Got a new W520 - All is good again...for now.

[Chatbox]

I think there's also the confusion with whoever was handling adda's case...as he didn't replace any part.

[ThorsHammer]

SoDIMM sticks should be customer replaceable units in any state.  Same for the mSATA drive, primary hard drive, and Ultrabay devices.

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

But didnt Adda replace the heatsink or modified it in some way? Or am i reading the post wrong.

[Chatbox]

I thought he only took it off, and gave it a clean up (repasted thermal paste).

The way I see it is that the thermal unit is not exactly a high-tech unit...it's just a lump of copper, a fan, and screws.  So there's a rather low risk when it comes to repasting it.

We (here in the forum), actually seem to know more about how to maintain and replace the thermal unit than the instructions show here: http://lenovo.f.relayware.com/content/CourseWarePublic/6631/course%20files/index.html

For one, the video didn't show that one should ensure the thermal pads for the VRAM are properly aligned.  And didn't show that the person should clean off the old paste before replacing.

The whole thing about Lenovo suggesting users to use TPFanControl is also strange if you ask me.  Because, an engineer "could" have said, the software has tempered with the fan's to exceed maximum functioning speed that Lenovo designed it with, and thereby "could" void warranty as well.

Anyway, in my book, thermal unit replacement is a trivial task.

[Adda]

I'm not sure I'd call it a modification, more like repairs.

When I got my W510, it had frequent slowdowns that could result in crashes if I didn't stop what I was doing.

So I thought I'd change the coolerpaste, but found that the cooler had solder on the CPU cooler pad, causing it to have poor contact with the CPU.

Since my laptop is my radio, CD player, television, workstation and entertainment system, I didn't want to send it in for repairs so I ordered a new cooler.

I got the cooler and installed it only to find the problem had gotten worse, I found that the new cooler had a very poor fit, the heatpipes where bent wrong causing the cooler pads to have poor contact with both CPU and GPU.

I bent the heatpipes so that the cooler got a good fit which solved the heat problem for the most part, I still get crashes if room temp goes too high while HT is enabled.

I did brake the palm rest the first time I took my W510 apart, not something I proud of, but I just ordered a new one, I know the risks and accept them when I service my laptop my self.

Then you can claim that I lack skill because of this accident, but I bet most technicians have had accidents at one time or another, the W510's palm rest is mounted quite differently then palmrests on previous ThinkPad models and is much harder to remove/install.

[Adda]

To make sure no one thinks I'm making stuff up here are some pictures.

A pic of the CPU cooler pad on the cooler my W510 came with from the start:

And some pictures of the replacement coolers poor fit, now I can't bend the heat pipes at the wide angle so the mis alighnment is not my doing:

[Chatbox]

So, here's the question (probably for Lenovo).  Since the thermal unit is a replacement, and is a non-CRU part....where's the tech engineer that supposed to fit it in for you?

Did the tech engineer not fulfill their responsiblity in this matter?

[Adda]

I ordered the cooler my self through Lonovos parts shop, no tech involved.

[Chatbox]

You're saying you didn't utilise your used-to-be valid W510 warranty for this particular replacement?

WHY?

[Adda]

Yes, I did not want to send my W510 in for repairs as I'm pretty dependant on it.