t42 System board.

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pacemkr · #1 Post by **pacemkr** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 10:36 pm

It is very convinient how IBM like to blame a hardware defect on a spill that happened several months ago. In reality I was just sitting there reading off the screen and it went black. Now the screen goes out as soon as I start moving the laptop and sometimes on its own. Now they told me "the technitian found liquid substance in the laptop", I wanted to curse them out right there, last time I checked less than an ounce of water evaporates rather quickly, neither does it break anything.

Being a broke college student I dont really have (neither do I think IBM deserve) the $800 they want for fixing the laptop. So I just told them to send it back. All this means that I'm in the market for a system board for t42 What are my options, and more importanly how much money do I need? Are there any places you can recomend for buying a system board. Should I go to a local technitian or is that going to cost me as much as having IBM fix it. I can replace the board myself no problem so the only reason I would go to a technitian is if its cheaper.

PS. This was my first and last branded laptop purchase. After this incident I know the next laptop Ill assemble from parts and not worry about stuff like this, because when you have a warranty for each part, you are pretty much covered. Thats what I do with my desktop computers and so far all have been top notch in terms of both performance and support. If the part is defective, its defective, nothing the company can say about that. IBM just goes "oh you sneased on the spill proof keyboard, no more waranty for you!".

pacemkr · #2 Post by **pacemkr** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 11:08 pm

I've just found this thread too.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 948#117948

This is EXACTLY whats happening to my laptop. This is pissing me off. This is not a "spill" issue that happened several months ago. Any sense in calling IBM again? Should I call some other department. =(

#3 Post by **Kyocera** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 11:09 pm

Actually a very small amount of water is a great electrical conductor, so any amount on a circuit board may cause damage.

But I do feel your pain

christopher_wolf · #4 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 11:41 pm

IMO you don't get any benefit from building the laptop yourself; each of the parts may have warranties..come time to replace them, however, it can be a *huge* pain (I tried it, I know); got fed up and tried to patch together a laptop, yes, by myself...It didn't work out too great. I would rather have a center where I at least know that I can send it in and somebody will care about it besides me. You can complain to IBM about it even more, and even write a letter to the place that did the service....They should listen to you as the client; ask for proof that it indeed was a spill of liquid onto the system board and *cannot* possibly be anything else. If they cannot rule out that it could have been humidity, then you should ask them to honor the warranty on it and proceed.

pacemkr · #5 Post by **pacemkr** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 12:49 am

I think I am going to give them another call. Maybe refer to the fact that other people are having the same problem and it has nothign to do with spills.

I picked the thing apart and trust me there is no water damage at all. There are some oxidation marks on the very cheap metal on the side (that is discollored as is) and little on the copper heatisink and thats it. I know perfectly well what caused the problem. It turns out you cannot pick up the thing holding it by a corner (like passing a plate) because it flexes so much it eventually breaks someting (and that something seems to be the same thing for everybody namely the GPU). I do this all the time, just the way its comfortable, because I always kinda have to reach for it to the other end of the table. Now if I knew in advance that it would fall apart like that..

I just dont know what to do, I really need this machine for school and I simply dont have the money to fix it.

pacemkr · #6 Post by **pacemkr** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 12:55 am

Kyocera wrote:Actually a very small amount of water is a great electrical conductor, so any amount on a circuit board may cause damage.

But I do feel your pain

Yes I know that (electrical major), but if it does do damage it does it right away, there is no unexpected failure months after daily use. Have you ever seen a capacitor fail for example or any other electrical component for that matter, its very messy and its over before you know it. So them blaming it on spill damage I can understand if the thing stoped working after the spill, but thats not the case. They just dont want to stand by their product.

EDIT: And what pisses me off the most is that they said the tech found liquid in it, which is not only impossible, but is just lying to get out of fixing it.

vliou · #7 Post by **vliou** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 1:21 am

I totally understand your pain. Hell, aren't these machines like designed with spillage in mind?! What with that keyboard and drain holes!

pacemkr · #8 Post by **pacemkr** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 1:48 am

vliou wrote:I totally understand your pain. Hell, aren't these machines like designed with spillage in mind?! What with that keyboard and drain holes!

