Recently, and after a nearly full disassembly by a competent Lenovo technician to replace the whole
cooling system, I noticed that the P72 was not lying flat on my desk. I use it connected to an external display and monitor most of the time but still hugely annoying.
After putting the P72 on other flat surfaces to verify the problem was not my desk, the conclusion was that the chassis was bent, resulting in one of the feet of not touching the surface.
I removed the back panel and tightened the few screws easily accessible, but it did not improve the situation.
Then I tried to look closely at the sides of chassis to see if I could see the bent. I didn't see it in a conclusive way
but I noticed that if I closed the lid, the foot not touching the surface was shifting to the diametrically opposite corner (compared to the photo).
So, where to go from there ?
use the extended warranty (3 years) to get a replacement unit ? A really heavy handed solution for an otherwise fully working machine
try to hack a feet to workaround the bend ? Not satisfactory at all.
Then...
What about applying force with both hands at the 2 problematic corners ?
Guess what.... it worked !
What I did, laptop closed, is to first put it on the ground to apply a huge amount of pressure
on both problematic opposite corners with palm hands. It reduced the gap but was not sufficient.
Then I took the P72 off the ground and with bare hands applied a strong torsion at both corners
and... it worked. The chassis is so sturdy that you do not risk to break anything.
Lesson learned: sometimes a low tech solution works: if you have a bent chassis, fix it with bare hands.
Large portion of the chassis is made of metal so while it makes it more likely to retain the shape when bent, it also makes it easy and fairly safe to just bend back...
Yes indeed, although it was not immediately obvious to me this would work. I wonder if the chassis was not designed with not some amount of flex to better absorb shocks if dropped, although that's a bit wishful thinking.
Other pics, lid closed:
https://imgur.com/a/Euy63Y7
https://imgur.com/a/7jDzbC8
I have a P72 since about 1 year.
Recently, and after a nearly full disassembly by a competent Lenovo technician to replace the whole cooling system, I noticed that the P72 was not lying flat on my desk. I use it connected to an external display and monitor most of the time but still hugely annoying. After putting the P72 on other flat surfaces to verify the problem was not my desk, the conclusion was that the chassis was bent, resulting in one of the feet of not touching the surface.
I removed the back panel and tightened the few screws easily accessible, but it did not improve the situation.
Then I tried to look closely at the sides of chassis to see if I could see the bent. I didn't see it in a conclusive way but I noticed that if I closed the lid, the foot not touching the surface was shifting to the diametrically opposite corner (compared to the photo).
So, where to go from there ?
Then...
What about applying force with both hands at the 2 problematic corners ? Guess what.... it worked ! What I did, laptop closed, is to first put it on the ground to apply a huge amount of pressure on both problematic opposite corners with palm hands. It reduced the gap but was not sufficient. Then I took the P72 off the ground and with bare hands applied a strong torsion at both corners and... it worked. The chassis is so sturdy that you do not risk to break anything.
Lesson learned: sometimes a low tech solution works: if you have a bent chassis, fix it with bare hands.
Large portion of the chassis is made of metal so while it makes it more likely to retain the shape when bent, it also makes it easy and fairly safe to just bend back...
Yes indeed, although it was not immediately obvious to me this would work. I wonder if the chassis was not designed with not some amount of flex to better absorb shocks if dropped, although that's a bit wishful thinking.