Thinkpads Forum

Some of you know that I've been dealing with 'lemon' T60s since February of this year. The problems have been numerous... short circuiting of motherboard from advanced mini dock, corrupt hardware profiles, bad memory, two defective adv. mini docks, bad wireless card, etc. I've seen 4 replacement T60s before Lenovo executive tech support finally replaced my T60 with a T61.

The T61 still exhibits docking problems. Occasionally the laptop will not undock from the advanced mini dock with a message that a generic USB device is preventing undocking. Odd, since I am not using any attached USB devices at the time I get this message. I've alerted exec customer support to the problem and have been mostly ignored. I've been told "engineers are looking into the issue" for weeks now. Doesn't sound like a priority to them.

My latest problem is that upon boot up yesterday my display's color palette has shifted. When I view the ThinkCenter wallpaper for instance... the oceans are all pink and the landmasses are all lime green.

Has anyone else seen anything like this. This is an undoctored snapshot of what the screen looks like:

http://www.fullcityconsulting.com/thinkpad.jpg

This begs a larger issue... I must be the most unlucky ThinkPad customer ever. Has anyone else had the awful string of problems that I've had with Lenovo products?

What are my alternatives to the T61? I'm really at the end of my rope...

I don't mean to sound hyperbolic but my story is 100% truth. Like I said... I've received the attention of executive customer support but since receiving my T61 the dock issue had been largely de-prioritized and now I am truly frustrated with having to deal with yet another problem that seems to be hardware related. I tried restoring the factory image -- no luck with that.

Adam Aronson

adamaronson, Considering all the clients that I support that have T60 's with hardly any hardware issues you must indeed be extremely unlucky; however, I prefer to believe that luck has very little to do with all your problems. If we eliminate you as the source of these problems the only common factor I can think of is your ac power. It is possible that your ac power is delivering high voltage spikes to your thinkpad. If you are using a ups get a new one if not buy a good one. If you can get an ac line monitor (with chart recorder) and have it running for a few weeks that would at least allow you to eliminate ac as the source of your problems.
As for the color problem it does sound like hardware. I would run another OS on the T61 to see if the problem persists. Have you tried pc doctor? http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-67910

I get this message too, except I get it every time. It would list my APC as still communicating, but when I tried it with the APC detached I'd get the same message you received. So, to be safe I've been shutting down before undocking.

This seems to me to be a work-around and is indicative that there is a design flaw or hardware profile related problem. Shutting down before undocking is not 'expected use' of the dock so I am now more apt to believe that while yours is a failsafe work-around it is still a work-around.

Considering all the clients that I support that have T60 's with hardly any hardware issues you must indeed be extremely unlucky

But I have won a lottery ticket or two in my life!

If we eliminate you as the source of these problems the only common factor I can think of is your ac power. It is possible that your ac power is delivering high voltage spikes to your thinkpad. If you are using a ups get a new one if not buy a good one.

The Dock is indeed plugged into an APC Back-UPS LS500. It is not linked via USB or serial cable to the same.

Also worth mentioning... both a friend who works in Poughkeepsie at IBM and one of the IBM tech reps in Atlanta both told me (on the "qt") that the docks are "more problems than they are worth". I am seemingly living proof that that is the truth. Like I said... I have had numerous problems related to the docks in the 6 months that I have been a Lenovo customer -- first the shorting issue with the metal tabs, then two defective docks (one of which corrupted my hardware profiles), numerous messages about not being able to undock because of the generic usb device, system shutdown while docking (even after the rubber tab tips were installed) and on and on.

On another note... not being defensive here but your comment about eliminating me as the source... I've owned 2 Dells, 2 Sonys, many Apple laptops and an HP and have NEVER had a sling of problems like these. One of the Vaios lost a power supply 16 months into its life (4 months out of warranty - Sony still fixed it for zilch) and an Apple had two successive bad CD drives 10 months into it's life (Apple replaced/upgraded the Titanium Powerbook with the newest model at no cost). That has been the extent of any problems I've had with laptops until now. I've never had a manufacturer replace 4 laptops. I am grateful, somewhat humbled and plain ol' blown away by the fact that Lenovo has done so. Believe me, the odds are dizzying... but I can say with confidence that I am not the source of the problems. My only wish is that someone at Lenovo would pique enough interest to explain what might be happening here.

And one more note... I can believe you've had great experiences. I've heard of others who had (including my IBM friend who talked me into the T-series in the first place). On the other hand... an employee of a state agency that is a client of ours remarked in surprise when I pulled my T60 from my backpack. "We've had nothing but problems with those and the docks" was his comment. At the time I denied his experience but now I am unfortunately in the same camp he is. Nothing would make me happier than to have Lenovo prove me wrong.

Adam