X1 Carbon 4 - audio jack dying

[micrex22]

So it looks like on my X1 Carbon 4th gen, the audio jack is starting to fail. I suspect it's the solder joint because all of the I/O is under high stress. IBM sometimes did it where the I/O jacks were on dedicated PCBs (like the power jack) or extended in a particular way to reduce said stress. Lenovo can't be bothered to do that.

When I plug in headphones it'll detect something is 'plugged in' and mute the onboard audio, but won't actually play any audio to the headphones until I tilt the audio jack and there's a subtle pop of the solder joint or whatever.

I'm debating with myself whether to fix the issue on my own with my soldering equipment, or have LENOVO fix it.

[Puppy]

I wouldn't take a risk to send it to Lenovo just because of such marginal (but annoying) issue. They can make much more damage to the machine by the repair (= replacing the motherboard with a refurbished one). I'd inspect it first to see whether I could solder it myself, especially when you have the equipment and experience.

Another option is an external USB audio card that will provide better quality and possible higher audio level or a wireless Bluetooth headphones. I use Sony MDR-XB950B1 and the quality is acceptable, not in par with high-end headpones of course but you couldn't drive them by the crappy audio output anyway

[RealBlackStuff]

If you haven't got one already, get a flux pen like this CircuitWorks CW8100: https://www.ebay.com/itm/142357291841
Then take the X1C4 apart, shouldn't be that difficult.
Then liberally "flux" the audio contacts area, heat each contact up for a few seconds with your soldering iron, and Bob should be your uncle.

[micrex22]

I'd like to provide an update that I no longer get headphone audio on my X1 Carbon, the jack completely failed. Interestingly enough it may also be affecting the internal speakers. What a piece of garbage--and it's probably the 'best' modern ThinkPad lenovo shat out when you take into consideration all of the drawbacks of everything else--and the fact the 4th gen had one particular FRU for a keyboard that was mildly tolerable and discreet trackpoint buttons.

I'm just back to using my T601 full time now which has the IBM modded board with refreshed nvidia GPU. Oh and I get a better keyboard, better trackpoint, better 4:3 display... and yeah.

[w0qj]

micrex22, sorry to hear that your X1C4 (X1 Carbon 4th Generation) is not working out (audio jack / speaker died).

Our X1C4 (and X1C3 for that matter) is still working well.
We have 5 year ThinkPad warranties for most of above machines, just in case.

Perhaps this would be worth considering when you procure a new computer!