T61 dash hump - PIC WARNING

[Stadsport]

Hi all, new poster here. I just got a T61. In the (distant) past I've owned a 760EL and a T20, and I recently bought this used T61 to replace my IdeaPad Y510 which was literally falling apart.
Anyways, it looks like my T61 has a little hump on the "dash" right in front of the screen, where the ribbon cable connects to the lower case; it bows up slightly between the ThinkVantage button and the power button. It doesn't feel like it has much play in it.
I did some searching and found a couple of other people on another forum mentioned the same thing, but no one said how they fixed it (if that's even possible). Being that this is an 3/08 machine there's a part of me hoping that it's evidence of the 140M being repaired, but I'm sure that's a low possibility.
Incidentally (and slightly off-topic), it appears that this computer had a 3 year warranty which still has a month left on it. Is there any way to extend the warranty further? Slim chance, I know, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask.
Thanks!

[RealBlackStuff]

Welcome to the forum.
That 'hump' is more likely a sloppy job by a previous owner not guiding the antenna wires properly.
Take off the keyboard and KB bezel, re-align the wires, re-attach KB bezel and KB.
If that machine had a gfx-repair, it would have been a motherboard replacement, and would/should not be visible from outside.
The good news is that Lenovo has finally started to repair/replace those bad nVidia boards free of charge.
See this: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=93357

You can renew warranty, but don't wait till the last day, do it today! Shop around on the web for for the best price.
Or call Lenovo direct.

[richk]

I think he is talking about the keyboard bezel (behind the keyboard) There are little tabs that fits into slots in the magnesium frame. If you remove the main battery, palmrest, keyboard and bezel, you can reattach the bezel, being careful to get the slots in correctly. You can see how they fit by looking in the cavity where the battery was.

[Stadsport]

Thanks for the replies. I took the keyboard off and it looks it's just kind of a poor design. In the shell there's a section of the rollcage, on top of which the ribbon cable sits. I guess where the keyboard meets the rollcage there, it's just too thick of plastic and it bends up a tad. The wifi antennae look like they're routed properly, too. The keyboard bezel (the piece that contains the speaker covers) DOES bow up as well, but not as much as the section of the keyboard that contains the power/volume/blue buttons.
Here's a picture of it.

Note: it's not quite as severe as this picture makes it look; I was trying to emphasis it a bit with the camera angle to make the flaw more visible.

[Harryc]

That is not right. I agree with what Richk said to do. The keyboad bezel is not installed correctly. Someone missed a tab. Be gentle, those tabs snap off easily.

[Stadsport]

Just took it apart again. Again the antennae didn't look like they were interfering but I re-routed them slightly the more closely match the diagram in the manual, it didn't seem to make a difference.


This was before I removed the keyboard bezel and rerouted the antenna cables, so they didn't "dip down" over the side of the little guide tray.


Doesn't seem to be a problem with the keyboard itself.


All the little clippies are right where they should be


And here it is back together, not really any better than before. I almost wonder if there's something under the ribbon cable? Make I should take it apart a third time...

Update: I did end up taking it apart again. I peeled up the tape holding the ribbon cable down and kind of reseated that. There are two little guide notches that align the ribbon cable, and on the reverse side there's a green stopper that pokes through a slot you can see with the battery removed. This keeps the ribbon cable planted on the body side of things, so it can slide in and out of the lid as you adjust the screen. It looks like the ribbon cable was just slightly mis-aligned, causing that stopper to hang up on part of the case and push everything up just a mm or so. Despite the plastic pieces themselves being slightly bowed from being in this state for an extended period of time (I just got the laptop, but it's just under 3 years old so who knows when it was done), the bowing does seem reduced now.

[richk]

Your update was what I would suggest from the picture. THe "lump" on the bottom of the cable looks too far forward in the picture. You might need to replace the clear tape. It is stronger than scotch tape, but scotch tape will work if you get it nice and flat. It is tricky to hold the cable in place and get the 2 pieces of tape on smoothly

[Stadsport]

I didn't have much trouble getting it to re-stick; I was really careful not to get it dirty/oily or anything when I pulled it up, but if I continue having issues with it then I'll replace the tape. So far it seems to be more or less solved. Thanks.