T41 p: Strange ratteling noise and laptop turns itself off

[ndornhoefer]

Hello everybody,
once more I have ennoying probs with my t41p:
1. Today out of the blue it started to make a permanent strange clattering or clicking noise that gets worse when fan goes on. The nosie sounds mechanical to me (but that doesn't mean anything) and comes from the left sied of the keyboarde.
2. It also happend twice today (for the first time) that it turned itself of suddenly.
3. Furthermore my battery lasts only 2 hours now, using the same power scheme that gave me 4-5 hours in the past.

Within the last 10 months I further had 3 HDD failures and a motherboard failure.

Does anybody know anything about the probs I have right now or on replacement polocies?

Thanks a lot and Happy christmas!

[atlacatl]

This is the first time I hear of ThinkPad having so many problems - Perhaps you got the "lemon" of the batch - It does happen, as nothing is 100% defect free.

1. It sounds like it's your fan that is gone - You can change that pretty easely.

For #3, batteries do degrade as time goes by, so I wouldn't be too concerned with the battery - Perhaps it's something else that makes drain more power. I.e. If fan failure, then overheating.

It does sound that there is something wrong with your machine in general - Like I said, I haven't heard of ThinkPad failing so many times in such a period of time...

If you are still under warranty, I'd call IBM and get them to really fix it - Or get a replacement all together...

Good luck...

[BillMorrow]

ndornhoefer, where are you located..?

your profile does not say..
this is why we ask for this info..

if in the USA you should be able to get a replacement if the thinkpad has been sent in for the same problem three times..

not sure if you qualify, but i would ask about this next time you speak to a support person..

IRT fan noise..
sounds like either the fan is bad or something might have been sucked inside and is interfering with it when it turns on..
you MIGHT try using a small vacuum cleaner against the bottom vent so as to suck anything that might have gotten inside, out..

[ndornhoefer]

Hello again,

thanks for your informations. Yes, I also think this are many probs for ThinkPad.

So far I discovered now, that the noise occurs after I plug in and use a 2.0 USB Headseat with Microphone for Skype telephonie. What could be the reason therefore? Does anybody have an idea?

To Morrow, I am located in Palo Alto, CA. After I had the PC in repair last time (Motherboard Failure) which took 20 days!!!! I asked for a replacement but they said I would not qualify as I did not send the PC in for exchanging the broken HDD but built the HDD they sent me in myself. Therefor they did not have have it for the same reason several times.

Altogether I am really upset about the computer and also the support I recived from IBM so far... I really think that as I am having a serious problem every 3 months with this compute it would be time for a replacement. But they are very strict obviously.

Thanks again
Nadja

[KillaByte]

If you are fed up with the service, try telling Sam about it. Usually this will speed things up quite a bit

In my case they gave me 100 euros for compensation since the needed spare part isn't available until 11th of january and my machine broke down at the 3rd of december.

[thinkie]

ndornhoefer,

This probably does not apply to your situation, but about 2 years ago my i1441 developed a rattle; sounded like something was loose inside the chassis. Turns out that one of the screws on the body of the Toshiba SD-C2202 DVD-ROM drive had come loose and fallen out of the drive.

The screw lodged and shorted something, and the laptop was dead as a rock. Ended up replacing the DC-DC board ($89 from IBM.) Had the unit apart, down to the planar out condition (don't attempt this without d/l the hmm first) before finding the loose screw.

[Question: Anyone here have experience with Loctite in lieu of replacing all the Nylocks? The hinge screws are getting loose now.]

Good luck,