back to article Lenovo literally has a screw loose – so it's recalled flagship Carbon X1 ThinkPads

Lenovo has recalled its flagship Thinkpad X1 Carbon laptops because some may literally have a screw loose. As detailed in an advisory this week, fifth-generation X1’s “may have an unfastened screw that could damage the laptop’s battery causing overheating, potentially posing a fire hazard.” “Lenovo’s investigation and …

  1. Dwarf
    Joke

    That's a serious screw-up. Someone should get fired.

    1. Phil Kingston

      They're probably having internal torques about who will get fired

    2. DNTP

      Everyone screws up, but it looks like Lenovo is being proactive about getting these things tightened back down here.

      1. Roger Greenwood

        Are you sure it's a screw?

        Pozitive.

    3. Phil W
      Coat

      Everyone Torx about this like they are Pozitive they know what went wrong. But no-one knows Hexactly which flat head screwed up.

    4. quxinot
      Joke

      Sounds like someone at the factory was just screwing around and it got out of control.

    5. eldakka

      Someone's going to get nailed for this.

      1. Phil W

        All of these puns are riveting.

  2. JWLong

    IBM China Inc.

    Now known as:

    Wee Be Junk and Sum Inc.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: IBM China Inc.

      USA Inc. If you read Wolfe's The Right Stuff you will learn how a number of pilot fatalities were traced to the installation of securing bolts upside down.

      And of course not just the USA. Leaky propshafts on carriers, Germans with a load of subs out of service, French cars (let's not go there) - pointing fingers at the Chinese is extremely mote and beam.

      1. kain preacher

        Re: IBM China Inc.

        Why no mention of British cars with missing screws :)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: IBM China Inc.

          "Why no mention of British cars with missing screws"

          My experience of British cars says it was all downhill after the Morris Minor, so yes, well spotted. But there are so few actually British cars these days that they barely appear on the radar.

          British car problems were not workforce but management related, so if the factory is foreign owned it doesn't count.

          There were, however, a number of British cars and motorcycles made with excess screws. You knew this because they used to litter the road and cause punctures.

          1. kain preacher

            Re: IBM China Inc.

            I guess I should of said heaters that dont work, faulty spedos and leaking oil

  3. Richard 12 Silver badge

    Seems to happen with new cars pretty often

    Car recalls that boil down to "We used the wrong screw/bolt/nut" seem to happen every couple of months.

  4. DavCrav

    Just picked up and shook my Thinkpad. It rattled. Fantastic.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      That will be your hard drive

      That will be your spinning hard drive, make sure you switch off properly and park the drive next time.

      Telling non-techs to rattle laptops to check for loose screws is not a good idea.

      1. Peter Gathercole Silver badge

        Re: That will be your hard drive

        I think that all Carbon X1's have SSDs.

        Just saying.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      > .Just picked up and shook my Thinkpad. It rattled. Fantastic.

      ..As did mine for years until the screen hinges just couldn't keep it up any more (being unhinged can affect your.... etc etc) The solution was epoxy putty, squished well in, doing duty as screws. Six year old crappy thinkpad still going strong but I'll not risk trying to get it through airport security...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The joke passed you by.

    As title.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Fault analysis undertaken and fix identified

    Investigation has identified the problem: the production line ran out of glue so the screw wasn't glued in.

    1. AndyS

      Re: Fault analysis undertaken and fix identified

      > Investigation has identified the problem: the production line ran out of glue so the screw wasn't glued in.

      You do realise this is likely exactly the problem? Screws are normally retained with a thread locker (the blue gunk on nearly all tiny screw threads). No thread lock? The screw will work loose over time.

      1. Jason 24

        Re: Fault analysis undertaken and fix identified

        @andys

        Always wondered what that blue gunk was. Thanks!

        Love these forums.

        1. Aitor 1

          Re: Fault analysis undertaken and fix identified

          If you disassemble your pc, be sure to have loctite blue at hand:

          https://www.bearing-king.co.uk/bearing/loctite-248-medium-strength-stick-9g/8840

          As far as I know that is what they use.

          1. quxinot

            Re: Fault analysis undertaken and fix identified

            If you're using blue loctite on screws that small, you're doing it wrong. Purple is the stuff you're looking for.

            The factory-applied blue stuff is actually a plastic that's melted with some ugly solvents so that it can be machine-applied to fasteners and allowed to dry. That way you don't end up with assembly workers putting the wrong amount on, and they don't get glued to the conveyor.

  7. Alan Edwards

    Sealed laptops

    If this was a T430-era laptop, the fix would be to remove the back cover and give it a quick shake to get the loose screw out. Instructions for doing that is in the freely available hardware manual.

    Of course the battery on those was hung off the back, so a loose screw inside wouldn't set fire to it anyway.

    Every day I seem to end up hoping more my T410 never dies.

    1. JeffyPoooh
      Pint

      Re: Sealed laptops

      AE mentioned, "...T430-era laptop..."

      Yeah, we've got FIVE of the Lenovo T-series laptops. They're still fantastic, even years after they were manufactured. Heck, I bought them used in 2014.

      On the subject of tiny screws, I was recently replacing the battery in my silly MS Surface RT 2 tablet. It's infested with tiny T4 screws, and then even tinier T3 screws. CRAZY small. The torque required to snug them up is seemingly about 5% less than the torque needed to strip the driver bit. I went through three T3 bits by the time it was reassembled. Thank goodness that I had ordered several driver bit sets from eBay while waiting for the battery to arrive.

  8. Nimby
    WTF?

    Testing?

    I'm still baffled that Lenovo apparently doesn't test their production line? I thought shake tests and such were SOP. (I know they are where I work.)

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