Good and bad X22/X23/X24 hinges *PICS*

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#1 Post by **rkawakami** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 2:06 am

I recently received an X24 system which was described as having "loose hinges" (among other things). I already have a couple of X22s with loose hinges so I didn't think too much about it. The ones that I have move about 3/'4" so how bad could it be??

Bad.

When I got the X24, I swung open the lid and it almost hit the desk on the way down.

"Loose", was an understatement. Anything just past full upright and the lid would fall on its own. I had the opportunity tonight to swap out the lid hinges from a donor X22 ("He's dead, Jim") and here's what I saw:

Good hinges (64KB)

Bad hinges (56KB)

My guess is that somewhere along the line, the X24 was dropped on its lid and ended up shattering both hinges. The left one still has most of the steel housing surrounding the pin and is somewhat tight; the right one is completely gone on the bottom and free-spinning. The top edge of the lid is also cracked around the left side of the UltraPort, which is another reason why I think it was dropped. The LCD is still working but it may have been swapped out since I found two loose screws in the lid. Oh yeah, it seems like coffee was spilled on the lower left corner of the keyboard as some of the keys stick. Why coffee? It turns the Q-tips brown when I cleaned off the keyboard and it smells like it. Anyway, back to the hinges...

I did a little searching around eBay and generally the price for a set of these 26P9825 hinges is around $25 (shipped), when you can find them. Seeing how I probably want to replace all of the hinges in the five X2 systems I have, this price is a little steep. So, I looked around and I think I found the manufacturer of these hinges. I emailed the company for a price/availability quote but I don't hold out too much hope that they'll sell me five sets. But you never know until you ask.

TomKroscavage · #2 Post by **TomKroscavage** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 2:36 am

I have an X22 with a hinge that loooks just like that

QLi · #3 Post by **QLi** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 8:22 am

Ray,

Please let us know if you hear back from the manufacturer. I have an X22 with loose hinges also.

qviri · #4 Post by **qviri** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:18 am

Five maybe not, twenty - who knows? I'm sure there's people with X20s on the forums that would like to replace them for $10...

TomKroscavage · #5 Post by **TomKroscavage** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:36 am

I have some X20 parts including hinges (will not fit on my X22 or X240) I will trade for a X22 keyboard and palm rest.

#6 Post by **rkawakami** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 2:00 pm

qviri wrote:Five maybe not, twenty - who knows? I'm sure there's people with X20s on the forums that would like to replace them for $10...

I stressed in my email to them that I was an end-user and asked what their minimum order is, assuming that they would even sell them to me since they might be out of stock or custom pieces only for IBM. Hopefully I'll get lucky and be able to order some. If it comes down to some manageable figures (I too was thinking around $10/set, with a maximum around $300) then I might go ahead and buy them and distribute the excess sets here.

tom lightbody · #7 Post by **tom lightbody** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 4:09 pm

ray, if they'll work in x20's put me down for 3@$10: little "snow" is quite
floppy--3/4"--and has 2 sibs in stable.

thanks
tom

istel · #8 Post by **istel** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 4:46 pm

I'm interested in a set for my x24 as well.
Please keep us updated thanks!

#9 Post by **rkawakami** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 5:25 pm

tom lightbody wrote:ray, if they'll work in x20's put me down for 3@$10

I believe that they are not compatible. The pictures I've seen which are supposed to be for the X20/X21 only have one hole below the mounting tab which sticks out 90 degrees from the rest of the hinge. They also carry a different FRU number (04P3169) than the ones for X22/X23/X24 (26P9825). These are both for XGA panels. The SVGA lid assembly uses a third FRU (04P3168).

#10 Post by **underclocker** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 7:15 pm

I've had a few X-series in the past and the hinges are somewhat fragile. I've seen two shatterer hinges like those pictured. Both times it seemed that a bump was invovled. However, the metal is very thin and seems somewhat brittle.

Hinges for X20/X21 and X22/X23/X24 are different and not interchangeable.

jamiphar · #11 Post by **jamiphar** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 8:55 pm

I got new hinges for my X21 from Certified Parts Warehouse. The price was $10 plus another $10 for shipping. I'm pretty sure you can order quite a few hinges before the flat shipping rate of $10 goes up.

