X220 random power off fault, both in use and asleep

[dave9]

I have an X220 4290 latop with Windows 10 which has worked perfectly for a long time.
In the last week it has started switching off randomly between zero and four times a day.
This happens both when in use, and when asleep, and on both battery and mains power.

By "switching off" I mean instant power off (as if you had pulled the battery out while running on battery power). There is nothing written to the windows event log.
It stays off until I press the power button, then it reboots normally and works perfectly, and writes a 'critical' in the event log says it rebooted without a clean shutdown so may have crashed etc. There are no error messages or any other sign of a problem.

When I close the lid it goes to sleep and the moon symbol on the lid lights up. If the fault occurs while sleeping, the moon light has gone off when I return to the machine and it then reboots when I open the lid (or restores from hibernation, since I've now enabled hybrid sleep as a workaround). Leaving it plugged in while sleeping doesn't help.

I have "reset" Windows and run Lenovo System Update, which found a few drivers to update. However since the problem also happens when the laptop is asleep I doubt it's a software problem??

It doesn't appear to be a battery problem since fault occurs on both battery and mains power. The battery works fine and is not drained after the fault.

I wondered if it could be an overheating problem, but when sleeping the laptop is cold and the fault occurs, so not that.

Thanks for any advice.

[RealBlackStuff]

Welcome to the Forum.

I think the battery is giving out to you.
Have you tried with only AC and battery removed?

[axur-delmeria]

Does the problem occur when on AC power, with no battery installed?

If yes, it might be a board issue. My sister had an X220 with a similar random shutdown issue, that's why it's now just a source of spare parts for the other, still-running X220s.

[dave9]

Thanks both for your replies and suggestion. No, I have not tried AC-only without a battery fitted. I will try that over the next couple of days and get back to you...

[dave9]

Bad news - my fault DOES occur on mains power with no battery in machine. So it's not the battery.

So I guess I'm now looking for a good UK supplier to get another second hand Thinkpad (any recommendations welcome)

[RealBlackStuff]

In that case a replacement X220 motherboard comes to mind, much cheaper.
If you get one with i7 CPU, you'd also get USB3.0.
Saw this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/253443485762

[RoamingAndy]

you could try removing the RAM chips, giving a little clean and putting them back in. its easy as pie, and if one if not connected well it will cause the laptop to randomly cut out. also run a RAM test to see if one is faulty. i've never had that happen to me so i'm not sure the symptoms, they might be the same.

[vulpes]

Hi everybody, my first post here.

I had a similar problem on my X230. It would poweroff on its own after minutes of use. Re-seating the wifi card and cleaning contacts with alcohol fixed the problem and it has been going strong for over a year. Since the card is located under the palm rest, it shouldn't take you more than 5 minutes to try it out. Good luck!