Strange thinkpad issue

[cuboids]

Hi all

My trusty old thinkpad isn’t very well and I’ve not been able to solve it so far

Every time I turn it on, 9/10 times it gets stuck in a loop where the power button comes on, screen lights up blank briefly, and then it powers off for a second before coming on and powering down again.

Very occasionally it will start up normally

It’s a pretty old machine now but it works well enough for me, is there anything I can try? I have tried a different power supply and resetting the BIOS settings to default but the issue still happens

 

[strollin]

There’s a couple of things you could try but I don’t have a lot of confidence that they will help. There aren’t many parts of a laptop that you can change out like a desktop.

How is the battery health? Does the laptop work the same when using battery for power?

You could try going into Device Manager and uninstalling the battery. Then power off and power back on. This will cause the system to reinstall the battery. Make sure you have the power adapter plugged in when doing this.

Remove the battery and see if the laptop will boot OK just using the power adapter. If things work better with the battery removed, it means you need to replace the battery. If you don’t need the laptop to be mobile because you always plug in the power adapter then you can just leave the battery out.

 

[cuboids]

Thanks for your advice

I’ve tried popping the battery out (its a fairly new one) and I have also tried the old one that I replaced a while ago as it had reached its end of life

It seems that even with no battery at all the laptop is doing the same thing. I can still get it to boot eventually but I worry that eventually it will stop booting altogether

I would be a lot more comfortable if this was a desktop as I have changed parts a few times in the past on these-wouldn’t know where to start for a laptop and considering its age not sure if theres much point in throwing money at parts!

 

[strollin]

The real problem is that there aren’t a lot of parts to swap out on a laptop. It’s possible that there might be a problem with the power switch, a repair shop may be able to change the switch out for you or at least diagnose whether or not the power switch is the issue.

Have you checked that the memory sticks are all fully seated? The HDD connector is firmly attached? Kinda grasping at straws here though.

My guess is that it’s the motherboard that’s the issue. If so, and you want to save that laptop, you might see if you can buy a replacement motherboard from Ebay or even find the same model Thinkpad that someone is parting out on Ebay.

However, you’re probably better off putting the money you would spend fixing the Thinkpad toward a replacement unit.

If you mostly use the Thinkpad for general computer stuff then you might consider something like a Chromebook. Another possibility is to buy a 2-3 year old gently used laptop.