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Not an April Fools Day joke!*
I have a Lenovo T500 that will not boot once it looses complete power (battery depleted & AC power loss). The odd thing about the whole issue is that if I place the laptop in the freezer for a couple of hours it boots up just fine and continues to work up until it's disconnected from AC and the battery is again depleted. Then I have to redo the freezer process again to get it to boot up.
My question is what motherboard component(s) may be the culprit of this odd issue?
If it's something I can replace then I would like to do that. I'm not shy when it comes to soldering and have soldered surface mount RAM before in the past on a hobby project.
*References:
http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-70424-dv6000-lights-turn-on-nothing-else http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/254497-28-pavilion-laptop-boot#2595565 http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f108/toshiba-nb200-wont-boot-492391.html#post2846505
If I don't place the laptop if the freezer and try turning it on I can hear the fan spool up, the lights come on and then it basically resets. The fan spools again, the lights come on and then it resets. This happens about 3 times and then it just stays off. The LCD screen never displays anything though.
Jerry Tunin
Posted 2013-04-01T19:53:53.123
Reputation: 109
4This is an April Fools' Day question? You put the laptop in a freezer for hours?! LOL – None – 2013-04-01T20:00:14.800
6Not criticizing your idea, just wondering how you get to the point where you think, "Hmm, the laptop's not working, I think I'll put it in the freezer for a few hours." – Moses – 2013-04-01T20:04:15.437
4Also wondering why you let the battery drain all the way out... that's really bad for the battery's longevity – allquixotic – 2013-04-01T20:05:59.057
Actually that's good... Not all the way out, but for as much as possible. – None – 2013-04-01T20:06:46.870
Nope, it's actually not an April Fools day joke. I had got to the point where I was trying ANYTHING to get it to boot. I came across the freezel idea somewhere in my searches. Let me find a page referencing this. – Jerry Tunin – 2013-04-01T20:10:15.183
The freezer trick is good for a nearly-dead hard drive, but no idea here why it would work for a power issue with a laptop. – techturtle – 2013-04-01T20:11:14.887
7It's never a good idea to put a whole computer into the freezer, except for doing extreme overclocking. Air condensation could create water droplets on the circuits which could cause your computer to fry. – None – 2013-04-01T20:14:08.900
Well, the laptop was "fried" to begin with. Putting it in the freezer was a last ditch effort before it went in the trash. – Jerry Tunin – 2013-04-01T20:16:05.190
The only reason why the cold might do the job is having a bad capacitor or some kind of transistor which doesn't function the way it should. You need to find a very very good electrician which has time for this kind of detective work. – None – 2013-04-01T20:21:27.287
Exactly what happens if you don't "do the freezer process"? Does it behave as though the power button isn't working? Does it crash during boot? Does it fail booting with an error message? – doug65536 – 2013-04-01T20:28:12.677
Jerry do you remove the batttery before stuffing it in the freezer? What happens if you do the Exact same steps for the exact same time, but do not put it in the freezer? If your ready to dissasemble it, couldnt you re-set the thermal goop on the heatsyncs, check the fans, and dust it out, do general maintance, and look around for any bulging caps, or charred silicon components, then test it some, check voltages and do the first more simple stuff? – Psycogeek – 2013-04-01T20:33:13.267
@Radoo, the electrician's fee would be several times the price of a new machine... – vonbrand – 2013-04-01T20:40:40.090
@Psycogeek prior to placing it in the freezer I tore it completely apart. Added Arctic Silver thermal paste to all heatsinks, cleaned all fans and internals. I was unable to locate any bulging or leaking capacitors, as well as no signs of heat damage. – Jerry Tunin – 2013-04-01T20:42:35.800
@vonbrand, yeah, well, perhaps he has a friend. :) – None – 2013-04-01T20:43:02.303
Humm... does it work only when just out of the freezer? For how long? (If so, and short, perhaps something made your CPU too temperature sensitive?) – vonbrand – 2013-04-01T20:52:28.520
@vonbrand Once out of the freezer and it boots up then it's fine. I can shutdown, reboot, ect. If it looses all power sources (AC & battery) then it's back in the freezer before it'll turn on again. – Jerry Tunin – 2013-04-01T20:56:34.823
That's... intriguing ;) What happens if you try to boot it on AC only, with battery removed? – gronostaj – 2013-04-01T21:13:46.460
@gronostaj Same thing, I can hear the fan spool up, the lights come on and then it basically resets. The fan spools again, the lights come on and then it resets. This happens about 3 times and then it just stays off. The LCD screen never displays anything though. – Jerry Tunin – 2013-04-01T21:15:08.813
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Found a forum thread that matches your symptoms pretty closely. Did you try replacing the CMOS battery? The OP of that thread said that replacing it fixed his issue.
– doug65536 – 2013-04-01T21:15:10.947@doug65536 I have not, I'll give that a shot as well. – Jerry Tunin – 2013-04-01T21:21:22.920
1I've put a non-functioning HDD in the freezer overnight in a water-tight bag (thanks to internet rumors and my lack of caring for the drive in question). I plugged it in the next day (via IDE->USB dock) and was able to get most of the data off (took about 15 minutes). I've tried since then on multiple occasions but always to no avail. – glenneroo – 2013-04-02T22:20:30.597
@doug65536 Replaced with a new CMOS battery, same deal. Thanks for the idea though. Was worth a shot. – Jerry Tunin – 2013-04-09T18:02:06.887
Well I just took it all apart again and tried booting it out of the chassis while adding pressure to varies components again to see if there was a bad solder location and was unable to locate anything. – Jerry Tunin – 2013-04-12T16:10:00.140
Thanks for the help guys, I may just buy a used motherboard. I was able to locate one very cheap. Just to try though I think I'll do an oven reflow and see if that resolves the issue before trashing the board. – Jerry Tunin – 2013-04-25T15:03:43.063