Lenovo warranty

[Maden]

Hi all,
I came to the conclusion that my T61 is broken and I still have a warranty until 2010. I have bought it in the USA, but now I am living in the Netherlands. Since the Netherlands and Germany are not covered by Lenovo's International Warranty Service, I have no idea where to send it to or who to call? Do I have to send it to the US or can I look for an authorized Lenovo dealer in my region? Will Lenovo US even serve customers outside their region?
I would be glad if you could share your experiences with lenovo warranty services...
Thanks for reading and writing
Maden

[Marin85]

I´m not sure if that helps much, but... I bought my Thinkpad in Germany with international on-site warranty, the laptop has been already serviced once in Germany without problems. The last time I asked I was told it won´t be a problem to service the laptop outside of Germany as well since it´s covered by international warranty (for those countries where the warranty conditions apply resp. where there are official service depots of Lenovo).

Marin

[ajkula66]

@Maden:

What is the model number of your ThinkPad?

[Maden]

its 7662CTO
Are u asking because of the IWS?

thanks for sharing Marin85...

[ajkula66]

Yes, that's why I was asking and it seems to me that you'll have to ship the machine to U.S. or pay for a repair where you reside...

Good luck.

[Maden]

I called at the Lenovo Netherlands and they told me either I can send it to them and pay 200Euro + replaced parts costs OR have a engineer come and pay 150€/h + pay for the parts, OR send it to the US let it rapair for free and probably pay >100Euros postage. Plus I have to have it send to a friends address in the US. Then I might have to pay customs when he sends me the repaired laptop to me to the Netherlands (I have payed customs in germany already)?????

What would you do? I mean if they have to replace the video card or screen it probably costs quite a lot...

[Maden]

Hi all,

I have a question concerning customs.
Now that I'll send my T61a friend in the US, who than will be sending it to the US.

I am wondering whether the customs will make any trouble? I purchased it in the US and also payed customs for it when I went back to Germany. So it has been taxed twice already, will they charge me again for it???
Thanks for reading and hopeful helping me out

[GomJabbar]

I am fairly convinced as long as you have the supporting paperwork (with serial #'s, etc.) to demonstate that you did indeed already pay the taxes, you should not have to pay them again. Yet, I personally haven't tried to do this myself.

EDIT: The only possible hitch is the fact that you are not carrying the laptop. Perhaps if the warranty repair paperwork is included, and you write a note or have documentation demonstating that the ThinkPad was carried to the US for repair, this would prevent an issue with Customs. It is possible you would need to pick the ThinkPad up in person in Germany - not sure.

[Maden]

thank you for your reply.

The strangest things are happening. Today i wanted to wrap up my T61 and turned it on the last time... and somehow it started working again.

However, if I start playing Worldcraft 3 (not WoW), which doesn't really require a lot of resources it crashes after approx. 10min, same happens with Counterstrike 1.6
normal windows usage is working normally.

Anybody got an idea what is going on?

[Marin85]

Ahm, you didn´t mention how you came to the conclusion that your ThinkPad is broken... If you tell us some more about your issues, someone may be able to help you out

Marin

[ajkula66]

Your GPU is on its way out. Crashing while gaming is one of the first signs of a nVidia failing...

Good luck.

[GomJabbar]

If your laptop suddenly shuts down after gaming a bit or watching animations, it could be that your cooling fan is not working properly. This happened to me before. If this is the problem, you should be able to power up your laptop pretty soon after it shuts down. The chip(s) cool rather quickly.

[Marin85]

Your GPU is on its way out. Crashing while gaming is one of the first signs of a nVidia failing.

How do you know that it´s not with integrated graphics?

[ajkula66]

Marin85 wrote:

How do you know that it´s not with integrated graphics?

I don't know for a fact, but integrated GPU can't handle these games from what I've read...since I don't game myself.

However, I've seen a number of posts on Lenovo's forum where nVidia cards were crashing during heavy gaming and then went out like a light...

[Marin85]

However, I've seen a number of posts on Lenovo's forum where nVidia cards were crashing during heavy gaming and then went out like a light...

I don´t read Lenovo´s forums but this definitely doesn´t sound good (actually I´m a bit of surprised to hear about such issues). I remember an article about the 8400 and 8600 series manufacturing flaws. I wonder if these are too related to the gpu issues of those T61(p) units.

[ajkula66]

Marin85 wrote:

I remember an article about the 8400 and 8600 series manufacturing flaws. I wonder if these are too related to the gpu issues of those T61(p) units.

According to official Lenovo, they're not. However, I keep on advising everyone with a T61/p that houses a nVidia GPU to extend the warranty if they're intent on keeping the machine.

Two problems exist here, side by side:

a) There is no fix yet (at least AFAIK) similar to what people had come up with for fixing loose ATi GPUs on A31p and T4x series, because the issue is completely different-the card overheats and eventually fails.
b) Even if the planar is replaced, the "new" card is likely to be from the same defective batch...