Thinkpads Forum

Lenovo is manufacturing a "field kit" that consists of a couple of conductive rubber grommets to go over two of the metal pins on the dock to solve this issue. They are supposed to be full into the manufacturing process of these kits by mid February.

SeanIT72 wrote:Lenovo is manufacturing a "field kit" that consists of a couple of conductive rubber grommets to go over two of the metal pins on the dock to solve this issue.

That's good news. Please post here when they become available. Thanks.

Excellent! I'd like to have some for my X31 as well ...

..in the meantime, waiting for their solution, I applied your suggestion buiilding mine..

... a simple copper cable from a screw of the docking serial port to a discharging point (an electrical ground)

It seems the problem is solved, finally

We have purchased six T60s (5: 8744-5BU & 1: 2623-KEU) to test them before rolling out to the rest of my users. I have updated the Bios, Windows, even restored a system to the Default installation (WinXPSP2). All of the units will power off as soon as you rest (not push down and lock) the unit in the docking station. I have tried the previous mentioned tactic of touching the connections and it seems to work 75% of the time. However there are still many times that it will not work. I have interchanged all of the laptops with six different port replicators (250510w) and five different mini docks (250410U), they all have the same result.

I contacted IBM support and after a lot of trouble shooting was told that the two models of docking stations listed above do not support Hot or Warm Docking even though Lenovos sales site says otherwise: http://www-131.ibm.com/content/autopop/ ... eries.html (Look fourth from bottom). After referring the tech to the site I was told that the recommendation that he was referencing was from Lenovo support. I was also told that the only unit that will support Hot/Warm docking is the most expensive (250310U) one that also coincidentally has it's own power supply.

It seems that rather than fixing a know hardware problem Lenovo is choosing to ignore it. I would be interested to know if anyone else has had the same response from Lenovo.

gav46 wrote:After many exhaustive tests, I thought that I had found the root cause being a battery of specific series, all manufactured by PANASONIC. In 3 cases so far, we have replaced the battery with a different series type, manufactured by SONY and for a few days all was OK.
Now, the users are saying that the same problem has reocurred.

Thinkvantage Power manager tool shows who the battery manufaturer is.

Grounding the laptop by hand prior to docking has worked for me as well. I expected to do these kinds of work-arounds with a Dell, not a Thinkpad. Hopefully, Lenovo will do the right thing and send those field kits free of charge to existing T60 owners.

Like gav46, I have a Panasonic battery.

Without grounding, my X31 will power off probably once out of three times that I dock it (in my ultrabase) after walking from a meeting room back to my office; when grounding, it has never yet done it.

Yesterday I forgot to ground myself once, though.

Any update on the status of those kits from Lenovo?

Thanks!

I too have had this problem and would be very interested in the status of the field kits. My laptop is under warranty for three years of onsite service, so I'm not really concerned right now. I've tried and successfully done the static discharge thing, but once or twice it has failed on me (maybe I didn't touch something metal). Anyway, since then I've started trying to hibernate before docking since it doesn't take that much longer anyway.

they are going to issue a fix of little caps that go over the metal parts that stick out of the dock and little feet for the bottom.. i spoke to high level engr in lenovo..

Did they say when?

they are gearing up production now. i will have some on Friday. they are trying first round to give to those with troubles, then later to everyone as all should be retrofit with these caps. new docks late march will come with them. so far they state testing looks really good as the problem goes away.

John,

Did you talk to the normal support people? I would like to put my complaint in with them and hopefully get one of those retrofit parts to try and stop this from occurring. I'm being pretty lenient about it (I'm usually very obsessive about problems), but I really miss never having to turn off my laptop!

Hi. No I went to my rep and inside Tech support/Engr contacts. I will find out from them if I can post any info about it and if so I will. Will email them now..

Thanks. I'm happy to call support if I know what/who to ask for ...

A part number would be great

DOes anyone have a part number or something I can go by. Tech support has no clue that the issue exists and have no idea there is a fix. I asked about the field kits and they responded with "What are field kits?"

I am contacting my Rep as well to have him go through higher channels, but is there is anything I can give tech support it would help.

I have been on the phone for 4 days now with IBM reps and techs. All have the same response. The T60 is not hot dockable so don't put it into the docking station when it is turned on. Nobody has a clue about the field kit or about the fix described in the post.

Has anyone received the feet and if so can you forward me any info about them. A part number or even a person at IBM they dealt with on this. All the IBM techs I spoke to have their head up their @$$3$

FInally an anwser. I was able to track down someone who admiitted this was an issue and there is a fix being implemented.
The following information should be posted on the IBM site sometime soon. It contains the FRU information for ordering the ESD Boots.


Symptom

The ThinkPad powers off immediately when docked to a ThinkPad Advanced Dock, ThinkPad Advanced Mini Dock, or Essential Port Replicator. This could occur if the ThinkPad is “warm-docked” (in a suspended state) or “ hot-docked” (in a powered-on state)
Affected configurations
The following ThinkPad systems may be affected by this symptom:
• ThinkPad R60
• ThinkPad T60, T60p
• ThinkPad Z60m, Z60t
• ThinkPad Z61e, Z61m, Z61p, Z61t
Solution
Lenovo has determined that the reason for the system powering off is due to an Electrostatic Discharge between the system, and the docking station or port replicator. We have developed a field kit, consisting of two conductive rubber caps. These caps, when correctly applied to the dock, provide a safe path for the Electrostatic Discharge.


The field kits will be available as FRU’s in both single set and bulk pack options.
FRU 42W3219 1set( 2pcs) rubber + 1 instruction sheet
FRU 42W3220 50set(100pcs) rubber + 5 instruction sheets

Looks like it's now posted on the web:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-67382

Has anyone actually ordered these yet? I haven't tried, but probably will start bothering them early next week...

I'll be ordering them shortly. Not sure I'll have a problem with my dock, but might as well take care of the problem before I get hit by it.

Ok, I put my order through tech support. Just so you know, their parts system has not updated and thus they do not know about the field kit. I must have told the tech the FRU number 5 times before he tried "other means" of searching it. He said it will be listed in their systems Monday morning with their server refresh. So if you call before hand they will place a special order that will go through Monday when the part becomes available in their system.

Has anyone gotten their field kit yet? I keep forgetting to call them and place an order, but I'm really hoping that this fixes the problem! I'm just curious to see if it really does stop the static discharge problem.

I have some kits and so far ok. we also had to swap the docks out. 1 user still has a problem where his machine powers off once in a while.

johnp126 wrote:I have some kits and so far ok. we also had to swap the docks out. 1 user still has a problem where his machine powers off once in a while.

I just taped mine, but it has reset twice in a week now.
So I wouldn't call this problem fixed quite yet.

Hi

Can you post a picture where the parts are marked which should isolated?

cu

Edit: Oh sry, didn't see it, thx

Edit2: But the rubber caps are conductive, so they should NOT be isolated.
Hopefully it will not be so difficult to get these in germany.

killigrew wrote:Hi

Can you post a picture where the parts are marked which should isolated?

cu

Go to the link posted by "Jake" about six posts back

Has anyone else successfully ordered these?

I'm wanting to call in but want to make sure they have the P/N in the system.

Just did it today, I spoke with a very nice person who was very easy to understand. It did take him a little while, but he didn't seem to have any troubles finding it. I had the info page linked earlier open just in case, but that wasn't necessary at all. Supposedly I'll have them in a few days, but we'll see!