A Pleasant Computer Warranty Support Experience

[Pib]

Last week eight keyboard keys (all grouped together) on my Lenovo laptop started being intermittent to flat-out not working. I'm 22 months into the 24 month warranty. Friday mid day I take the laptop to a Lenovo service center (SVOA) here in western Bangkok and showed them the problem. Actually this service center (SVOA) repairs many different brands of computers, printers, electronic items, etc. They didn't have a Eng/Thai keyboard in stock at their location and initially wanted to keep the laptop until they get the keyboard and can install it. I didn't want to go that route because I can still use the computer by hooking up an external USB keyboard.

They then tell me I can take the Lenovo laptop to the IBM service center in the IBM Building in central highrise Bangkok and probably get the keyboard replaced under waranty while I wait as they know others have done such. Well, I didn't want to drive into central Bangkok since it's usually a traffic nightmare. So, they contact the IBM service center and find out they have a couple keyboards in stock and they can ship one over on Monday or Tuesday. That's arranged, I take my computer back home, and continue to use it.

I get a call around 1pm today/Monday the keyboard has arrived, I take the laptop back to the western Bankgok service location, they spend about 20 minutes installing the keyboard and doing the final repair paperwork, I'm walking out the door a little later with my repaired Lenovo laptop (no cost since it was under warranty).

Turned out to be pleasant and fast warranty repair service....and at least the laptop didn't wait until the day after the 24 month warranty to break. Wishing all of you that your computer warranty repair service (if ever needed) goes as well.

Edited September 7, 2015 by Pib

[thedemon]

Doubtful you could get that kind of service while you wait in many western countries. Nice story.

20 mins is pretty fast to change a keyboard. Does it come out the top on your Lenovo? I changed one recently on a Samsung. Everything had to come out (incl mainboard) then remove some PVC adhesive film, then 60-70 (no kidding) miniscule screws holding the KB to the chassis.

[Pib]

Easy to change... actually it can be changed in just a couple of minutes...I've personally done it a few times when installing additional RAM and a SSD... plus last week when the problem first appeared and I wanted to confirm it wasn't just a bad connection. Remove three keyboard retention screws accessible from the bottom of the laptop, then insert a toothpick into one of the screw holes to push up the keyboard enough to where you can get your fingernails under it, and then finish pulling it up and out...then unflip the keyboard cable retainer clip and remove the keyboard. It can really be removed in under a minute if wanting to.... Reverse process to reinstall in under a minute also if you rush.

Now removing the bottom cover to install RAM and a SSD is a different story...around 20 screws need to be removed, the keyboard, the DVD drive, and then trying to unclip the cover without breaking plastic clips.... I've done it twice... took about 45 minutes while taking care the entire time.

Fortunately Lenovo provides free maintenance manuals for it models downloadable from their support website which shows you how to do the removal/reinstall.

[Pib]

A thing about laptops now days is some models are becoming more like most tablets which are very hard to disassemble since they are screwed/snapped/glued together at the factory....I guess the manufacturers would prefer you to go buy a new tablet when the battery needs replacement versus designing the tablet where the battery can be easily accessed and replaced like on most smartphones. Maybe they are thinking the same for laptops now days.

22 months ago when I was in the market to buy another laptop due to my primary 8 year old Toshiba laptop dying (no video, but I got that repaired by replacing the GPU chip for Bt1.500) it struck me how many laptops today do not have access panels on the bottom to access the RAM and hard drive. Instead a person may have to do some very significant dis-assembly which is doable "if" you know how/have instructions....just starting to remove screws and prying plastic parts can end up badly sometimes with broke parts and loose/unsecure parts left in the laptop....and one PO'ed owner.

So what to do if you want to do it yourself? Well, start googling for instructions/pictures, looking for youtube videos, etc....but beware of some of the youtube videos as some are just not the right way to do a disassembly....I figure that from looking at some of the youtube videos over the years while maintaining my two 8 eight year Toshiba laptops...like taking them apart to clean the fan, change a speaker, just fix some issue....fortunately my younger days were involved in electronics repair so I'm comfortable to tearing apart electronic items "when I have a maintenance manual to go by."

And Lenovo provides maintenance manuals for their models (or at the least the models I've been interested in or own) on their support website where they provide updated drivers....at the support page for your model there is tab tilted "Manuals" which will contain the user manuals and hopefully a "maintenance" manual for your model. The maintenance manual include lots of pictures and a listing of parts with part numbers...great when trying to figure out a part number for a item without having to tear your laptop apart to look at the current part number. A availability of a manufacturer's maintenance manual is a plus in my buying decision since I hang onto my laptops until they reach that "uneconomical to repair" point and that point is harder to reach when I'm able to do some repair/maintenance....pretty much anything short of desoldering/soldering integrated circuits.

As mentioned Lenovo maintenance manuals can be downloaded from their support site under the webpage for a person's particular Lenovo model....like at this webpage which is for my Lenovo Z510....how to remove/replace the keyboard with plenty of pictures is shown on page 33-36. Yeap, in my book, free Lenovo maintenance manuals is a buying plus in book.

