Bowed bezel on new Z61t

[JonathanGennick]

I'm bummed. My niece's new Thinkpad arrived today. Looks very good except for one problem: the narrow part of the bezel that lies between the three mouse buttons and the keyboard is bowed upwards. It's pretty noticeable, especially when you go to hit the middle mouse button to scroll. There's at least 1/16-inch, and probably a tad more play in it.

Is it a common problems in Z series machines, or did I just "luck out" and get a lemon?

There's probably nothing to do but send the thing back in for warranty work. College begins next week though, so it's a bummer to have to do that.

Other than the one defect though, the machine looks great.

[underclocker]

Great that you received it so fast, but sorry to hear about the bow.

The entire palmrest, which includes the bowing part, is easy to remove. The memory slots are below the palmrest. It is secured with only four screws. I'd remove it and reseat it, perhaps the left and right clips aren't fully engaged.

If that doesn't help, one call to IBM and you'll have a replacement palmrest. That will definitely fix it.

Good luck.

P.S. Consult the Z61t Hardware Maintenance Manual for proper palmrest removal procedures (basically, remove four screws and pull up from the middle).

[JonathanGennick]

The entire palmrest, which includes the bowing part, is easy to remove. The memory slots are below the palmrest. It is secured with only four screws. I'd remove it and reseat it, perhaps the left and right clips aren't fully engaged.

You know, I'll give that a try. It's certainly worth a shot, and that palmrest does look much easier to take off than the bezel on the old R40 that I just got done putting back together.

[JonathanGennick]

Underclocker, you're right. That palmrest was trivial to take off.

What I discovered is that if I leave the middle two screws out, that the thin bit of plastic between the mouse buttons and keyboard lays flat. But when I tighten those screws down, that bit of plastic bows upwards.

I'll phone Lenovo tomorrow I guess.

I must say, this one problem aside, I really, really am liking this machine.

[JonathanGennick]

Called Lenovo support this morning. Once I got past the automated prompts for machine type and such, I got through to a support person on the first ring -- no waiting. I love it.

Anyway, Lenovo is sending out a new palmrest. Hopefully that will solve the problem. Either my palmrest is defective, or the entire rest of the machine is somehow misaligned. Here's hoping it's the former.

No waiting on the phone. No hassle. Immediate shipment of the part. So far, it's been a very good support experience.

[dr_st]

I love the Z61t. The prettiest and nicest all-around widescreen Thinkpad ever made. Also seems not to suffer from the quality control issues that plagued the first Z60t's. Nice machine!

[JonathanGennick]

Grumble, grumble. I wish Lenovo did not use DHL (which bought out Airborne) for their shipping. No service where I'm at. Lenovo shipped that replacement palmrest overnight, but the DHL facility in Appleton, Wisconsin gave the package over the postal service to deliver to me. That was Friday at noon. Here I am on Tuesday, and still no package.

Sucks.

[gpgofast]

Just got a new Z61t. Comparing it to my T60p which I got about a year and a half ago, I feel the quality is on par with the "T". Off course, no discrete graphics, but I purchased this machine as a personal home laptop for internet browsing, etc...I actually beleive the quality is quite high. Great little laptop for $520!!!

[JonathanGennick]

I fixed the problem with the bowed bezel. The root cause is rather interesting. What I finally discovered is that a wire was misplaced underneath the keyboard. It's difficult to explain without a photo, but one of the antenna wires for the wireless card was routed over the top of the metal channel in which it was supposed to rest. The base of the keyboard tray is supposed to lay flat on top of the metal channel, but the wire laying across there prevented the keyboard from laying completely flat. That, in turn, prevented the palmrest from seating correctly.

Everything's fixed now though, and the machine is on its way to my niece.