Problem with Bending / Twisting

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Various problems have been discovered with twisting/bending of the notebook, which can happen by holding it on a corner of the casing.

Affected Models

Note: More models can be affected since the chassis design of the T4X Series is the same; it is unlikely that a single model is affected more than others.

Problem Description

Malformed casing

A malformed casing has been discovered on X41ThinkPads, that i.e. prevent them from sitting on a flat table correctly. Specifically the front right foot was off the table enough to make the laptop shift when applying pressure above that foot. Further symptons are that when looking straight along the keyboard from the front (so the keys aren't visible) the line where the keyboard section and LCD section meet is not a straight line anymore. By applying a downward pressure on the front right while pulling upwards on the back left the laptop could successfully be made to sit flat and appear straight.

Broken Motherboard

A T41p started to show a garbled screen after picking it up holding only on the very front right corner a couple of times. The sympton significantly responded to pressure on the hand rest parts of the keyboard bezel or on certain points on the bottom of the ThinkPad. It turned out that the mainboard was broken and responding to the mechanical influences on the casing. It was serviced and works well since then.

Solutions

Be careful when carrying the notebook. Ideally, grab it on two opposite corners. If you only have one hand free, rather grab it on the side, close to where the display hinges are since this balances the weight of the ThinkPad more.