New T61p - worth keeping?

[bubbachen]

Hi everyone, brand new to the board.

I currently own a T61 64576DU purchased 12/2008. It's been a problem-free workhorse, and I've never had issues with the nividia nvs140. Two days ago, I purchased two refurbed T61p units 64577WU from IBM each with 1 year warranties for $440 US each. Through post purchase research, I learned about the nvidia fx 570m defect, along with the nvs 140, and am experiencing some buyer's remorse. What are your opinions regarding this situation? Should I just use the T61p's and hope for GPU failure within the 1 year warranty time frame? I believe I still have time to cancel the order as well. Thanks.

[ZaZ]

The nvidia cards do have higher than normal failure rates, but some will use them for years and never have a problem. $440 with warranty seems like a pretty good price, but if one of the cards goes after the warranty expires, you're looking at having to spend a good chunk of change to fix it even if you just buy a board and replace it yourself.. Plus if you put another nvidia board in there, you could be doing it again down the road. I don't know that there's a good answer on this one. If you don't need the graphical oomph, perhaps a T61 with the Intel GPUs if you have the option might be a good way to go. Good luck and welcome to TPF.

[MaxRoy77]

What kind of warranty ? The same as the new one ? No question replacement parts on-site ?

If yes, I might be interested in buying one.

[bubbachen]

The warranty is from IBM itself, "1 Year Extended Warranty Option for Notebooks." Don't know what it includes, though. I figure I will sell one immediately and maybe use any profit towards upgrading the one I keep. The most recent posts on the lenovo forums indicate that Lenovo has been repairing T61 and T61p's, in or out of warranty, that exhibit the nvidia gpu issues. So, I think I will take the risk at this point. Would opening the laptop to look at the motherboard, gpu, etc. invalidate warranties in general? Thanks for the replies.

[Harryc]

Would opening the laptop to look at the motherboard, gpu, etc. invalidate warranties in general? Thanks for the replies.

No it would not invalidate the warranty as long as you did not break anything while doing it.

[MaxRoy77]

If you can post the results of the Lenovo Warranty Status Check here it would help understand the exact coverage.

Use this link:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... ook-warnty