Lenovo Legion 5 - 15ARH7H Burnt motherboard components

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  • CheeseeCupcake's Avatar
    Level 3
    One morning I woke up to a burning smell coming from my laptop that's 3 months old. I've nothing but cared for it, considering I'm working in IT hardware support and servicing, although my service center isn't Lenovo certified so I had to send the laptop for warranty through the vendor I bought it from.




    The issue I'm facing with is that the official Lenovo certified repair service is denying my warranty request due to CID (reason being I took out a FRU SSD out to make a backup of it which is under Customer Responsibilities for Warranty Service: https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/t..._en_update.pdf





    What am I to do and do I have right for warranty parts repair/laptop replacement?





    Quick edit: I removed the SSD AFTER the damage and the burns have already happened, no tinkering beforehand. I do not have the part number for the SSD yet and I am unsure if it's FRU or CRU.





    P.S. Pictures are from the warranty repair service. Please do note that there are more burnt components under the heatsink that the warranty repair service didn't take a picture of.
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  • 8 Replies

  • NadaGalal's Avatar
    Level 33
    True sad story 🥲
    hope you can fix it soon🤞, and someone here answer your question
    I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye.
  • Evie's Avatar
    Level 36
    Actually, I have no idea about the topic
    I don't know much about warranty and consumer laws
    But I hope you fix it as soon as possible😥
  • Marwaesam's Avatar
    Level 32
    Did you leave the laptop on the charger or not?
  • Sarkhan's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @SirLongoVZ @Lascax any wise advice from you guys?
  • SirLongoVZ's Avatar
    Level 29
    @CheeseeCupcake Hi Cheesee, try to get in touch with Lenovo via this website https://support.lenovo.com/it/it/sol...ervice-request.

    Fill with your Serial Number, go to "contact us", and try with whatsapp messenger chat. (In Italy we have an online chat that is much way better but I didn't find it with english lenguage).
    Explain there the issue you had with the laptop and with lenovo assistance center.

    I work a lot with Lenovo support and it's always a better solutions to write or call them.
  • Lascax's Avatar
    Level 38
    Are you on the PremiumCare service?

    I think that the main issue is that if you sent your laptop for repair you must give it to them with the exact same components as it was sold originally. Changing components, even usually allowed ones ( like SSDs ) will easily make them refuse them doing the repair.
    Now, realistically, they should still do the mobo replacement, but it's a can of worms about warranty contracts and responsibilities that most service providers want to avoid.
    What I'd do: first, I'd try to talk directly, on phone, with a technician responsible with the repair, trying to explain how the issue was present before the SSD replacement ( this is an attempt at making them unaccountable for issues that could come from your own SSD unit, legally ).
    If this doesn't work, I'd try to escalate this to a supervisor if possible, again, trying to explain this ( if the purchase was recent you could try at this point to request a full refund and get a new laptop, that should be especially easy under EU laws ).
    If you really want to try everything, then comes what my first question it's about: upgrading to Premium Care and Onsite repair will allow you to explain directly to a technician at your home to do the eventual repair. Since you probably still have the original components, you can easily reinstall them in their presence and reason with them how this issue came from. It's up to the good old direct human interaction in cases like these: if the technician is a proper one like it should be, you should get your work done ( a well done repair on a premium service counts for them more than any repair done in their own centers ).
  • CheeseeCupcake's Avatar
    Level 3
    @SirLongoVZ I already have made a service request through the official ticket support system although in the US since they have no support in Croatia for the ticket system. I am in touch with assistants on the Lenovo Legion instagram account.

    I have also invoked my country's consumer protection law and rights and I'm awaiting for an official response from the repair shop.

    This is not the first incident with a burnt motherboard that they are refusing the warranty claim to. I do not believe that they have contacted Lenovo because this was a factory defect, not user induced. Their main point is that I removed the SSD which voids my right for warranty. I did in fact remove the SSD which is a Field Replacement Unit and I understood that I will be losing warranty rights on the SSD itself, but not on the laptop as a whole. There are no visible damages that I could have made by removing the SSD, and again I did it after the damage was done so I didn't induce this.

    I'm appending new photos I got from the repair shop.

    @Marwaesam the damages and burns occured while the laptop was shut down in its carry bag (backpack) overnight. I used it until 18:00 Hrs without any issues. I used it mainly while plugged in with battery protection on, both for work and gaming. It has visible damage on the chassis which could not have induced the burnt motherboard (the scratch is in the lower left corner of the frontplate, left to the mousepad).
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  • SirLongoVZ's Avatar
    Level 29
    @CheeseeCupcake I can confirm what you said about the SSD, since it is a FRU it's not part of the "global warranty" (in Italy you can change it by yourself, they send you the new SSD).

    Hope you can find a way out.