Lenovo Nightmare

[Rikere]

Anyone know a way to actually contact Lenovo's tech support? Their site's hot garbage and won't let me do anything but post to their forums and get ignored. I can pay for their expertPro or whatever, but that's not what I want. I want a damned support ticket for their screw up..

 

I have a Yoga 730-15IKB.  It was a decent little machine, except Lenovo has mastered the art of ignoring customer complaints on warranty repairs. There's a well known issue where the video cable basically gets eaten through and dies. The screen will flicker and then just give up the ghost altogether. The issue occured on the 720 as well, but apparently that didn't get Lenovo to stop weakening their cables. In my case, I had the extended warranty, onsite support. I had a crashing issue that I thought was maybe bad ram on the board (soldered, yay). Well, it's corona season, they won't honor onsite support, but we're sure happy to take a month+ to get it mailed in, tell you absolutely nothing, and then just return it with a form that vaguely implies we did something. I sent them thorough documentation on how to reproduce the screen issue, the ram issue, etc.

 

I got it back at the end of May. It's warranty had expired before they actually got it back to me. There's no way to follow up with them on their site or get an ounce of support. They apparently don't warranty their actual repair work. The screen cable completely gave out a few days ago. The OS does not detect the laptop's built in screen anymore, though it does seem to still get power.

 

I can find the part on ebay for $30, but I have no clue how the hell to open the display assembly up. There's no screws, so I'm figuring the entire top of this thing is glued together. Kind of a case of god help me getting it apart.

 

I can't believe LTT backed these jackasses with that Yoga 14 video, because I've gotten nothing but the runaround on this thing.

[Kanna]

I think it is possible if you have their app from the windows store if you have another os or whole device is broken then idk anymore

[xdeathshot20]

@Rikere lenovo support is garbage.  Unless you have premium care which is what they offer on there thinkpads, dont bother calling them.  My company that i work for is contracted by them and when i have to call them its a hassle.  I have worked on your particular computer before.  It isnt that hard to do a lcd cable replacement on just takes time and you have to be careful.  If i remember correctly its like 8 screws in total besides the bottem panel and some tape.  You just need to make sure that you have a torx t5 bit as that is what the bottem panels usally use.  If you plan on doing this repair your self, make sure you get new adhesive as without it, the display will just fall out.  Use this manuel as a refrence and if this isnt your model, then search your model on google and type in hmm after it.

 

https://download.lenovo.com/consumer/mobiles_pub/yoga730-15ikb_hmm_201802.pdf

[Rikere]

@xdeathshot20 I believe I need this part:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-YOGA-730-15IKB-LCD-LED-Video-Display-Screen-Flex-EDP-Cable-DC02002ZG00/193052202534?

 

As long as that's replaceable. The panel itself? Completely fine. As far as I know, it's just this stupid cable. The manual helps, I might try to DIY this.

[xdeathshot20]

@Rikerethat looks right but be careful as some models use multiple lcd cables.  Look to see before you order.  The cable can be replaced without replacing the panel itself.  Generally only certant thinkpads cant have just the lcd's replaced

[panzersharkcat]

This is why the only Lenovo laptops I get are ThinkPads. (There are also a few Lenovo warranty support centers near my work. The only Lenovo devices they service are ThinkPads.) Anyway, if you want to open it up yourself, I attached the hardware maintenance manual for the one you have.

yoga730-15ikb_hmm_201802.pdf

[Donut417]

On 7/22/2020 at 8:17 PM, Rikere said:

I can't believe LTT backed these jackasses with that Yoga 14 video, because I've gotten nothing but the runaround on this thing.

Well first of all they are sent tech. They do a first impressions video and that about sums it up. Remember they also backed Razer and they have had to sent multiple of their Razer laptops in for repair. The fact is most companies have crap support. 

 

The best way to contact these companies is via Facebook and Twitter because it's a public forum, they don't like bad press. 

