Cavalcade of T42 problems - post-repair restarts

[STLEric]

Hi, I just wanted to get this forum's input on what to do at this point. My 3-year warranty on my T42 runs out in early November, and each time I've sent it out for repair in the last few months, Lenovo has sent it back basically in as bad or worse condition.

To roll it back to 2007, I had the standard GPU blue screen-when-moved issue, sent it in, and got it back fixed in short order. This year, in May or so, I sent it back in, since the headphone and AC jacks were getting a bit loose, and the TrackPoint buttons had become bent and were falling out. When I got it back from repair, the physical/case problems were fixed, but the blue screen-when-I-move-it problem had returned, and I found that the system only actually booted maybe a third of the time, tops. When I actually had XP loaded, it would usually crash within 5 minutes.

I sent it back in again, and just got it back a few weeks ago. It seemed to work, but now I can't change any of the system sounds in the control panel (everything is greyed out in the control panel - most system sounds and audio are normal, but the new mail alert sound is now a system beep, and to my chagrin, I found that I couldn't change it, or anything else). The keyboard seems to ignore the occasional button press now (maybe one out of every 30 key presses or so?), and worst of all, within the last few days, now the system is spontaneously rebooting or shutting down at least once a day (I haven't seen any blue screens flash before the reboots this time, though, nor does moving or nudging the computer seem to make much of a difference now). It seems like the fan is running unusually hard for relatively low-memory functions.

I've been without this computer for most of the summer, and I really need to have a computer actually working and reliable to send out resumes/edit photos/do graphic design/compose music/make a living.

Does anyone have any recommendations as to what I should do at this point, with it being so relatively close to the warranty running out? The first impulse is to just deal with it so that I actually have an almost-quasi-reliable computer (so long as I save very, very frequently), but I do want this thing in usable condition. The second impulse is to send it back in AGAIN, [I'll note, that took three tries for it to register that comma] but the track record of the repairs hasn't been particularly stellar these last few months either. I probably will be sending it back in, though. Thoughts?

[NorrisCell]

Sorry you're having so much trouble with it.

I would find a way to contact them prior to service and stress to them that the problem hasn't been fixed after multiple attempts. Perhaps escalate it to a supervisor so they are fully aware of the trouble you've gone through.

[karim_ps]

Sorry you have a lot of problems with it ,My advice to you is just to look for another thinkpad or so ,if you don't i think you will always be in a never-ending problems with it.

waiting for your reply

[Brad]

I would no doubt send it back in. After you receive it back carefully inspect it and if there is anything wrong send it in again. Keep sending it in until they get it right. This doesn't help you though when you are without it. Or you can look for a new ThinkPad or nice used T60 with warranty. You can look now for a used ThinkPad as your warranty is expiring and if the problems continue it would be nice to have a spare.

Brad