Flex in plastic near wifi switch?

Hi All,

I did a search and couldn't find anything on this topic, but apologies if this is a redundant post. I'm wondering about flex in the plastic strip that hooks down over the front side of the T61 near the wifi switch. I know others have commented on flex in the wrist pad/rest to the left of the touchpad, but that's not what I'm talking about (however, it's the same plastic piece).

Basically, if I press down near the front edge of the wrist rest there's a fair bit of give, and the plastic that's folded down over the front edge of the laptop (around the wifi switch) slides down. Can anyone verify for me that this is standard (or not)? I don't want to bug Lenovo with something that's not actually broken, but it just seems odd that this happens on the left side but not the right side.

I know that's not a great description, so hopefully this image helps. I'm referring to flex at the location of the arrows and in the direction of the arrows.

 

yes, i have a small amount of flex in that area as well. i'm going to pop the wrist rest off later on today to install my ram and hopefully i can properly reseat it.

 

Do post with how that goes. It's not a big problem, it just feels like there's a support missing inside there. (I have this strong urge to apply a dab of super glue between the two pieces of plastic to stop the sliding. )

 

yup same problem here

 

same problem here. I had two t61's (order problem) both had the cracking bezel (lower left side) and the flex (or give) you guys are describing. both have the signapore XP stickers so i guess they put out a bad batch

i tried reseating it but nothing seems to work. its like the claw on the piece of plastic is lower than its connecting piece and thus we have the flex/give

its a minor issue so I'll just live with it

later

 

It's because ThinkPads aren't ThinkPads anymore, if you want something good you'll have to look at a ruggedized Toughbook or something. My old cheapo Averatecs are built much better than my T61.

 

Tis a shame your T61 sucks. My T61, and the T61's of many others, are perfectly fine.

I suggest you guys remove the wrist cover (the same panel you need to remove to upgrade memory) and reseat it. See if that does the trick.

 

Just a quick follow up to my original post. I installed my new ram today, and to do so I had to remove the palm rest, of course. When re-installing the palm rest I spent some extra time trying to get it to fit into place well. I was rewarded for my efforts with a palm rest that now has almost no flex, either in the way I described in my initial post or in terms of the flex in the flat portion of the plastic where your wrist sits (that has been mentioned elsewhere).

I wish I could be more specific as to what I did (though I don't think there's a magic trick here). But if you're concerned about flex in this part of the T61, you might try re-seating this plastic piece a few times. I'm really quite impressed (bordering on shocked, to be honest) by the results.

 

I don't have this issue. But for reference, how easy is it to remove the palm rest? Does it come off smoothly or do you have to poke and prod?

 

comes off pretty easy, takes off the four screws on the bottom and use your finger tips to pull at the protrusions at the upper most corners of the wrist rest

 

Just be a little careful not to yank it too hard once you've taken off the screws, the pad (and its electronic components) are connected to the body of the computer by a short (and seemingly fragile) leash.

 

I'll have to give this a shot as the flex is bugging me. Don't know why, it just is.

I think I got the marble hard drive too (7200 100gb). Otherwise I'm really happy!

Hopefullly re-seating it works...

 

Has anyone noticed that the strip where the ThinkVantage buttons are is clearly bent out of shape? It also seems the actual plastic behind the keyboard is bent down there... is this for a reason or is this a defect? I have the 14.1 WS T61 for reference.