X61T, Hinge Power Off [ Editado ]

[paier]

In the last week or two, I've encountered a pretty serious problem with my X61T.

Anyways, the issue is the following:

Every single time I tilt the screen below ~70 degrees towards me, with the screen facing me, the X61T completely powers off. It will not turn on after that without pulling the battery, then re-inserting the battery.

Rotating the screen to work in tablet mode, etc, has no issues.

This is a hardware problem, because it happens even while the PC isn't completely booted yet (in BIOS or whatever)

My X61T out of warranty now, and I use it daily for school...anybody else encounter this issue, and know of any fixes? I really don't want to (a) lose the laptop for a week+, (b) pay lots to fix it.

The only other slightly similar problem online I've seen is here:

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-Tablet-ThinkPad-Laptops/X61-Tablet-gt-total-power-cut-off-on-ba...

Thanks guys

[paier]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzrBDWwea0k

Video of the problem

[topmahof Community Moderator]

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=95037

Here's something along those lines.  There's a lot of wires that come through that hinge and they go to different connectors on the board. Could be a wire shorting in the cable or a loose connector on the board that loses contact when the screen is in that position.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-66749

Here's your hardware maintenance manual. It'll show you where everything is.  I don't know how you are with taking things apart but Lenovos aren't that hard to work on.  While you have it apart, blow the fan and vents out with a can of air.

[paier]

Hm, thanks for the advice topmahof.

According to the first thread, I might just have to remove the LCD bezel in order to get to the cables and connectors. I'll see if I have some time in the near future to take it apart and see if there's anything loose...

[topmahof Community Moderator]

I'd start just by taking the hinge caps off and looking at the wires at the hinge.  Who knows, you might get lucky and see a rub in the wire.

[paier]

Wires are fine under the hinge caps...

I ended up taking off the LCD bezel, looking at the micro processor board, and unconnecting/reconnecting the connectors. 

Didn't really do anything  issue still exists...and it doesn't seem to have been an issue from under the bezel.

Not only that, but now my LCD bezel is loose because it was previously glued to the screen, and I had to remove it. Sigh...

Any other suggestions?

[topmahof Community Moderator]

I would really hate to see you lose functionality of your tablet by taking it apart, but the next step is keyboard removal and checking all the connectors on the board. I would say that the issue is with the cable from the lcd itself. I would say that there is a wire shorting in those cables.  Keep in mind that doing this might make it worse. Replacing lcd cables is not the easiest thing to replace.   Be gentle.  Discharge any static electricity before you start.  You can just run your hands under water to discharge static.  take out the battery. 

In order to get to all the connections, you're probably going to have to take the keyboard off and take the palmrest off.

It's kinda tough to diagnose something like this without seeing it.  I really doubt it is a connection on the board, though.  It really sounds like a  bad cable.   

[paier]

Ugh, yeah, I guess I have to give that a try.

I think I can take a peek at the cables right by the hinge just by taking off the keyboard then the keyboard bezel. I'll try that within the next few days.

My screen is getting even wonkier, and rotating it around rather than towards me now sometimes powers the tablet off and sometimes makes the screen flicker on and off with a few lines. I'm thinking it's an LCD cable connected to the motherboard. Do you know where exactly that cable is? Is it under the keyboard bezel?

Thanks for your help in the diagnoses!

[topmahof Community Moderator]

It should be real close to the top of the keyboard.  There's a lot of different cables that come through the hinge, antenna cables, your microphone cable. Make sure you look at the manual in my first post.  It doesn't show the actual lcd connector very well, but it's close to the hinge.  They don't give you very much room in there.   Be gentle.  

[paier]

So I pulled off the keyboard and bezel, but I think the connectors for the LCD and what not are under the motherboard...do I have to disassemble everything to get under there?

I was also thinking perhaps it could be the switch that either rotates the screen when it's in tablet mode or puts the laptop into sleep mode when it's closed. Would you have any idea where that switch is?

Thanks again for your help...