Thinkpads Forum

So I've been using my t60p for about a month, and the dc jack is already loose. I'm super careful about the dc jack because my dc jack on my last laptop went bad.

I know the dc jack on basically every laptop is a bad design, but I'd like to know how loose everyone else's is and after how long?

Has anyone needed to get theirs fixed yet?

Please tell us what you mean by "loose".

The old TP 2611-410i machines had bad jack designs that I fixed on a couple of occasions.

My T41 has a jack that is afixed firmly to the computer (so it seems), but the plug has always been somewhat loose in the jack. It hasn't failed in three years - just loose.

In between, my A22e, T23 and T30 had tight jacks and tight plugs within the jacks.
... JD Hurst

After a couple weeks there was about 1-2 mm of give. I could jiggle it in place.

After a month of use, the plug can actually enter at an angle into the computer - about 15 degrees or less.

Mine is a little tiny tiny bit looser than when I first got it but it still fits good and works perfectly.

Seems like a great design to me. All my other TP's have exhibited similar behaviour.

After years of plugging my guitars into cable connectors and into amplifiers over time they loosen up a little too.

On the T4x series the jack is held to the case by one screw and has a cable going to the planar board. The T6x series may be similar.
Look beneath the right side of the LCD display ribbon cable and you will see part of a small phillips head screw. That is it.

As pointed by carbon_unit, that is a good design. The wire doesnot exert on the motherboard soldering as would a direct connection do.
Not sure about the T60's , if they moved away from the T4x desgin, its clearly a sign of quality going down.

The design is BETTER THAN the t4x, the jack is larger more robust and does fit more snugly than any of my T4X/T3X/600 series. One incident should not start the "quality going down with Lenovo" thing again.

Great! Thanks for all the replies. I guess I'm just being overly paranoid about the jack because of my last laptop (wasnt ibm, it was a dell).

The looseness is just the screw getting a little loose from use, the plug is not actually soldiered to the board like most laptops have it. The give is not anything to worry about, my T23 and T40 have had give for years and still work 100% perfectly, and the T60's plug seems to be sturdier than those even.

Its one of the (many) reasons i still swear by thinkpads, as i've had lots of computers come in with broken DC jacks.

As I clearly stated, I am not sure about the T60, and there was a "IF" mentioned following it. I didnot claim the quality was going down!.

Lenovo has definitely done things differently, whether they are good or bad is upto the end user. Lot of companies have moved from thinkpad line to the Dell latitude, whether it is due to cost or improvement in Dell's quality I dont know.

But it is general common sense, that if something is not broken you dont fix it. If something works great , there is no reason to move away from the design unless forced to do so.

Reshuffling the volume buttons, removing colors from the mouse buttons, cannot improve perfomance or hinder it. Removal of s-video ( was it really tough to accomodate s-video ?? in T60 ) even though the video card is capable.

Dell,HP have still maintained even the serial port on thier business models, for serial console connections this is highly useful for anyone working with networking stuff. I am not expecting everyone to use serial ports, but by removing ports/connections if value is added by adding something else more useful it makes sense.

rssb wrote:As I clearly stated, I am not sure about the T60, and there was a "IF" mentioned following it. I didnot claim the quality was going down!.

Lenovo has definitely done things differently, whether they are good or bad is upto the end user. Lot of companies have moved from thinkpad line to the Dell latitude, whether it is due to cost or improvement in Dell's quality I dont know.

But it is general common sense, that if something is not broken you dont fix it. If something works great , there is no reason to move away from the design unless forced to do so.

Reshuffling the volume buttons, removing colors from the mouse buttons, cannot improve perfomance or hinder it. Removal of s-video ( was it really tough to accomodate s-video ?? in T60 ) even though the video card is capable.

Dell,HP have still maintained even the serial port on thier business models, for serial console connections this is highly useful for anyone working with networking stuff. I am not expecting everyone to use serial ports, but by removing ports/connections if value is added by adding something else more useful it makes sense.

Businesses started going with Dell because with the amount of cash they were saving, they could handle a few machines just blowing up.

The Svideo port isn't really used in a business setting anymore ( not sure if it was ever really used). Projectors use VGA.

The Thinkpads still have native serial/parallel ports on the laptop. Since it wasn't a heavily used item, it was phased off the perimeter of the laptop. It is available through a bay insert now. If you look around the T60, you will notice their is zero room for a serial port. Right side you have the HD bay, the optical bay, and then about 1" where they stuck 2 USB ports and a lock slot. Going around back you have the battery the entire distance, and then whats left is another output for the cpu heatsink. Onto the left side its wall to wall ports and slots. The only place left for a serial port would have been the front of the laptop

I completely agree with what own6volvos says, S-video ports are not used in business settings.

What is said about the no space is also correct wrt to a thinkpad. But others are able to put in with same weight and thickness considerations, for example 4 usb+serial(dell D620).

Thinkpads esp T4x series were in a different league compared to D600's, but seems like dell has done lot of catching up and D620's and T60's might not have same gap ( whether it is quality or features )

But I personally would not go back to a Dell, due to past experiences with D600's .