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ThinkPad R500 - Needing Some Hardware Repair Advice

R400/R500 Series
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ScottyBoy
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ThinkPad R500 - Needing Some Hardware Repair Advice

#1 Post by ScottyBoy » Sat Apr 28, 2012 3:10 pm

Evening All!!! First time poster but long time follower and I'm needing a wee bit of help!

Basically I've been dragged kicking and screaming into helping out a mate of mine with a ThinkPad R500 (MPN: 2716-W7F) that he purchased off of eBay UK for £74.00p (roughly US $120.00) - it was purchased as spares & repairs but all it needed done to get it working was to reseat the single DIMM that was present (lucky git I say! :eek: ).

Unfortunately that was the easy bit to the story - the palmrest has a big old crack in it (still usable but the cracked edges are sharp) but also the optical drive eject arm is basically loose i.e. it sticks out fully and can be easy pushed back in but just pops out by itself.

Basically what I need to confirm is how easy is it to get the optical drive eject arm fixed (i.e. is it a spring that's gone inside that mechanism?) and how much disassembly is needed to get at it - next with regards to the palmrest, I have spare one from a 15.4" T61p (FRU: 42W2024) and just wanted to see would that be compatible for use with the R500; the latter I'm not to sure about as I can't see the FRU listed within the service manual but wasn't sure if the basic level of support was present (i.e. FrankenPad level).

Thanks in advance and appreciate any assistance & input you can provide me.

Cheers, Scotty Boy! :D

sir_synthsalot
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Re: ThinkPad R500 - Needing Some Hardware Repair Advice

#2 Post by sir_synthsalot » Thu May 17, 2012 7:11 pm

I'm not sure about the ejector arm, but the palm rest is very easy to replace. I think it is held by a few screws that you can acess from the bottom of the laptop. If you reseated the DIMM you should know how to remove the palmrest. For the ejector arm I would download the maintenance manual and take a look.
I'M DONE WITH THINKPADS, JUST DONE!!!

ScottyBoy
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Re: ThinkPad R500 - Needing Some Hardware Repair Advice

#3 Post by ScottyBoy » Mon May 28, 2012 8:43 am

sir_synthsalot wrote:I'm not sure about the ejector arm, but the palm rest is very easy to replace. I think it is held by a few screws that you can acess from the bottom of the laptop. If you reseated the DIMM you should know how to remove the palmrest. For the ejector arm I would download the maintenance manual and take a look.
Thanks for your reply post - replacing the palmrest is easy but I was asking about confirming the compatibility of an older model palmrest (T61/R61 series) with the R500 ThinkPad; I've confirmed that the one I have is not compatible and have purchased a replacement for it to get that addressed for my mate.

With regards to the ejector arm I've confirmed that it's built into the frame and would require the bottom section of the case and frame to be replaced, so the decision has been made to leave that as is for the time being as the prices listed on eBay UK along with local resellers is quite high.

richk
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Re: ThinkPad R500 - Needing Some Hardware Repair Advice

#4 Post by richk » Wed May 30, 2012 4:04 pm

Palmrest is not compatible with T61. The ejector arm problem can be many things, ranging from no parts needed up to needing a base. It needs to be disassembled to examine. It requires removing the motherboard and frame. Sometimes the ejector arm can be snapped back into its track.

TuuS
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Re: ThinkPad R500 - Needing Some Hardware Repair Advice

#5 Post by TuuS » Tue Jul 09, 2013 1:48 am

You can usually replace the ejector parts if they are damaged. I have a few sets for T61, but don't have a disassembled R500 to compare if they are the same. If you remove the lower cover you should be able to tell what's broken.

ScottyBoy
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Re: ThinkPad R500 - Needing Some Hardware Repair Advice

#6 Post by ScottyBoy » Fri Sep 26, 2014 10:40 am

Update: The 'ejector arm' was swapped out from the base unit of an archived T61p 15.4" WS - thankfully it fit in perfectly without any issues, which was a very welcome & pleasant surprise.

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