Something's sliding around inside my X40

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tbessie · #1 Post by **tbessie** » Tue Jun 29, 2004 3:01 am

When I hold my X40, closed, in my hands, and tilt it left side down to right side down, I hear something sliding around inside the lower right part of the case, in front of the keyboard. Anyone know what that might be?

Also, I feel something else shifting weight around when I do this, although I haven't narrowed it down yet.

Seems to be there shouldn't be any bits floating around inside a little package like this... I wonder what it is!

- Tim

WilsonF · #2 Post by **WilsonF** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 2:11 pm

I would strongly recommend sending this to the help center for service. If whatever is sliding around is conductive, it could short something on the system board and your ThinkPad could be dead unless resurrected with a new motherboard. (I know because that happened to me with a 770CD).

ldbobby · #3 Post by **ldbobby** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 2:40 pm

Actually, after reading this, I too decided to flip my X40 around a bit and I noticed it tooo

. Now, I wonder if that's something loose... or just something that is a part of this whole airbag tech.

#4 Post by **K. Eng** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 4:06 pm

I know some HDDs rattle a bit when they are off (I had an old IBM TravelStar 10GB that did this, and the label said this was normal). Could this be it?

tbessie · #5 Post by **tbessie** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 6:17 pm

The guy there said it sounded like something was loose inside. I asked him if he could find an X40 himself and try it, so he went over and took someone's X40 from their desk and flipped it around like I had. He reported, with some amazement, that his, too, did the same thing.

So I guess it's part of the design. What it is, though, he didn't know.

As for it being the hard drive... it wasn't really a rattle, it was more of a "shhhhhhook... shhhhhhook..." sound, when turned from side to side.

- Tim

pat · #6 Post by **pat** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 8:21 pm

Just did it to my X40, and I got the sound.

It sounds like a latching device.

ldbobby · #7 Post by **ldbobby** » Wed Jun 30, 2004 10:56 pm

To me, it sounds like some ball rolling around...

plucky duck · #8 Post by **plucky duck** » Fri Jul 02, 2004 1:18 am

I have an 30GB IBM Travelstar that would make that rattling noise when I started shaking it unconnected.

mkawa · #9 Post by **mkawa** » Sat Jul 10, 2004 8:51 pm

i'm pretty sure this is the drive head flopping around (ie, nothing that will short), but it seems the head parking mechanism should stop it from flopping around. maybe it shakes loose?

oh, and my iriver mp3 player (with the same drive) makes the exact same sound every once in a while, so it's probably nothing to worry about.

Something's sliding around inside my X40

Something's sliding around inside my X40

Something sliding around in X40

I talked with IBM Thinkpad Support about it

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