Faulty USB Ports?

Has anyone here had any problem with the USB ports on their Lenovo machines? I got a T500 about 6 months ago. It recently stopped booting up (still under warranty), and I was ordered to ship it to the depot. The depot diagnosed it is a broken system board, and blamed the problem on a broken USB port.

They're, sadly, claiming that I did the damage and trying to charge me $750 for the repair. I know how to plug things into a USB - I've never broken any other ones I've owned. And the laptop sits in a docking station, so I barely even use the ports on the side. Has anyone else had similar experiences or have any advice?

Thanks!

 

Be adamant about you not abusing the system and have it escalated to a manager.

 

If you don't get anywhere with support, send a PM to [email protected] over at the Lenovo forums. He's got an account here, but you're more likely to catch him over there.

 

I appreciate the advice, guys. After one person at support insisted they didn't have managers, we've finally gotten it to the point where they said they're going to take pictures of the damage, at which point we can discuss it further. I'm really not sure why they think pictures are going to change my mind, but whatever. Baby steps, I guess.

 

As an update to anyone having similar problems

The depot took pictures of the damage, and my excellent deductive reasoning skills led me to this conclusion: the plastic part of the USB port came unglued (or something) and was stuck in a memory stick I had used before. I'm sure it wasn't the fault of the stick, as I'd used it with multiple machines many times before without problems. I didn't notice the plastic piece come out, so I later tried to put some other USB device in there. Without the plastic bit to guide it in, it bent/broke the pins. At the time, I didn't think anything of the fact that it wasn't going right in - I just moved on to the next port, into which it fit perfectly.

Sadly, the good folks at the depot or wherever I called refuse to acknowledge that something like this could happen. It's being escalated up to the IBM people, who I hope will be able to clearly see that the plastic bit wasn't properly secured, leading to the damage of the pins.

 

Ya, if it breaks from using an actual USB cable, that's a fault of the design or quality. If you didn't abuse it by shoving in a device with the cable upside down or a screw driver, etc...not really your fault.

 

I believe someone else has had this problem before as well - there were some pictures as well. I'll link to it if I find the thread.

EDIT: There we go, found it. Is that damage similar to that of your T500's?

 

Interesting. I wonder if showing the people at IBM that thread will help give me any more credibility... probably not, but I suppose it's worth a shot. Thanks for the heads up.

 

Final update: I PM'd Mark_Lenovo (at the Lenovo forums) with the story, and he told me that they'd "released a tip" (whatever that means) to the depot to make it non-billable. So it looks like everything will be taken care of!

In sum, if anybody in the future finds this and is having similar problems, just keep escalating. Although I suppose that's always good advice.

 

Glad to hear your issue is being favorably resolved - Mark is pretty good at dealing with these things in a way that satisfies the consumer