Lenovo SL500 laptop series

[pete]

We have a few of these. So far, the left laptop hinge has snapped in exactly the same place snapped on 4 laptops. Jeff The Destroyer wasn't involved - this was general Open/Close use. It's always the left one because there's a overly-large hole right on a stress point.

Hinge-01.jpg Hinge-02.jpg

On top of that, the power jack is attached poorly (weak plastic clips on the tray of the laptop). If used (plugged/unplugged) for a couple of years, it will become loose in the casing because the clips have snapped. The fix is to replace the laptop tray every couple of years or (if it's out of warranty), clean up the area, shim the jack with spare plastic and weld in place with two-part epoxy for a permanent fix.

But Pete, those are business-class laptops, surely? No - they're not. Lenovo would like them to be seen as such, but if a Tesco Value Laptop existed, it'd have better build quality and design choices.

[SYSMAN_MK]

Yep had a batch of 8 of these and all have had exactly the same issues. Each time Lenovo said it was user damage, and each time I had to complain until they fixed it. Utter rubbish and disgusting warranty support.

[pete]

And make that 5. FFS. Also a reasonably careful user.

All the leverage from the screen movement is borne by less than a cm of metal on each hinge. Only one side is anchored. There's no wonder they crack.

Now 5 laptops.jpeg

The HPs don't have this problem. They do have random chemistry teachers spilling acid and curry on them, but that's not really a design flaw.

[synaesthesia]

At that point I believe you are well within your rights to get hold of Lenovo and demaned that it is clearly a manufacturing fault. As you won't be able to fall on the Sale of Goods act, you can at least make it very clear you intend to make your findings extremely public, especially as you know you're not alone. Demand to speak to their complaints department and don't let off.

[CyberNerd]

I think this could well be a manufacturing fault because we've had 25 of these without any problems.
I do agree about the stupid power supply port problem, that has failed on 3 or 4 of ours - but it is easily fixable and the dismantling instructions for lenovo are awesome.

[Dos_Box]

Arrrrghhhh. Mine snapped yesterday!
I'm going to order spare hinges today, but if anyone can provide a link to a guide on how to replace the L/H hinge it would be much appreciated.
I do notice the Lenovo forums are full of complaints about these snapping, but little in the way of recognition of the problem from Lenovo.

[SYSMAN_MK]

a link to a guide on how to replace the L/H hinge it would be much appreciated.

Here you go.