Hello everyone

I have a T530 with an SSD, less than a year old, that appears to be bricked ...  when the power button is pushed, there is absolutely no noise (no fan, no beeps) and no indicator lights.

I'm having trouble getting the "what happened" story out of the user but I heard something like "the battery ran out and now it won't start".    I suspect some improper behavior like hauling the machine around when it was "sleeping" (not off) but that as they say is another story.

Elsenet I saw the following "one weird tip" to discharge static buildup (*)

*  unplug power

*  take out battery

* take out RAM

then a sequence where you pushed the power button 9x and on the 10th time held it for 30 seconds.  Then plug power in and try again.  No soap (although the ram is internal, not in the expansion slot, so I haven't disassembled the keyboard area to check). 

I also unplugged the battery/power and held down the power button for one minute - still no luck

Swapped out power supply and battery - no luck

Only indications of "life" are the little battery icon on the top of the case (e.g. when computer is closed):

- Battery not installed - put power cord in, icon flashes green 3x, stops, but power button does not turn on

- Battery installed - put power cord in, icon flashes green 3x,  flashes long orange 1x, flashes short green 1x more

Has anyone seen this before?  If so, what was it?    Is there something else I can try or is this a "Call IBM/Get this guy a loaner"?

* laptop appears to be staticy, I have gotten a couple of "snaps" off it, and that doesn't regularly happen

Thanks for any response,

Charlotte

That's certainly  worth a try.  I looked up a diagram and saw where the CMOS battery was.  When you say "let it sit", do you mean

1)  press and hold the power button for 30 sec after pressing the power button a few times

2)  press power button a few times, hands off for 30 seconds

I just want to make sure I'm doing the correct thing

also, does it hurt if it's not exactly 30 seconds??

I just did that (leaving it off for 30 seconds after I pressed the Power key 10 times)  AND IT WORKED!! 

The sleep light went on, it started booting up and then gave me an error about BIOS date.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Is there a particular cause for this behavior?  The user travels a lot and I suspect there might be improper shutting down (e.g. moving the computer when it was sleeping).   

I'm sure there is a reason. I don't know what it is. I have seen this behavior before when a machine has sat on battery until it dies and the battery is dead. It doesn't need to be exactly 30 seconds. There is a capacitor somewhere in the CMOS circuitry that will keep the memory alive for a few seconds of no power.  I do this any time a machine seems totally bricked.

Interesting.  The battery (original battery) was 100% charged when I got it back up.    But maybe it had been plugged in somewhere after it died. 

Thanks for the assistance, it has certainly saved us a lot of aggravation. 

I'm following up to say that it was dead again this morning after backup/shut off.   I got it back up again once (but not twice) using this procedure.   It's under warranty so I opened a case with Lenovo - their diagnosis was "dead motherboard".    Just putting this out there for anyone who might find this on a web search;   if this fix doesn't keep the machine fixed, it probably is the mobo. 

         I have had this problem sometimes too from July 2014 till date (November 2014).

When I pressed the power button, it did not startup. Couple of times it had a problem while standard operating conditions, it suddenly shut down on me, in a power failure.

     This problem continued for a while, and I tolerated it. Sometimes, I would adjust the battery, remove the power adapter cord and shake the laptop around and it would start up after I pressed the power button around 15-20 times.

Sometimes it would refuse to do the CMOS reset thing, starting up with a set time request, and NOT start up at all.

At times I found that after my daily commute to office, it did not start up in the office. Tried all the resetting and the tricks that I know: 1. RAM removal, 2. Battery 3. Power adapter. Did not work.

    12th November 2014 – 13th November 2014, it did not switch on one day, but did switch on the next.

Each time this non starting event happened, I noticed, that it was as if the CMOS battery had been reset and the system BIOS would ask me to reset the date EACH time.

It’s probably the motherboard.

On calling up Lenovo India, the only thing they say is that its out of warranty, we cannot help. She did not escalate my call, even on saying that I have had a few Lenovo systems in the past.

  Said that take it to the Nehru place depot and deposit it.

The only option that I Have seems to me to be;

1. replace the keyboard

2. take out the battery -CMOs and plug it back in again

3. Motherboard replacement

I can do 1 and 2, but will not shell out money from my own pocket for 3.

If it keeps happening, it's likely to be the motherboard.