I have their phone number, is it all right if I post it?

#12 Post by **rkawakami** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 9:08 pm

Is this the company at certifiedparts.com?

I don't think that there's anything in the rules that says you can't post the company's contact information. After all, that's how they get some of their business.

Now don't everyone call them up tomorrow and ask for the same hinge set. They might start raising the price if they think demand is that high

.

P.S. Yes, I'm going to call them...

jamiphar · #13 Post by **jamiphar** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 9:13 pm

rkawakami wrote:Is this the company at certifiedparts.com?

I don't think that there's anything in the rules that says you can't post the company's contact information. After all, that's how they get some of their business.

Now don't everyone call them up tomorrow and ask for the same hinge set. They might start raising the price if they think demand is that high .

P.S. Yes, I'm going to call them...

That's the one. The phone number is 603-516-1700. I got my 12.1" screen from them, too.

The guy I dealt with seemed to be pretty knowledgeable about the ThinkPad parts, I believe his name is Jason.

Moderator edit:Outside New Hampshire, the number is 800-767-2554 M-F 8a-6pm ET

#14 Post by **rkawakami** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 5:22 pm

Well, after a call to them (CertifiedParts.com) and no return call, apparently they don't want/need my business. During my conversation the guy mentioned something about lots of them in inventory but marked as sold or hold (he was sort of mumbling to himself). He said that he would have to check with Jason and have him call me. But nothing ever came of that.

As far as the company which I think manufactured the hinges, no call or email from them as well.

So I'm 0 of 2 on this hunt...

The Spirit of X21 · #15 Post by **The Spirit of X21** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 8:28 pm

I'm sorry to hear that, Ray. Thank you for trying to help this X2 community, though.

#16 Post by **rkawakami** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 10:40 pm

I haven't given up yet since I'm still looking for a couple of sets myself! I will call CertifiedParts.com again on Monday and ask for Jason. I'm also going to call the hinge manufacturer and see if I can get some final say on whether or not I can order some from them. Looking though an online catalog, I didn't see anything that looked like the ones from the X20-X24 so my guess is that they were custom made for IBM. That would imply that a whole batch of them were delivered to IBM and are not stocked by the company. Even if they still have some sitting on the shelf somewhere, they may be under contract not to sell them to anyone else.

pakiguy · #17 Post by **pakiguy** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 2:27 pm

any luck in finding them ???

#18 Post by **rkawakami** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 4:24 pm

Sorry, no. A second call to each company also yielded no return calls. I see that you are looking for them too... This little project fell to the bottom of my "to-do" list. In case anyone else would like to take a crack at it, this is who I think manufactured the friction hinges for IBM:

Reell Precision Manufacturing
http://www.reell.com/
info@reell.com

This is based upon what is stamped on the hinges: "5,697,125".

[conspiracy nutcase voice]Could I have been black-listed? Maybe they have my phone number through caller ID? Should I try calling from my work phone?[/conspiracy nutcase voice]

P.S. Welcome to thinkpads.com!

pakiguy · #19 Post by **pakiguy** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 11:08 am

thank u for the welcome .
I guess i will try that site and see if i can get them to send.
so far i went to that site and called the first #
and they connected me to nicky which wasnt around so i left her a voice mail.
i dailed the 2nd # and i spoke to geil and she told me they dont do anything for ibm only HP and if it was a HP she would be happy to send me replacements. but she did hint me ebay , but only 1 sell and it going for 50 used

back to sqaure 1

#20 Post by **rkawakami** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 12:14 am

<Ray scrounges around the depths of the archives and pulls up this thread again....>

With the delivery of another X22 last week I had some time and incentive to do a little searching around the net for these 26P9825 hinge sets. I found numerous companies listing them from $40 (almost all of them currently out of stock) to $69

, the price I just paid for an almost complete X22 with an Ultrabase, less shipping

. One of my searches led back to Certified Parts Warehouse (CPW). This came via a "parts listing service" which described the parts being offered and displayed an amount that was supposed to be in inventory. CPW appeared to have 87 sets in stock for $10 each

