole to let liquid drain through should you spill it on the keyboard.

Ich think your right, looking at my keyboard, there seems to be some kind of drain just on the other side of that hole.

I`m not going to volunteer though.

giasoldacastlar · #6 Post by **giasoldacastlar** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 8:55 am

Good,

so I'm not missing any screw.

Thanks for all the replays!

agarza · #7 Post by **agarza** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 12:11 pm

All T4x series have that hole. Is to drain liquid when spilled through the keyboard. Not volunteering neither, but I'm sure it's normal

christopher_wolf · #8 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 4:55 pm

It's the drainage hole that all T4X Series Thinkpads have and I am positive about that.

vlyne · #9 Post by **vlyne** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:12 pm

Now that we have the drain hole sorted out I'm curious about what IBM/Lenovo supplied you as a replacement motherboard. In particular what is different about the GPU and how it's attached or held down to the motherboard.
Cheers

TonyJZX · #10 Post by **TonyJZX** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 12:25 am

all the t4x has them

the t43 i'm looking at now has it

giasoldacastlar · #11 Post by **giasoldacastlar** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 7:49 am

Vlyne

Now that we have the drain hole sorted out I'm curious about what IBM/Lenovo supplied you as a replacement motherboard. In particular what is different about the GPU and how it's attached or held down to the motherboard.

from a user perspective nothing seems to have changed. I still have an ATI radeon 7500 GPU. If you tell me how to get the details you like to know (FRU etc.), I'll post them here.

By chance, I received the replacement keyboard I was waiting from IBM, so I installed it and meanwhile I got new pictures which show clearly the drainage pipe under the palm rest bezel. As they might interest somobody I also post them here.

The drainage pipe below the left side of the palm rest bezel:

The drainage hole from above:

The drainage opening in the (italian) keyboard which spills into the drainage hole

phelix · #12 Post by **phelix** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 5:05 pm

Amazingly enough I found that same hole today while bored in a meeting. At least I now know what it's for!

#13 Post by **BillMorrow** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 1:14 pm

giasoldacastlar wrote:Good,

so I'm not missing any screw.

Thanks for all the replays!

well, not in your thinkpad, at least..

#14 Post by **underclocker** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 1:28 pm

Same "feature" on my T40, I guess keyboard spills happen a lot.

depravedone · #15 Post by **depravedone** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 11:25 am

My T40 has a screw in that location! It is used and I just got it off ebay about a week ago. Is my keyboard going to drown now?

depravedone · #16 Post by **depravedone** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 11:28 am

Ok, so I just checked and that screw will not back out, it just turns freely. So, obviously somebody got confused and put it in the wrong hole. (I hate it when that happens

)

FTC · #17 Post by **FTC** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 7:15 am

My T40 has a screw in that location!

Well, look at it as a feature... Our thinkpads will better support spills, but yours will probably be the only thinkad which could have a chance of *floating around* if you ever drop it on water...

#18 Post by **rkawakami** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 5:42 pm

depravedone wrote:Ok, so I just checked and that screw will not back out, it just turns freely. So, obviously somebody got confused and put it in the wrong hole. (I hate it when that happens )

Sorry for dredging up this old thread but I just had to mention this... I remember reading this thread when it first got started. I dismissed it as I did not have a T4x system at that time. That has since changed

.

So a couple of days ago while I was taking apart my first T41, I was carefully placing all of the removed screws into a sectioned-off utility box. Each little compartment is labeled with the item that it secures: palmrest, keyboard bezel, keyboard, etc. Another Thinkpad has the HMM opened up to the FRU that needs to be removed next. I complete the LCD panel swap, verify that it's working properly before I button it up and then I start re-assembling the system. Everything goes back on smoothly. (You can see where this is leading, huh?) Turn the system over and put the keyboard bezel on. Re-attach the palmrest and grab the #4 screws. First one goes in fine. Second one too. Third one... turns and turns and turns... Huh? Did I strip the threads? Did I grab the shorter #3 screw? Tried to back it out... turns and turns and turns.... Crap! Instantly I remember this thread

.

