Bought refurb'd T410s from the Outlet store. Dead internal speakers?

I bought a refurbed T410s from the Lenovo outlet store. It has a Core i5, 2GB of ram, 128GB SSD, and Intel only graphics. As per my usual routine when I get a new laptop, I wiped the drive and reinstalled the OS to get a clean install. I installed Win7 x64 Ultimate (had to go 64-bit because I also added another 2GB of memory).

My problem is that the internal speakers seem to be dead. When I hook up headphones, sound comes through the headphones great. When I hook it up to the docking station, sound through the dock works fine as well. It's just the internal speakers.

Since the sound works through the headphones and dock and not through the internal speakers, this would seem to be a hardware issue and not a driver one. I wiped it again and installed Win7 32-bit Ultimate and used the 32-bit audio drivers. Same thing. I then went and downloaded the PC Doctor software and ran the Conexant Audio test. It said it passed, but I heard nothing through the internal speakers.

All signs seem to indicate hardware failure at this point. When I first got the machine, I did turn it on first before wiping it just to see it come up. However, I can't for the life of me remember if the sound was working or not. I just wasn't paying attention to that. I also didn't bother making a restore CD. I'm really starting to regret not doing that now.

Am I forgetting to install something or are the speakers dead? I didn't install *every* driver I saw on the Lenovo T410s support page. Just the ones I thought I needed. And yes, I did install the Conexant Audio driver as well as the Intel Display Audio driver ... even though I don't think I need the Intel driver. I just saw "audio" in the name and figured I better install it.

At this point, is there anyway I can get a DVD to reimage the machine to it's factory settings? I saw a "Rescue and Recovery" thing on the T410s driver's page. But that couldn't possibly be the factory image. For one, it's an EXE (you'd think it'd be an ISO or something). And two, it's only 300MB.

Assuming the speakers are dead, what's the usual turn around time for getting them fixed? I need this laptop *now* and can't really afford to wait 3 weeks just to get some internal speakers that probably sound like a pair of tin cans anyway fixed. When I'm work, I'm docked so external speakers would be outputting the sound. When I'm on travel, I use headphones. The internal speakers are not *that* important to me. It does make my laptop "less than perfect" though and I'd prefer everything to be in working order even though I'd probably never use it.

I could also still return it too. I think. I'm not sure what the Outlet's store policy is on returns. Hopefully I can return it and get another one if I can't fix this myself. I'm thinking just returning and buying a new one will get me back up and running faster than trying to get this one fixed.

 

They are going to repair it for you, but they are not going to give you a new one. You might be able to get you money back minus shipping.

 

Well, yea. I wouldn't expect them to replace my laptop with another for free. I was just saying the turn around might be faster to RMA this one and get another one. I understand I'll lose some money if I did this, but I really can't be without a computer for too long so it'll be worth it to me.

 

I'd open up the laptop and make sure they were plugged in.

 

Hah! Turns out that was it. Took the keyboard off and there it was plain as day ... the speakers weren't plugged in. Plugged them in and now my T410s is whole again.

I wonder how in the world that could've happened...

 

Well that's good news. Sometimes you don't gotta RMA a notebook. Did it look like it was loose to begin with? Sometimes trauma of some kind can cause it.

 

It was completely out of the socket, as if somebody forgot to plug it in. When I plugged it back in, it was pretty securely in there. I'm thinking it would take a significant force to knock it out ... a force strong enough that would cause damage to other areas of the laptop if that was the cause. So I'm leaning towards the "somebody forgot to plug it in" explanation.

Anyway ... I love stories with happy endings. I'm pretty satisfied with my bargain purchase now. T410s with SSD and a docking station for $1200 total. Can't really complain about that.

 

i think when they refurb the machine they probably forgot to plug it in.

 

I've done that on more than a few of my refurb projects...