Thinkpads Forum

The T61 I bought on eBay arrived yesterday. I was dismayed to learn that the screen's hinges are loose-- there is at least 1.5" of play. The seller has a 7 day return policy and I'm strongly considering returning it. I've read several threads about this problem on this site. It's not a repair I would want to make on my own. Do people just live with this problem? Is it likely to get worse? I am hoping to get some feedback on this before contacting the seller.
Thanks!

They all do this. The parts are cheap but they are somewhat of a pain to install, however the most important issue when buying a T61 series is the graphics chip. If you got nVidia graphics, then I'd check your date of manufacture because those build before august 2008 are less reliable and if they fail, you'll need a new motherboard. New hinges cost about $20, a refurbished motherboard from lenovo is close to $600, so if you got a good date, I'd invest in the hinges, if you didn't, I'd return it.

I have the same problem with a used T61 I just received. I have 6 T42s and T43s and the hinges are all tight. The T61 I bought new a year ago started getting loose after a few weeks.

I agree that replacing the hinges is a complex job if you havn't done it before. I have taken mine apart and have ordered replacement hinges, but the tear down was far more difficult than I expected. Taking apart the screen assembly is scary and not easy at all. I hope I can get it back together when I get the hinges.

Thinkpad quality is slipping. (its like what might happen to apple in a few years with Steve Jobs no longer around holding every detail to his fanatic standards)

I just bought a Lenovo-Factory refurbished T500 that came with a keyboard that is so thin it bounces and rattles around in computer when you type. Does not feel or sound anything like a Thinkpad keyboard. On this forum this I see that Lenovo replaces these keyboards with a T61 keyboard if called during the warranty. I had a new T61 keyboard on hand and it fixed the problem. I tried shimming the original keyboard with varius thickness of felt-sticky pads, but the tin-foil keyboard cannot be fully corrected with shims. I can't imagine why Lenovo shipped a large number of these computers -in all languages- with keyboards that were completely crap.

Miguelito wrote:The T61 I bought on eBay arrived yesterday. I was dismayed to learn that the screen's hinges are loose-- there is at least 1.5" of play. The seller has a 7 day return policy and I'm strongly considering returning it. I've read several threads about this problem on this site. It's not a repair I would want to make on my own. Do people just live with this problem? Is it likely to get worse? I am hoping to get some feedback on this before contacting the seller.
Thanks!

I had the same problem with T61 I bought new. It was still under warranty. I sent it to Lenovo for repair, they fixed it but there was still some play that fgot worse again over time. I mainly use laptop with docking station and it just doesn't matter.

If this doesn't impede with your usage (ie screen shakes when you type) I would just keep the laptop considering you probably haven't paid much for it.