Source: China Economic Network
"I thought that only my computer had frequent blue screen of death stuttering, and it was only recently that I saw very, very many people experiencing the same situation, and I began to pay attention to it." What Chen Chen (pseudonym) from Shandong told Blue Whale Financial Reporter was Lenovo Xiaoxin's "planned scrapping plan" that has been frequently questioned recently.
It is understood that the main "notebook maintenance house" of station B UP recently released a report entitled "Lenovo's planned scrapping plan? It is estimated that there are countless owners who have been recruited", saying that he received a large number of Lenovo Xiaoxin series notebooks that needed to be repaired, so he dismantled the machine on the spot for maintenance, he believed that "because Lenovo uses low-temperature solder paste soldering technology (LTS), the computer has black screen and other problems." ”
As soon as the video was released, it instantly stirred up thousands of waves, and a large number of netizens left messages below the video, saying that the Lenovo Xiaoxin they purchased also had the above problems. As of press time, the video has nearly 1.3 million views, nearly 3,500 barrages, and more than 9,400 comments.
Although Lenovo Xiaoxin officially issued a video denying this statement, it still did not block Yoyo's mouth. "Accidental testing and long-term use ambient temperature are two concepts." "Why do so many consumers have problems just after the two-year warranty period, why not explain them all together." For these high-praise comments, Lenovo has not responded to it, and so far, Lenovo officials have not further explained or replied in more detail on this matter.
Lenovo Xiaoxin's large-scale black screen of death has become the hardest hit area for complaints, and the QQ rights protection group has nearly 1,000 people
According to Chenchen, in June 2020, he purchased a Lenovo Xiaoxin Pro 13 2020 new notebook at Suning's self-operated store, and the final payment + deposit cost a total of 4999 yuan; The official promise is that the whole machine will be guaranteed for one year, the core components will be guaranteed for two years, and the warranty period will end in June 2022.
"Just after using it for about a year, my computer occasionally had a blue screen of death and computer freezing, went to an offline maintenance point, and the situation eased a little after the staff disassembled the machine." Chenchen said that the staff did not explain the specific cause of the computer failure.
"In fact, after the repair, the frequency of the blue screen of death is reduced, about once in a few days, the problem still exists, but this impact is not large, and I didn't care at the time." But over time, the number of Blue Screen of Death increased, sometimes several times a day. ”
Chen Chen said that at first, she thought that it was just a problem with her computer, but it was only recently that she saw more and more people experiencing this situation that she paid attention. "Moreover, the computer failure has seriously affected my normal use, so I thought about going to them again to see if it could be repaired."
This time, the staff made it clear that Chenchen's computer was a problem with the motherboard. "Since the warranty period has expired, they asked me to pay a maintenance fee of more than 1,000 yuan, because the price is expensive and others have repaired this kind of failure several times, I did not agree, and this matter was over."
Chenchen believes that according to the provisions of the Mainland Product Quality Law, there is no shelf life limit for product defects, and product defects should be borne by the producer or operator, and the liability of producers for product defects is limited. "The computer broke after more than two years of use, and it was not my own problem, who wanted it, so I chose to complain and report."
Chenchen's encounter is not an isolated case, the reporter searched for "Lenovo Xiaoxin" as a keyword on the black cat complaint, and found that there were more than 1,500 related complaints, most of which were quality problems, including but not limited to black screen, flower screen, ghosting, power leakage, crash, automatic shutdown, etc.
On platforms such as Weibo, Douyin, B Station, and Xiaohongshu, there have also been a large number of user complaints. Chenchen revealed, "There are nearly 1,000 people in a Lenovo Xiaoxin QQ rights protection group alone. "Many consumers have questioned why a large number of computers have been damaged just after the warranty, and asked Lenovo officials to give an explanation.
Officials deny that there are reliability problems, and consumers and netizens do not buy it
As more and more consumers join the ranks of rights protection, and the B station UP owner's questioning video on Lenovo's low-temperature solder paste soldering technology has gradually become a hot spot, the situation has gradually escalated.
In response, Lenovo Xiaoxin officially responded that the description is seriously inconsistent with the facts, and that low-temperature solder paste soldering technology is the industry's intended mature technology, and there is no reliability problem in long-term normal use.
It said that low-temperature solder paste soldering is a mature and more environmentally friendly technology for electronic product production lines, which meets national and international standards, and said that according to the after-sales data of Xiaoxin light and thin over the years, there is no difference in the repair rate between models using low-temperature solder paste soldering technology and models with normal temperature soldering technology. According to this statement, Lenovo quite indirectly admitted that Lenovo Xiaoxin used low-temperature solder paste soldering technology.
