Thinkpads Forum

I have a busted right hinge on my T500 from one too many drops. Searching on ebay gives me 2 options to buy new from China or Hong Kong with free shipping- I am worried about the quality of these.

Am I better off buying used for more money, or are these parts legitimate? http://www.ebay.ca/itm/New-orig-IBM-Len ... 3369ec8f47 http://www.ebay.ca/itm/15-4-LCD-Screen- ... 4d17a43229

Also, is the repair job as difficult as this page suggests? http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/product ... MIGR-71495 ? When I first took the screen bezel off to remove the broken piece of hinge, looking at the hinge it seemed I would have access to it right away without having to remove all of those parts?

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

Hard to say whether or not those Chinese parts are legitimate or not. I don't own a T500 but one of them looks real enough (item 220820442951), right down to the Pat No. RE37712 stamped on it. That patent number traces back to Reell Precision Manufacturing, the same makers of the infamous X2x hinges that tended to disintegrate over time and stress: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?p=333588

As to the disassembly of your system... Often you do not have to remove everything that the Hardware Maintenance Manual (HMM) says you have to remove but it does give you the correct sequence to get the job done without any unexpected surprises. The link you provided for the Hinges and LCD page is part of that manual. I'd recommend downloading it so you can refer to the document when you are taking the system apart (and putting it back together). You can find it here: http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... 630_04.pdf

Personally I'd buy the 'new' one from China, who's to say the used one won't give you play when tilting the LCD.
Aren't they made in China in the first place? I see that stamped on the bottom of my X61 and T61.
Quality wise, they might not be the greatest or exactly like the OEM, as they are just a close copy and reproduced since then.
When it comes to dissasembling... I'm not sure if you can get away with taking removing the four or six screws that hold the LCD. You might need to still remove the keyboard because the bezel sits underneath it, and with removing the keyboard, you'll have to get remove the palmrest as well.
You'll have to remember which screw went where when it comes to the rear/LCD screws, as they are different sized compared to the KB and Palmrest screws. Great thing about the HMM is that it lists the size of the screws.

Welcome! I hope you find a solution that works for you.
Canada is kinda hard to find parts at a decent price when it comes fom the US.

I bought brand new hinges for my T500. They really were brand new, but their quality wasn't as good as the original ones on my T500 and actually had the same amount of play. However, I'm not sure how old the hinges on my T500 are because the laptop was mint condition when I bought it and the lid unit, keyboard, and palmrest had been replaced at some point after Windows 7 came out.

gravy robber wrote:I have a busted right hinge on my T500 from one too many drops. Searching on ebay gives me 2 options to buy new from China or Hong Kong with free shipping- I am worried about the quality of these.

Am I better off buying used for more money, or are these parts legitimate? http://www.ebay.ca/itm/New-orig-IBM-Len ... 3369ec8f47 http://www.ebay.ca/itm/15-4-LCD-Screen- ... 4d17a43229

Also, is the repair job as difficult as this page suggests? http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/product ... MIGR-71495 ? When I first took the screen bezel off to remove the broken piece of hinge, looking at the hinge it seemed I would have access to it right away without having to remove all of those parts?

Are you sure its the hinge and not the rollcage?

The T/W500 have problems with the rollcage cracking near the hinge