The next time I take this system apart I'll be sure to push out the screw

.

thitiv · #19 Post by **thitiv** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 9:41 pm

Thanks. I've been wondering if any screw is missed too.

Brad · #20 Post by **Brad** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 12:31 am

Congrats Ray on your first T41! First of many....

Brad

wackydan · #21 Post by **wackydan** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:26 pm

christopher_wolf wrote:It's the drainage hole that all T4X Series Thinkpads have and I am positive about that.

No you're not.

The drain holes only started with the 60 series.

The 40 series only had the keyboard tray for capturing liquid, not draining. take any 40 series apart... you'll see that hole does not connect to the keyboard or act as any sort of drain.

Other than that... beats me what the hell it is. It's just not a drain hole.

zverg · #22 Post by **zverg** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 10:54 am

wackydan wrote:
christopher_wolf wrote:It's the drainage hole that all T4X Series Thinkpads have and I am positive about that.
No you're not.

The drain holes only started with the 60 series.

The 40 series only had the keyboard tray for capturing liquid, not draining. take any 40 series apart... you'll see that hole does not connect to the keyboard or act as any sort of drain.

Other than that... beats me what the hell it is. It's just not a drain hole.

oh but it is. must I pour water in my keyboard?

wackydan · #23 Post by **wackydan** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 5:07 pm

Hey... go for it. It is not a drain hole.

Jagoop · #24 Post by **Jagoop** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 5:11 pm

Maybe it is a water INTAKE hole ?

#25 Post by **rkawakami** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 3:32 am

Re-visiting this again just because...

It most definitely is a drain hole. There's a small cutout in the lip of the keyboard base. The only place in which it occurs along the entire outer edge of the aluminum base is right between the left Alt key and the space bar. That lines up perfectly with a small lip that sticks out from the palmrest. When mounted, that palmrest lip lies just below the notch in the keyboard. That leads directly to a tube which fits perfectly inside the hole in the bottom of the base. I'll have to load some fresh batteries inside my camera and grab some pictures in the morning.

And just so there's no confusion, the three T41 2374-327 bases that I'm staring at are all set up the same way. The palmrest that I have is the one with the UltraNav. It might be possible that the non-touchpad version doesn't have this drain hole but I can't say for sure since I don't have one. However, it really wouldn't make much sense for those palmrests to not have the same lip/tube since IBM obviously engineered this into the system.

Not sure where wackydan is from (since he hasn't updated his profile with his city/state, hint.. hint...) but if he's from Missouri I may just post a video of some water cascading out of the drain hole. The three T41 motherboards are charred bread and the keyboard is no good since it has the broken space bar, so it won't bother me to perform the H2O experiment.

SHoTTa35 · #26 Post by **SHoTTa35** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 9:55 am

well i have a 2374-k5u and i see the hole in the bottom of my system too. I dind't check my keyboard to see if it actually lines up but maybe it's a feature of the newest ones?

Oh and yeah, post that video.

#27 Post by **rkawakami** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 1:50 pm

What giasoldacastlar posted earlier in this thread was from a T42. These pictures are from a T41 and show the same structures in the keyboard, palmrest and base:

Top view, with palmrest flipped over on top of keyboard. Shows hole in base and tube on palmrest:

(112KB 800x600)

Close-up of tube in palmrest:

(90KB 800x600)

US keyboard, showing notch in the edge of the keyboard base (palmrest has been removed):

(104KB 800x600)

Palmrest installed, showing the lip which lies underneath the keyboard in the same are where the notch is:

(141KB 800x600)

Bottom of T41 with palmrest installed. You can see the end of the tube aligned with the hole in the base:

(37KB 800x600)

Bottom of T41 with palmrest removed. The brown color inside the hole is the desktop on which the T41 is laying upon:

(47KB 800x600)

saux · #28 Post by **saux** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 3:45 am

same here with my beloved t40 2373-8ca..
that's definitely water drain system
updated with picture

What's this small hole on the bottom of my T42? Picture here

What's this small hole on the bottom of my T42? Picture here

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