Hinge Issues

[jdhurst]

<snip>

Jdhurst, have you already had your hinges replaced? I hope you already did.

Thanks a lot!

Not yet. The amount of play in the lid is stable, and otherwise, the hinges are firm. I will wait until (1) the hinges get looser, (2) I need other warranty service, or (3) the four-year warranty expires and I want a new machine. ... JDH

[ARD]

So what are the part numbers for the hinges that do not wobble for the T60, T60P 14" and 15"?
I can write a note to the tech when I send my T60 14" in to intsall the good hinges I guess.

[sktn77a]

I can write a note to the tech when I send my T60 14" in to intsall the good hinges I guess.

Dream on!

[dr_st]

Dream on!

There is no doubt in my mind that he can write a note.

Whether anyone actually looks at the note and does something other than ignore it is a bigger question.

[eskimochaos2]

Not yet. The amount of play in the lid is stable, and otherwise, the hinges are firm. I will wait until (1) the hinges get looser, (2) I need other warranty service, or (3) the four-year warranty expires and I want a new machine. ... JDH

What do you think happens when you want to test out the accidental warranty protection on a flight of stairs AND its a 4year old model?

Just saying.....?

[bautista.ekonomista]

So what are the part numbers for the hinges that do not wobble for the T60, T60P 14" and 15"?
I can write a note to the tech when I send my T60 14" in to intsall the good hinges I guess.

I tried doing that when I asked the service depot guys to replace my defective keyboard with a new one having an NMB part number.

When I got my Thinkpad back, they said that they got the old FRU part # for the replacement keyboard. Haha.

I hope they'll grant your wish to have a specific FRU part # to replace the old defective hinge. But it's more likely that they'll install a new one based on the previous FRU part # of the hinge.

[carbon_unit]

I had a technician do an on-site repair of the hinges on a T60 yesterday. I was out on a call all day so I have no idea which FRU# hinges he used. I will have to hope for the best. At least they are tight right now.

[Truthfinder]

Hi gang:

I have had to tighten my hinge screws once since purchasing my T60 three years ago. At this point, I have just about 0% play in my hinges / lid. It may be a result of my not opening and closing the lid very much or the fact that my T60 is from an old pile of plastic with the IBM logo...... So far, so good.... My lid / hinges feel as tight as they were when my system arrived three years ago. Hopefully they will stay tight.


Best to all, Steve

[ARD]

Hi gang:

I have had to tighten my hinge screws once since purchasing my T60 three years ago. At this point, I have just about 0% play in my hinges / lid. It may be a result of my not opening and closing the lid very much or the fact that my T60 is from an old pile of plastic with the IBM logo...... So far, so good.... My lid / hinges feel as tight as they were when my system arrived three years ago. Hopefully they will stay tight.


Best to all, Steve

Just to clarify, we aren't talking about the screws on the bottom that secure the hinges to the T60 case; we are talking about the hinges themselves.
They can't be adjusted or tightened; only replaced.

[wap32]

Is the new part (FRU 45N4181) compatible with 14.1" wide T61's?
Or to ask in a different way, are the hinges of 15.4" and 14.1" widescreen models interchangeable?

I'll ordering some parts soon and I was wondering if the new part would work or if I should just order the standard Reell hinges.

[Jas]

I'm going to post to a thread that hasn't had activity for a year-and-a-half! The right-hand hinge on my wife's 14.1" T61 broke and I just replaced them with these, ordered from seller thinkpad_2007 on Ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Lenovo-T61-14-1 ... 0659878261.

The part numbers referenced are 42W3653 (the old Reell number, I think) and 42W2005, which appears no where that I can find on a Lenovo parts list.

Bottom line: Communication was decent and shipping at the intermediate tier really fast from China (maybe 4 business days), but the hinges are quite loose. They don't have wiggle, which the original hinges were exhibiting before the failure, but the screen flops both back and forward when you have it at any appreciable angle. The seller says these are the same parts Lenovo uses, which I'm not sure I buy, but that's that.

Anyway, short of forking out major bucks to Lenovo for similar parts, these are an option, but maybe not the best.

If anyone knows of a trick to make existing hinges tighten up, please post ideas. Seems impossible, but thought I'd ask.

[jdhurst]

I do not think you can tighten the hinges if they are properly installed (tightened to the base and lid properly). That is, the hinge itself cannot be tightened.

After 4 years, the hinges on my T61p are modestly looser in terms of play, but no side to side or twist wiggle. I think my warranty is coming up, so I will leave it the way it is, because (otherwise), the machine is working fine.

.... JDH

[Reboot]

I'm working on two T61s with loose hinges right now. The issue is fairly simple. The lower part of the hinges have holes that the upper parts pivot in. The design doesn't seem to hold up very well and the holes get worn oversized pretty quickly. Hotdog in a hallway, if you will. There's no fix or tightening to be done.

I just ordered a couple sets from a US seller on eBay for about $12 a pop. We'll see how they hold up.

And I never had this trouble with my X30.

[MikeM]

My T61p just came out of warranty - I ordered it in March of 2008. During that period of time I sent it in 3 times to have the hinges replaced. I also had to exchange the DVD burner twice as it would read but not burn media. Other than those issues and the fact that I have the Nvidia "flaky crust" GPU that is going to go belly up on me at some point, the T61p has been a good machine.

The last set of hinges went in over a year ago and they are holding up OK. The laptop never leaves the house and I never grab it by the open lid and do this to it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammer_throw

The hinges in these units are not real good.

[jdhurst]

True - the hinges on the T61p are not good. But I am still on the original hinges. I purchased the machine in March, 2008, so it is three years old (not four as I suggested earlier).

The hinges had about 0.25" play at the top almost from new. It about 0.5" three years later. Annoying, but not worth replacing (noting that new hinges do not last very long anyway). ... JDH

[scillyisles]

I had two T61p both model 6457-BQG. The one I gave to my son (an August 2008 build) developed the Nvidia problem and the loose LCD hinges with play in them . It recently went away to be repaired and Lenovo replaced the hinge assembly to cure the loose LCD lid as well as replaceing the main system board to cure the Nvidia problem. My other T61p does not have this loose hinge problem.

[Reboot]

I'll post this now that I've gotten the hinges. I ordered two sets from this guy:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0601665151

They appear OEM, they have no slop or wiggle, and the action is quite tight. No screens flopping around. I have no clue how long they'll hold up in the long term, but I guess you can keep spares on hand.

[hjanzen]

From the picture at this ebay offer it seems these are hinges with the longer RH arm for T61 14.1 WIDE.

Correct???