T400 hinge essentially useless overnight

[Daryl4444]

Hello all!

I've a ThinkPad T400. About two weeks ago I noticed the hinge was severely weakened (See video: http://img602.imageshack.us/i/wlm.mp4/ ). I've no memory of any traumatic event involving the T400 around the time, and as far as I can remember it was fine just hours before. I did find that the casing was mildly damaged near the hinge (Pictures: http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/6653/pc200002.jpg http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/4535/pc200005.jpg), but I'm not at all certain they appeared around the same time. Due to the size and position it's entirely possible they had been there for months and are unrelated, and I found them just because I was inspecting the hinge. Or they could be related.

Anyways, is there a way to fix this? I am out of warranty.

[lead_org]

yes this does happens, although rarely in Thinkpads.

You would need to replace the hinge systems, it should costs about 60 to 80 dollars for the pair of hinges from IBM parts.

You can follow the hardware manual here:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 70069.html

and you can watch the video of assembly and disassembly of the T61 machines to get a hands on view of how to do it. You can access the video from here:

www.lenovotraining.com

P.S. don't attempt to open and close the screen now, the more you do it, the more likely you will crack the entire casing.