Abrupt shutoff of Lenovo Thinkpad. Can it be fixed?

I have a Lenovo R61 circa 2008 that has had this abrupt shutdown problem for the last year. "Abrupt" as in there is no OS shutdown, no warning, just POOF! it is off. As if abruptly unplugged from all power sources.

I've replaced the CPU/GPU fan+heatsink twice already. The last replacement fixed the problem, but only for a few hours.

The batter pack is dead as a doornail. However, I was running with no battery and it was fine for several hours.

When I unplug from AC, and plug back in, it is fine.

I tried holding the power button down, while unplugged from AC, for about a minute. That seemed to fix it, but once again, after a few hours, it started doing the abrupt shutoff again.

Now, several hours after that, I cannot get it to stay on for more than about a minute, no matter what I do.

Questions:

Is there any fix for this? How much is a mobo replacement? Would that fix it? Any other info or diagnostics or quick fixes I can try?

Thanks

JDS

Posted 2011-05-05T12:40:59.287

Reputation: 442

are the fans spinning in the laptop? is the base of the laptop extremly hot ? can you hear any buzzing noises when you turn the laptop on? – ben950 – 2011-05-05T13:09:37.790

Fans spinning: yes. Base hot: no. Buzzing noises: no. On the other hand, the laptop shuts off before the OS even has time to load up. It will shut off even when at room temperature for several hours. – JDS – 2011-05-05T14:33:04.333

Answers

I've had similar issues with a r51 (the only thinkpad we've ever had that was a lemon) - it had a faulty logic board that time - considering that if you replaced the HS, it may have had heat issues, and that could cause damage to the logic board, that's a possibility.

OTOH, a logic board replacement IS pretty much swapping out most of the guts of the system, and might have just been the default way IBM preferred to repair it

Journeyman Geek

Posted 2011-05-05T12:40:59.287

Reputation: 119 122

This is it. If you've replaced the cooling, and it's not getting hot, there's probably just an electrical fault someplace. The obvious first component to replace is the board. (I used to do technical support for IBM/Lenovo on Thinkpads and this is the appropriate next step we'd take.) – Shinrai – 2011-05-05T14:39:14.080

how much does that run? I was able to replace the fan myself pretty easily -- is the mobo much more difficult? (I've found that this laptop seems to be reasonably easy to work on for a laptop) – JDS – 2011-05-05T15:00:12.853

it was covered by IBM at the time - so i have no idea. finding parts is probably the tough part. Thinkpads are pretty much the IT bloke's business laptop - they're designed to be entirely user servicable - and as such easy to work with – Journeyman Geek – 2011-05-05T15:01:53.017