The holes are there so the water runs down on the heatsink and they can easily see the "damage".

pacemkr · #9 Post by **pacemkr** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 11:04 am

Called them, talked to ~4 people, and got nowhere pretty much, have to send it back in, so they can send me pictures of the damage. I wanna see them prove that the fact that the copper heatsink is discolored says the board was damaged specifically by water. I'm so angry with them.

What else can I say or do to make them fix this thing? I really really do not have any other option but having them fix it under warranty.

pacemkr · #10 Post by **pacemkr** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 10:10 am

Well good news here.

Just got my laptop back with the replaced planar card ("motherboard","system board" call it w.e you like). They didnt call me or anything this time. I guess I explained what the true nature of the problem was and the rep I talked to attached a good descriptive note (he was typing for a while). Or for some other reason...

Bottom line is IBM fixed it under warranty and I can finally continue working as I was before. Thanks to this forum for being enlightening.

hoya · #11 Post by **hoya** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 2:11 pm

I hate to be the keeper of bad tidings, but I went through 4 system boards on my T42 (2373H6U) over the course of 3 weeks and finally had to obtain a full refund because they could not fix it. my symptoms were similar to yours, so just don't be surprised if it happens again. there is another thread on here with lots of others with bad system boards on their T42's.

pacemkr · #12 Post by **pacemkr** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 2:22 pm

Ouch.

Well as long as they fix it under warranty I'll be ok.
So far seems to be working fine, but I dont want to jinx it.

porkfat · #13 Post by **porkfat** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 1:51 am

Looks like I'm in your boat, broke-college-kid and all. My T41 had the exact same problems you and so many others have mentioned before, but since I bought it as a refurb, it was out of warranty by the time the problems started to show up. I'm very sure now that chassis flex was the cause, from picking the computer up by the front-right corner (palmrest). I had real issues when running games, BOINC screensaver, etc--anything graphically-intensive. Got on my nerves to NO END when I had to constantly mash/flex/tweak the palmrests to flex it the proper way so that the problem would go away. Sometimes they just wouldnt, and I was forced to either quit what I was doing or risk the ominous system crash that you described.

I couldn't afford to fix it, so I just dealt with it. However, I just recently had a spill that I'm fairly sure killed the motherboard, so it looks like I'm on the hunt for a new one as well. I was wondering...Having never assembled my own desktop/laptop, what would replacing it myself involve?

I'll be curious to know things turn out for you, whether you replace it yourself or have IBM do it. Kinda wondering if a new one will start to have the same problems in time, assuming the computer is picked up properly afterward.

pacemkr · #14 Post by **pacemkr** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 2:02 am

I sent the computer to IBM for the second time and this time they simply fixed it and sent it back. Did not call me (as when there is a billing hold) or anything.

To replace the motherboard, you pretty much have to disasemble the whole laptop. I did it, I wouldn't say it was hard, but it did take a while. Just have to make sure you record (NOT remember) where every bolt and part goes to make sure you can put it back together. Make sure to either connect yourself to a anti static wrist wrap or periodicly touch a big metal obect to discharge any static electricity build up, it may damage electronic components.

hoya · #15 Post by **hoya** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:13 am

porkfat: be sure to download the hardware maintenance manual before taking your T41 apart:
http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site.ws ... MIGR-46464

The new T60 and X60 have a "floating" planar (system board) design protected by "ribs" rather than screws to avoid this type of problem in the future. lots of T4x sytem boards have failed due to a short caused by a screw, so this issue should be less common on the new machines.

cmarti · #16 Post by **cmarti** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 11:05 pm

Hi!

I got a used T41 motherboard that is working perfectly and ca be used in your T42 if you want it. Please send me a message to discuss the price.

Carlos..

messar · #17 Post by **messar** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 10:31 am

It's very easy to get a mainbord of T4x series in China, normally a typical T42 board with 9600 graphics chip will cost less than $300.

I assembled a T43 with 14" XGA screen myself last year, and recently I upgraded it into a 15" model with UXGA screen

det922 · #18 Post by **det922** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 4:29 am

i have a t41 that was doing the same thing and after a lil soda spill from my girlfriend if i breath on it it stops or doesnt turn on at all, are the t43's any better?

t42 System board.

t42 System board.

t42 System board.

amazing

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