[Thailaw]

Glad you got your laptop repaired with little difficulty or cost. But, it is, I think, an indication of the generally poor build quality of Lenovo electronics. When I was in the Abu Dhabi duty free electronics shop last year and looking at computers, the only brand that the sales rep strongly suggested to avoid was Lenovo, because (in his words) poor quality and reliability. And Dell and HP are IMHO very similar in that regard.

I had a top-of-the-line Dell that had a similar problem to yours, 8 to 10 keys did not function. I had the keyboard replaced (not under warranty) with an original Dell part, and within 6 months the new keyboard had the same problem. I used it 3 months with an external USB keyboard until I decided on a replacement laptop. I chose Asus, and the build quality is excellent -- never Dell again, and I wouldn't consider Lenovo, although their tablets and 2-in-1 laptops have very appealing designs. And the value for money with Asus is also excellent, especially at the lower end of the spectrum. I am really not sure about their warranty support, because I have never had to use it. We have 3 Asus computers, 2 Asus tablets (Fonepads), and an Asus smartphone, and all work flawlessly, with the Fonepads being managed by a 5 yo and a 7 yo all the time. I have a Microsoft Surface Pro3 which is as good or better than the new Asus, but at more than double the cost, and the Surface only has an i5 and the Asus has an i7 processor.

So, next time buy an Asus computer and you won't need to worry about warranty support or even know where it is. And, no, I don't own Asus stock, but I should.

[Pib]

Asus does indeed usually rate near the top in various reviews/reports....so does Lenovo. When I was researching to buy my latest laptop (the Lenovo Z510) back in late Oct/early Nov 13, I did a lot of online research regarding laptop reliability, customer surveys, hands-on use by going to stores to play with the models on display, and once narrowing it down to a couple of models I would research those models specifications closely like to see what CPU they had (i..e., dual core, four thread.....quad core, eight thread, etc) since even within the same CPU family (such as the Intel i7 family) there can big difference in capability, benchmark speed, wattage, etc. I researched more than just the CPU spec...just using that as an example.

When the research and hands-on dust settled I bought the Lenovo. Two things that gave it some extra points over Asus was I found a model that had a i7 CPU with quad core, eight threads (Asus only had dual core, four thread models at the time) and Lenovo had free maintenance manuals where Asus didn't. Plus, at that time it seemed Lenovo's were just being sold everywhere...much more so than Asus....probably due to more models to choose from and many price points. So, since I couldn't find any Toshiba laptop I liked (Toshiba had went downhill from years earlier) and Asus came in as a close second in my research for the laptop I wanted, a Lenovo it was...the Z510.

And when I was at the repair shop with my Toshiba and shopping in the stores before finally deciding on the Lenovo, I would ask which brands they recommend for reliability if the person I was talking to seemed creditable/knowledgeable on the subject...like a tech who repaired laptops and wasn't trying to sell a laptop to me, etc. Lenovo and Asus was usually their recommendation and brands like Acer and HP were ones to avoid. One repair shop even pointed to the shelves where they had their incoming and outgoing laptops stored....the great majority were Acer and HP.

But even with those recommendations (and the ones I list below) have to be taken with a grain of salt because a manufacturer's mid and high end laptops (usually the ones with two year warranties) can be significantly better than their low end laptops (usually the ones with one year warranties).....manufacturers go through cycles in how good/reliable their product is. Also, a lot of times the laptops which supposedly fail is "not" due to hardware problems but clueless owners who mess-up the software, blame it on a hardware fault, send the laptop off for repair/refund. Reading some Reviews by individuals on online shopping sites are just downright funny sometimes in why they give a particular laptop a low/1 star rating because you can tell from their review the hardware was perfectly fine and it was just a software issue they caused, a lack of knowledge on their part, or just a case of dumb-ass on their part.

By the way, before I took the laptop to the service center I first went to a nearby repair shop in the Bang Khai Mall over here in western Bangkok to see if I could buy a keyboard since they are usually cheap and easy to replace...and just to avoid the trip/downtime to take my laptop to the service center. This particular shop has a big selection of new keyboards for laptops, RAM, etc. Unfortunately they didn't have a keyboard for my exact model but they did have a keyboard for some other Lenovo models (keyboard price around Bt1,200) and many keyboards for Asus models....gosh, they had many keyboards for probably all major brands. I appear to do a brisk business in laptop keyboard replacement.

Keyboard failures on laptops is not uncommon for many brands....even on my two eight year old Toshiba's I've changed the keyboards once on each...usually the more commonly used keys would require a "lot" of extra pressure to work for the Toshiba's. But on my Lenovo the 4, 5, r, t, f, g, v, and b keys became intermittent to non-working...looking at those keys you will see the form a diagonal pattern on the keyboard...the individual keys were not defective but the one IC circuit they fed into was defective. Typical for keyboards to fail this way...even based on some desktop keyboards I had fail over the years. I guess I just type/talk much and wear them out....like this long-winded post.

