Lenovo W510 Speaker Failures

There obviously is a design problem with the Lenovo W510 laptops.

A few months after getting my W510, I opened my laptop one evening to check something after the machine had been suspended.. to find it immediately blue screen.  Upon startup, computer complained about an illegal adaptor in the mini-PCI slot.  I noticed I could not get wireless working.  I looked a bit closer in the light to find a pea sized area of the left grille adjacent to the keyboard physically melted.  It looked like someone took a lighter to it.  Replaced the laptop with a new one.

Now, just 9 months later, the speakers are no longer working on the W510.  Again, on the left speaker grille, there is a small pea sized area that looks like it's been heated up to the point of almost melting.

I just use the laptop under normal conditions, including always letting the laptop hibernate when the laptop is closed and not on the docking station.  I do use it on a docking station freqently (the IBM docking station) so I wonder if it has cooling issues when closed.

So if your W510 freaks out.. you're not alone and check out the left speaker grille for deformations.