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x220 not booting (no bios) after ssd swap. shorted mainboard?

X200/X201/X220 (including equivalent tablet models) and X300/X301 Series
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rhlee
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Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2010 12:45 pm
Location: London, England

x220 not booting (no bios) after ssd swap. shorted mainboard?

#1 Post by rhlee » Fri May 17, 2019 4:29 pm

I swapped out my SSD on my x220. It now no longer boots, no bios.

The original was an old Intel X-25M SSD. The replacement was a Crucial M4.

The x220 takes 7mm form-factor SSDs. So I removed the plastic spacer.

When I booted the machine, I only got blank screen. I heard a faint clicking noise, as if the fan was repeatedly attempting to spin up. However the noise seemed to eminate from the right side of the machine where the drive was. I do understand the idea of an SSD clicking is nonsensical.

I did have a usb stick connected at the time. So I did the usual process of elimination. With usb stick / without ssd etc. Can't remeber the exact order and results, but I attempted several boots with the SSD.

Now the machine no longer boots, even with no drives. No post beep, no bios splashscreen. Nada.

I get the feeling, by removing the spacer on the Crucial SSD, I created a short circuit and blew something on the mainboard. When I removed the spacer and reassembled the SSD the top plate was of by 1mm so may have bridged some contacts.

Something that lends credence to this theory is when I comapred the old intel SSD to the Crucial. I also removed the spacer on the Intel SSD, however the Intel has a plastic backing where the discrete SMD components are. I guessing this is where the power components are too, thus protecting them.

Funnily enough the Crucial SSD still works fine in another machine.

Have I burnt something out on the mainboard?

axur-delmeria
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Re: x220 not booting (no bios) after ssd swap. shorted mainboard?

#2 Post by axur-delmeria » Sat May 18, 2019 12:52 am

Did you put insulation on the M4 SSD before installing it in the X220?
There's a blog post about modifying the M4 to fit 7mm drive bays and it explicitly mentions insulating the circuit board.
Planned Purchase: T480s i5-8350 FHD Touch
Impulse Buy: Thinkpad not named for safety reasons :lol:
RIP: X220 4291-C91 X61 7676-A24 760XD-U9E :cry:

rhlee
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2010 12:45 pm
Location: London, England

Re: x220 not booting (no bios) after ssd swap. shorted mainboard?

#3 Post by rhlee » Sat May 18, 2019 3:50 am

Wow, thanks for finding that article for me.
Honestly this is a poor effort from Crucial. If you give end users the option of taking the drive down to 7mm, at least provide the minimum insulation.
It's just a layer of plastic. It's a miniscule cost compared to the SSD itself.

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