Anyway, here a couple of links with key extracts on laptop reliability/use ratings (to be taken with a big grain of salt).

PCMag 2014 Readers Choice Awards: Link (Both Asus and Lenovo get dinged for tech support not to be confused with warranty repair)

Square Trade Laptop Reliability Report: Link (This report is kinda old Nov 2009...there was a later one which I can find right now that pretty much reaffirmed what the 2009 report had).

Best and Worst Laptop Brands for 2015: Link (Notice Lenovo had been #2 for 2011 thru 2014 but took a dive in 2015 because of some preloaded software and/or tech support...Asus also took a dive in 2015 for tech support).

[dddave]

Just goes to show how different peoples experiences can be. I had an absolute nightmare experience at Lenovo's Pantip Plaza service center and swore off their computer products forever.

Good that it worked out for you.

Interesting that the repair charts posted in this thread (with one exception) show Acer to be a better performer than Dell or HP. Usually, any time the Acer name comes up on TV it is followed by the words "Junk" or "Crap". Guess some crap is better than others.

[speedtripler]

Just goes to show how different peoples experiences can be. I had an absolute nightmare experience at Lenovo's Pantip Plaza service center and swore off their computer products forever.

Good that it worked out for you.

Interesting that the repair charts posted in this thread (with one exception) show Acer to be a better performer than Dell or HP. Usually, any time the Acer name comes up on TV it is followed by the words "Junk" or "Crap". Guess some crap is better than others.

The last two charts have acer in 9th/last place... I think they are garbage but so are cheap Dell's

The Dell latitude business line are a different animal, I would totally recommend them but they come in at a different price point and most people won't pay that much for a 3-5 year NBD warranty

Edited September 8, 2015 by speedtripler

[Thailaw]

Just goes to show how different peoples experiences can be. I had an absolute nightmare experience at Lenovo's Pantip Plaza service center and swore off their computer products forever.

Good that it worked out for you.

Interesting that the repair charts posted in this thread (with one exception) show Acer to be a better performer than Dell or HP. Usually, any time the Acer name comes up on TV it is followed by the words "Junk" or "Crap". Guess some crap is better than others.

The last two charts have acer in 9th/last place... I think they are garbage but so are cheap Dell's

The Dell latitude business line are a different animal, I would totally recommend them but they come in at a different price point and most people won't pay that much for a 3-5 year NBD warranty

Good/helpful information in Pib's post above. I think that it is helpful to remember that (1) the laptop/tablet market continues to change rapidly and what was true a few years ago may not be true today and (2) the quality of laptops may not be the same across a manufacturer's line. My former law firm used Think Pads for many years and when IBM made them they were fine, but when Lenovo bought the brand the quality/dependability fell off dramatically. I have been negative on Lenovo ever since, but given their ranking in Pib's chart, it may be worth giving them a look again. The law firm switched to Dell, which was a problem for me from the day I got one -- poor quality and poor service (at least in Singapore). But, since Michael Dell took Dell private, the emphasis on quality may have returned to the company -- from the chart it appears that it is improving. There is nothing about Dell that appeals to me, but Lenovo has some very nice and well designed 2-in-1 laptops that are worth considering if the quality/reliability has improved. I just purchased an Asus TP550 "Transformer" which is great (but a bit heavy), so I am set on computers for the time being, but when that needs replacing I will certainly check on the quality/reliability stats for Lenovo and consider them as a possibility. Reliability is my Number 1 requirement; everything else is a minor concern, and I have gotten excellent reliability from Asus. Speed is important, but I think that my speed is limited by my internet connection rather than by my hardware. As far as brands are concerned, I think Acer, HP are to be avoided, and Lenovo and Dell should be considered only if an individual laptop clearly meets your requirements better than the alternatives. As far as build quality and value for money, it is very hard to beat Asus, full stop.

One thought on keyboards -- I always (unless traveling) use an external keyboard and mouse. Logitech makes some nice wireless packages with a single receiver for under B1000. I like the feel much better, and the built-in pad mouse is IMO useless. And my keyboard on my laptop is always covered by a silicone "condom" to keep dust and dirt out. The keyboard on my 3 year old Asus K41E laptop (now my daughter's) has barely been used and is virtually "new". If keyboards are a particularly weak component of Lenovo laptops, you might consider that as a regular setup.

[fasteddie]

I bought an Acer in Krabi some years ago, within no time at all I poured a pint of Chang all over it. I took it back to the shop and they sent it to Phuket for repair, a week later it was back all spick and span and fixed for free under guarantee, well impressed.

Incidentally, I now have a Dell Inspiron 1545 which I've had for 5yrs with no troubles and the build quality is excellent, definitely one of the best laptops I've ever had. It's only drawback is it has no HDMI so I bought a Thinkpad edge just for that purpose, big mistake, what a piece of rubbish, it's 11 months old and had so many problems I've already had to have windows reloaded, the screen has a bunch of vertical lines down the l/h side and the build quality is, well, non existent, it bends and creaks and groans I'm loath to touch it.