Will new motherboard help? Thinkpad completely off (brick)

[GavrielBA]

Hello beautiful smart people!

At one point my x201i completely had stopped working. No lights turn on when I plug it into power (e.g. no charging). Power button does nothing. Tried to plug different power adapter and still completely off.

I want to buy a new motherboard but I'm not sure it will fix the issue. I understand that the problem is somewhere on the circuit which controls power but I don't know where such circuit is placed. I am no expert though so if I'm wrong please correct me!

- Gavriel

[atagunov]

Hello and welcome to the forum, Gavriel!

I want to buy a new motherboard but I'm not sure it will fix the issue

New motherboards always help, TM

Seriously there isn't that much else in the Thinkpad. What else could be dragging it down?

Okay a dead keyboard could be causing this issue... Suppose the power button no longer works?.. If there was a docking station around - which has an extra power button, I'd check in that. But I'd still expect some blinking on the led-s when you plug AC in. If there's none it doesn't look like the keyboard is the (only) issue.

A dead battery - you've tried plugging AC in w/o a battery right?

A dead HDD? Have you tried to power on without HDD?

Dead screen?.. But the leds should have blinked..

Dead RAM? Have you tried removing RAM? Thinkpad should give some beeps if switched on without RAM

A dead CPU? But the new motherboard will be coming with a new CPU, right? And LED-s are not controlled by CPU on startup, they are controlled by the EC - embedded controller - another chip.

All in all I think it is extremely likely a new mobo will help

P.S. you may wish to disassemble the whole thing and give it a look over before ordering a new motherboard.. What if the plug from the power socket has slipped off? You only need to disassemble the lower part, there's no need to open up the screen unit. Check "HMM" link at the top of each page on this forum, find your model and follow instructions to disassemble. The trickiest bit is to remember which screw came from which hole so that you don't try to screw in a longer screw in a more shallow hole on assembly. Otherwise you just need a good screwdriver. Oh and when re-assembling if this mobo is resurrected or when putting in a new mobo it's good manners to replace thermal paste on the CPU so you also need that and probably some spirits say of the IPA variety to remove the old dried up thermal paste..

[kfzhu1229]

If you wanna try doing board level repairs to see if it's as simple as a failed capacitor, fuse or mosfet, try this guy's video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9oRZR4cyUY
I fixed the exact same laptop on that video with basically the exact same fault thanks to him!
Other times you can get unlucky and the SuperIO is gone, which you don't wanna deal with and just get a board replacement. That chance on these mainstream ThinkPads are not very high.

[RealBlackStuff]

It would be a nice opportunity to get a better motherboard with an i5 or even i7 CPU.

[GavrielBA]

Thank you everyone!! I had bought i5 560M. You know, I saw something weird. Is it true that i7 620LM is slower? If so, what's the benefit of i7 here? It uses less power?

[RealBlackStuff]

i7-620LM is low-power (TDP=25W), non-overclockable and more energy-efficient than i7-620M/i5-560M (each TDP=35W).
i7-620LM is also low in performance.
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-6 ... re-i5-560M
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-6 ... e-i7-620LM

[GavrielBA]

Yeah! I meant to ask why would anyone get i7 over i5 in that case (that i7 is more expensive). I5 should be faster. But i7 would use less power?

[RealBlackStuff]

Take a closer look at 620M vs. 620LM

[GavrielBA]

I'm sorry I guess I wasn't clear enough. I am asking for difference between i5 560M vs i7 620LM

[RealBlackStuff]

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-6 ... re-i5-560M