Thinkpads Forum

What is the T60's most common defect? How can it be prevented?

sorry, no defects here.

Nothing to worry about. The 14.1" 4:3 T60 is one of the best Thinkpads ever made, and quite possibly THE BEST T-series. If you order one from Lenovo.com and it has issues, it's just a dud and Lenovo will replace it for free.

On the other hand, some people aren't happy with the 15.4" T60 with the Samsung screen.

Can't think of one re: my new T60 (15" with flexview). Downloading and installing all the Thinkvantage software and driver updates (400 mg worth!) for a brand new custom machine was a huge hassle, but hardly a defect. Of course, I can always dream of improvements....

the 15 inch Thinkpads have a palmrest flex

For me it was the intel 3945ABG, didn't work well for me, now it's in the drawer and thanks to tselling I have an atheros, which is working much better.

I had to get my palmrest replaced once and the keyboard bezel replaced once to get rid of some flex on the left side of the palmrest and the creaking above the ultrabay.

Oh yeah, the intel 3945 wireless card is crap. I replaced it with atheros one and now, my machine is PERFECT.

I can't find any defects on my T60.

My best machine ever..

I lucked out with my T60 15" -- no flex in the palmrest (stays cool too) and the atheros card works flawlessly. But I now recall one small issue. Initially I had both the touchpad and trackpoint enabled, thinking to use each for different tasks. Several times while web browsing both would freeze for 30-60 seconds -- very annoying. Not sure if it was a software bug although I downloaded the latest drivers and optimized both using the utility software. Anyway, the trackpoint proved much more convenient and I disabled the touchpad. End of problem.

There is no defect(s) with T60, in most cases "Microsoft products" are to blame, if problem arises, than lenovo. Lenovo try it's best to Engineer one of the most demanding machines in the business, although if 1 or 2 problems occur here or there, they'll be more than happy to replace it for you.

No defects on my machine,
it's funny how a lot of people have been having problems with the intel 3945ABG, I've had no problems what so ever.

but only a noisy harddrive, spin is not too bad, head seek noise is!!!

No defects.

The right palmrest is too hot for comfort sometimes though.

Torque wrote:The right palmrest is too hot for comfort sometimes though.

hmm ... I haven't noticed this on my 15" ... runs really cool.

wswartzendruber wrote:What is the T60's most common defect? How can it be prevented?

Concerning my T60p the main issue is that the small screws at the bottom seem to fall out arbitrarily.


Best regards,

HD

The fingerprinter reader is slow and not necessarily reads all the time.

Mine is the HEAT! Otherwise awesome as usual for Thinkpads but the heat issue is not fun. Luckily, that happens only when I watch movies on it.

gator wrote:I had to get my palmrest replaced once and the keyboard bezel replaced once to get rid of some flex on the left side of the palmrest and the creaking above the ultrabay.

I got the same problem on the right side.

And on many models the fan will not turn. (Only with special software).

heat problem

Biggest problem by far is overheating (mostly of the GPU). I don't know how I did it, but I burned out my GPU and had to have the mainboard replaced. In addition, the intel 3945ABG card is really spotty. My connections will randomly drop, switch to local access only, and then only allow me to reconnect if I manually disable then re-enable the card in vista. Other than that, this thing works like a champ.

question: how can I find out the make of the screen? thanks!

pianowizard wrote:Nothing to worry about. The 14.1" 4:3 T60 is one of the best Thinkpads ever made, and quite possibly THE BEST T-series. If you order one from Lenovo.com and it has issues, it's just a dud and Lenovo will replace it for free.

On the other hand, some people aren't happy with the 15.4" T60 with the Samsung screen.

yqwen wrote:question: how can I find out the make of the screen? thanks!

You look up the laptop's serial number on this site, find the part number for the LCD, and then search for that part number on Google or Lenovo.com.

If there are any glaring defects with my T60p, I can't see them because of the sheer awesomeness of the 1.92 million pixels of FlexView goodness on the display.

I had actually thought about writing a post about this before.

For me it is the AC adpater. This is the only part where Dell has a much better design. The Lenovo one is a pain in the neck to roll, and store in your bag. The Dell has a curved shape on either end, so that the cable fits in them perfectly, sort of like the plastic pieces used to store rope, and it ends up nice and neat, without taking extra space. Here is a pic, and although it is not rolled up on the grooves, you can see them. In contrast, the Lenovo one is just square (well, rectangular), without any place to keep the cable in place.
http://snpi.dell.com/sna/images/product ... /CF745.jpg

Mod Edit: No images without warning in subject line.

I have both a Dell and a Lenovo, although the Dell has the grooves, it is bigger than the Lenovo, I would stick with the Lenovo.

Let's see, wireless card sucks. Power management issues, it shuts off when putting it into the docking station (which IBM finially acknowleged was an issue and sent my little rubber ends to cover the metal prongs that caused the issue), Intel Core 2 DUO processor has a code issue (although it may have been resolved with the latest BIOS), it sometimes hangs when coming out of standby, and I am sure a few more things will come up sooner or later.

We have about 100 here onsie and see a variety of issues that just pop up out of no where. IBM said it is because of the Intel code issue.

mullstu wrote:... it shuts off when putting it into the docking station (which IBM finially acknowleged was an issue and sent my little rubber ends to cover the metal prongs that caused the issue) ...

Hey mullstu
Your comment about the "little rubber ends" to resolve the problem with the docking station caught my attention. Can you elaborate on that? I realize it's kind of off topic so, if you want to PM me feel free. But, there might be some other folks interested.
thanks,
DenTP4rm

Sure. The T60 has an ESD issue that causes the laptop to shut off if you try to hot dock it on the standard and advanced docking stations.

There are 4 small metal prongs that stick out of the top of the docking stations, when the outer 2 come in contact with the bottom of the laptop, it just shuts off. We were able to reproduce the issue with all of our T60 laptops.

IBM didn't really care when we initially reported it to them and said not to hock dock the laptops. I guess when more and more people began complaining they finially looked into it. There is a few other posts about it on this site. I know I started one when first looking into the issue.

After months of yelling at them, IBM finally came up with a solution. They are distributing these small ESD boots with their docking stations and to anyone who complains to them about the issue. The ESD boots are small rubber caps that go over the outer metal prongs of the docking station. They prvent them from hitting the bottom of the laptop when you hot dock it and stops it from shutting off.

It is a horrible solution because if one falls off you can still have the issue. If you need them you can call IBM and have them send you some.

Here is a link to the site explaining the problem and giving you a way to order the parts:

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

I have a mini dock at work, and it does NOT have this problem. This was an issue in only early T60s, and I think Lenovo solved this issue.