At the same time, Lenovo Xiaoxin also released a welding strength test video using Xiaoxin 15 2020 Ryzen Edition at different temperatures, saying that "there is no welding strength reliability problem from the results".
However, this answer did not satisfy netizens. "The notebook is bad in the CPU rather than the inductor, and the test only considers the solder temperature and the tensile stress it is subjected to, and does not consider the shear stress below the CPU, and the shear force is more likely to break the solder joint than the tensile stress. The most direct source of shear stress is the thermal deformation of the motherboard, when the motherboard is running, only the CPU and graphics card will accumulate a lot of heat, and thermal expansion leads to local warpage. “
Another netizen pointed out that this kind of problem will not appear in the short term, but after two or three years, the probability of a large increase, the solidity of low-temperature tin and high-temperature tin, and the thermal expansion and contraction of low-temperature tin and the thermal expansion and contraction stress of the sealing rubber are different. As a result, low-temperature solder balls are more likely to be squeezed by the sealing glue in the later stage, resulting in virtual soldering, or because the solidity is not as good as high-temperature tin, daily use is more likely to appear virtual soldering caused by its own solidity.
Miss Zhu, who bought Lenovo Xiaoxin in the official flagship store of Tmall Lenovo in April 2020, also encountered motherboard damage this year, and she speculated that "because Lenovo Xiaoxin used low-temperature tin in 19/20 years, and this life is 2-5 years, so our batch of users who purchased at that time were recruited in a wide range this year." ”
The reporter searched on the official WeChat public account of Lenovo Group and found that the term "low-temperature solder paste soldering technology" first appeared in 2016, when Lenovo began to develop low-temperature solder (LTS) solutions, led by Tadashi Kosuga, the chief engineer of the Japanese team, officially announced in February 2017, which said that by the end of 2018, Lenovo will have 33 SMT production lines (each with two welding furnaces) using this process.
The latest data shows that from 2017 to September 2022, Lenovo has shipped 50 million laptops manufactured using the new low-temperature solder paste process.
Low-temperature solder paste soldering technology is used for thin and light books, and most of the consumer groups are students who cannot afford high maintenance costs
So, which models will use low-temperature solder paste soldering technology?
Lenovo consumer business related people have told the media that different batches of products will have different production processes, whether using low-temperature solder paste or room temperature solder paste, the reliability standards of the whole machine are consistent, and the production quality is also in line with national production standards.
At the same time, it was pointed out that the reason why Lenovo uses the low-temperature solder paste soldering process is because of the advancement of technology, and the spare parts on the computer are becoming smaller, especially for thin and light books. Therefore, the use of low-temperature solder paste technology (the main component is tin-bismuth alloy, soldering temperature of 180 °C), compared with the traditional room temperature soldering technology (soldering temperature of 250 °C), will make the thermal deformation of components smaller, the quality of the motherboard more stable and reliable.
"In fact, this technology has always existed, and many manufacturers are using it." The person said. According to the reporter, Intel began to develop and advocate the use of this technology in 2017, and Winbond Electronics, a semiconductor storage solution manufacturer, announced in November 2022 that its flash memory product production line introduced low-temperature solder paste technology.
According to IDTechEx's "Sustainable Electronics Manufacturing 2023-2033" report, IBM, Samsung, Toshiba, Apple, Dell, etc. are using various methods to reduce energy pollution, including but not limited to low-temperature solder paste, the use of recyclable materials, etc. However, none of the companies explicitly stated that they had used the technology.
Some industry insiders said, "Generally, this technology is used in thin and light notebooks, compared with game books, etc., daily use will not appear too high power consumption." "And Lenovo Xiaoxin is the official main cost-effective thin book, the price is concentrated in the range of 4000-6000 yuan (Tmall official flagship store price, excluding tablet computers).
As for the problem of damage after Lenovo Xiaoxin is overdue, the official solution is mainly to replace the motherboard and re-uninstall and install the graphics card driver. Since most consumer computers are out of warranty, they cannot enjoy warranty service.
"After-sales said that the repair of the motherboard gave a discount of eight discounts, and the discount was about one thousand and one. But I'm going to buy a new computer directly. Miss Zhu said frankly that many of the students who buy Lenovo Xiaoxin are students, she herself is a college student, if the money is spent is bad, it will be even worse, and there is no guarantee that Lenovo is responsible for after-sales.
At present, the doubts caused by low-temperature solder paste welding technology have intensified, and gradually escalated into Lenovo's planned scrapping event, many consumers agree with this view and told reporters, "Lenovo's statement is not convincing, the official should make a clearer response, and give a repair solution for the damage situation of overwarranty." ”
For the follow-up progress of this incident, Blue Whale financial reporters will continue to pay attention.
Source: Blue Whale Finance