. These services are notably notorious for not having the correct information concerning the current stock or price. However, I still decided to contact CPW again to see what their situation was. My call was transferred to Jason and I explained that I had several X2 systems which were in need of repair. I asked if he had 10 sets and he checked his inventory and said that only 4 sets were in decent enough shape to be considered good (no cracks/fractures in the hinge housing and tight). He offered a price of $20/set, with $8.50 shipping so I bought them. Jason was quite surprised that I had 10 units to service. I told him that I had five X22 and X24 systems and that I also wanted some backups. He said that they had lots of them before and that these were the last ones and that he wanted to get them off the books. I received them today and they all appear to be tight; very minimal play in them. This should translate to less than 1/4" of swing at the top of the lid when they're installed.

Since I still would like to have a few more sets, I also have a call in to another company which was supposed to have a quantity of these rare birds. I talked to them late this afternoon and the salesman said that his inventory check on 26P9825 came up "not found". He said that he'll check both East and West coast warehouses and call me back tomorrow. If it ends up that they do have some in stock and I can get a good price with a volume purchase (read: less than $20/set), then I'll order as much as I can afford and post a note in the Marketplace.

I can't believe that these things are so hard to find at a decent price but it's just another example of supply and demand....

phool@round · #21 Post by **phool@round** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 3:22 am

Thanks for dredging up the thread again because I'm thinking along the same lines. I have several screens riped from their X2 bodies with hinges that are no good. I've seen several "blow out's" which leads me to think that the clutches are the source and weaken or gouge the surrounding aluminum casting until it tears. My recent X23 has a little "swing" to it and it's rather annoying to a perfectionist......

Hope everyone else is still following along here?

#22 Post by **rkawakami** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:59 am

Got a return call from that second company. He found one source and quoted me $75/set

. Needless to say I declined. The search continues....

hotwired007 · #23 Post by **hotwired007** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:05 am

is there no-one who could build replacement ones?

phool@round · #24 Post by **phool@round** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 10:15 am

.......or create them from Titanium for $75 a set?

Paul88 · #25 Post by **Paul88** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 10:41 am

I'm another one that keep looking on this thread.
I believe I have the same problem as phool@round that
my X24 has a little "swing" and it's exactly rather annoying. Nothing major though. I would prefer to get rid of this problem and
I wish Ray can give all member a good deal.

75$ is too much for me anyway.

phool@round · #26 Post by **phool@round** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:09 am

It's too much for the Pope to pay..... even $20 is borderline for a "used" hinge. New is another matter.

tueurkate · #27 Post by **tueurkate** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 12:11 am

Do all of the x2s take the same hinges? I know there are different FRU numbers, but I think that is because the X22,X23,X24 refers to more than just the hinges. The X20,X21 diagram seems to refer to just the hinges. It's possible that 26P9825 is 04P3168 plus the brackets.

Has anyone tried X20/X21 in X22/X23/X24 or vice versa?

#28 Post by **rkawakami** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 1:20 am

I have not tried X20/X21 hinges on my X22, mainly because I don't have any such systems. As in said earlier in this thread:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 613#333613

the X20/X21 ones only have a single hole drilled near the "bottom", whereas the X22/X23/X24 (FRU 26P9825) have two holes. After much searching, here's a picture of what the 04P3169 (X20/X21 XGA) hinges are supposed to look like:

http://www.impactcomputers.com/04p3169.html ($60)

If you compare that with the photo in my initial post, you can see the difference. Also, Impact Computers has a picture of the 26P9825:

http://www.impactcomputers.com/26p9825.html ($90)

(I'm not going to be paying anything near that price since most of the X22s I bought were much cheaper than that.)

The X2x HMM (March 2002) does indicate that these FRUs are only for the hinge assembly and not for any other brackets which they might bolt to.

tueurkate · #29 Post by **tueurkate** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 3:24 pm

Okay, good to know. I saw some for X20/X21 on ebay, glad I didn't buy them. These things aren't easy to come by.

Good and bad X22/X23/X24 hinges PICS

Good and bad X22/X23/X24 hinges PICS

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