Thinkpads Forum

The keyboard illumination light in the center of the top edge of the LCD bezel has finally become unusable.

This light when toggled on was tempermental for quite some time, pressing lightly on the bezel either side of the light, i.e. not the LCD screen, would cause it to turn on and off, finally it would just flicker off by itself and no amount of pressing on the LED or the bezel either side of it could make it come back on, then it would some times just turn itself back on.

I will send the X201 back to Lenovo for repair/replacement of the LED light, I would prefer not to send the hard drive with it, but may not have a choice since Lenovo won't be able to power up the X201 enough to test the light unless they have a hard drive loaded with software to perform the testing.

What I would like to ask some help from this forum is a confirmation if the light can be toggled on and off before user login is performed, i.e. I see a very faint and fast single very faint flicker now before I login if I toggled the Fn and PgUp key but the light only stays on for less than 1/10th of a second and can only be seen if I tilt the display all the way down and look at the LED head on under dim abmient condition.

If this light can be toggled on and off before any user is logged in, then I am at least semi comfortable in sending the hard drive in with the X201, I really don't want to provide the repair center with the password with all the data I have on the hard drive..........

Can anyone shed some light (pun intended) on this please?

Thanks in advance!

AFAIK, it should work at POST. Never checked myself.
I think they put their own diagnostic drive in anyway.

The ThinkLight works at POST.

Incidentally, the ThinkLight on my X200s finally gave up the ghost recently and was replaced under warranty (thank goodness for on site maintenance... had the keyboard, palm rest and ThinkLight replaced at the same time... long story but all unrelated faults).

FYI, the LED is attached to the LCD cable and I suspect that picking up the laptop by the screen could have something to do with it as it prolly caused pressure on the cable which led it to break eventually.

ansible212 wrote:The ThinkLight works at POST.

Thanks

FYI, the LED is attached to the LCD cable and I suspect that picking up the laptop by the screen could have something to do with it as it prolly caused pressure on the cable which led it to break eventually.

Oh I certainly don't ever do that! I like my Thinkpads too much to abuse it in such manner.

I called Lenovo today, EasyCare box is being shipped to me, I know I will be down for about a week, which is why I still have a T60 that I use everyday.

My X201 had the same problem and it is out of warranty. Is there a repair kit that I can buy to replace myself? Imaging Lenovo service charge will be high. Thanks.

As a follow up, the repair in my case only worked temporarily, it started to exhibit the same symptoms about 4 months later and I hardly ever use the light except the odd times on overnight flights when the cabin lighting has been turned off.

Lenovo declined to perform the second repair because it is now out of warranty by a month, not too impressed, I would like to think the initial failure was a rare analmoly, but to fail again within a few months?!

However I should still be able to take advantage of the additional one year warranty by purchasing this laptop on Visa, which is what I will do for the next repair, I am really hoping that it will be repaired properly for good this time!

In comparison my T60 is 5+ years old now and the Thinklight still works perfectly each and every time.

ansible212 wrote: FYI, the LED is attached to the LCD cable and I suspect that picking up the laptop by the screen could have something to do with it as it prolly caused pressure on the cable which led it to break eventually.

I do that very often with my X201 and my ThinkLight™ failed after ½ year or so. So it might be related, but I opened the Display and I don’t see where it would apply any strain on the cable.

ansible212 wrote:picking up the laptop by the screen

I can't think of a situation where I would pick my laptop up by the screen? Doesn't seem very sensible.

Occasionally lifted my X201 in top center of screen. Noticed the LED got poor contact and can go on or off when top of frame is gently pressed.

So computer should not be lifted in screen top.