[Lord Vile]

6 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Well first of all they are sent tech. They do a first impressions video and that about sums it up. Remember they also backed Razer and they have had to sent multiple of their Razer laptops in for repair. The fact is most companies have crap support. 

 

The best way to contact these companies is via Facebook and Twitter because it's a public forum, they don't like bad press. 

Agree with this, I get a lot more done tweeting at a support page than I do getting a ticket and getting the runaround. 

[Quoo]

such a shame...

before ibm sold thinkpad 380 product line they were best out there

now as of 1/20 lenowo has cut the pentium 2 option

[DarkEnergy]

I bought a refurbished thinkpad a few years ago. Battery full charge capacity tanked about 40% in less than a year which is covered under their warranty. I send it in, they send it back with no repair stating that it isn't covered under warranty. I then point out that their warranty says otherwise, and have to send it back out. They then send it back with a new battery to the wrong address after I even made a separate call to confirm the address (was moving at the time). They definitely don't like fixing things that are even under warranty. Even with some other issues I've had with the laptop in the past, I'd still by another because competitor offerings aren't much better. Also that thinkpad keyboard is like heaven for my fingers.

[Rikere]

They have responded on Facebook. Supposedly my case has now been escalated. We'll see what they do.

 

I wouldn't buy another Lenovo. I have three of their systems, two have had breakdowns. I have an old Desktop from them, the PSU self destructed (fixed myself, nice modular one). I don't fault them for the PSU failure, it was I think 7 years old by the time that went, and it failed during a storm (it was on a PSU, so I'm not sure if it was just the exact way voltages changed or what). I think a cap failed. And this laptop.

 

I DO really love my Yoga 730, it has a nice enough keyboard, it ran well enough, and all.. but when you drop over $1K in the machine itself, I think $200 for the onsite service, and you get breakdowns and failed repairs, it really says a lot about them. I have older machines from Dell that have seen much harder lives, and never failed.

[Rikere]

After poking them on Facebook, Lenovo reached out over email and they'll fix it. It IS another depot repair, which I'm not happy about. They're calling this a more intensive diagnosis. At least this time they can't deny the screen being completely boned.

[Rikere]

Some testing today. Wiped the system to be sent in. The screen worked. Touch didn't, but the screen lit up and functioned. I found that interesting.

 

It always broke down while I was using it, so... let's put some stress on it. Cinebench R20 looping + load up twitch/youtube streams in the browser to try and stress the GPU a tiny bit. Press a little on keyboard, and there goes the screen.

 

This FEELS like a thermal issue now. The touch is no doubt a bad connection somewhere, but if heating the system up makes it vulnerable to this.. And to be clear, I'm not hammering on the keyboard, I'm pushing down barely enough to get a flex. Cinebench had been running for about 2 minutes. The CPU hadn't even thermal throttled (though it did post a disappointing 1309 score, though it IS a laptop).

[Rikere]

Update:

A month later and it's back. Lenovo support gets an F-Minus.

 

They wouldn't tell me what was wrong, only that they have now replaced both the mainboard (again) and the top case.

Open it up... Touch screen doesn't work. Wacom digitizer doesn't work. BUT at least it's not flickering at me.

 

 

Out of the box, they didn't fix everything. That said... I think I fixed the touch screen myself.

 

There's no way in hell they tested the touch screen, first boot, open it, and no touch. Nothing. Left it sit a while and tapped it a lot, suddenly got touch. "Oh, must've been a driver thing." Later on, wake from sleep, no touch. Ask Lennovo "oh, shucks, sorry, we did our best. You're on your own bud."

 

I think I figured it out though. Their driver, for the touch screen and wacom... it has a power saving mode. And it defaults to ON. It'll just, at random decide to deactivate all touch until you dig through device manager, find the 3-4 devices involved and disable it on every last one of them. And it does this regardless of whether it's on battery or plugged in.

 

 

I'm just going to hope they put the thermal compound on the GPU this time. I'll try not to stress this thing, because I really don't know if it'll take it.