IBM Thinkpad 1560 - fourth system board replacement in 18 months

December 6, 2001:

From:

RE: I'm in IBM ThinkPad 1560 Hell

It's a long, long story, but my IBM Thinkpad i1560 is getting its FOURTH system board in 18 months. It started 2 weeks after I got the computer when the modem went out and since then it's been a constant problem and lately it's been one board after the other.

(The last one had a bad PS/2 port and the brand new board is doing the same thing! Sure it's under third-party warranty (IBM didn't offer one at the time), but I've been renting computers, shipping mine off, and going through months of hell. I wrote to IBM six weeks ago. One letter to Customer Relations, one to the CEO and one to the President. The letter from Customer Relations was returned marked "Cannot deliver without a name" and there's been no reply from anyone else. Not the first acknowledgement. The system boards are hard to get (it can take three weeks to get one) and cost a ridiculous $1900 each. That's four times a normal system board! This tells me something is screwy here. Either they all go bad and they're in short supply or they abandoned this board for good reason. Needless to say, I'm getting no satisfaction (or even a response) from IBM. Does anyone know of similar problems with the 1560 or did I just get a complete lemon and have horrible computer karma all of a sudden? Thanks,

Mad Dog