Thinkpads Forum

The T400s had/has a known issue for random shutdowns, discussed in detail here.

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-a ... d-p/144056

When I purchased mine, from the Microsoft Store at a substantial discount, I was unaware if it. After talking with Lenovo tech. support, and eventually customer service, they extended my warrenty no charge. The rational was that if the machine did not exhibit the issue, it would not develop it in time. I have read where it does seem to pop up after years of hassle free use, now mine included. Is it the same motherboard issue or something else?

The T400s has been a great machine, very few complaints. I treat it well, it's in almost as good a shape as when it was new.

I'm waiting to see what Lenovo has to say about it, but am prepared to buy a new machine if necessary (hope not). My mother-in-law has a T420, I do not like the wide screen. I also like the old keyboard, not a fan of the "chicklet" style, I use the top row a lot, what happens to that?

If I had to get a new machine, a bigger battery, and an SSD are a must, I'm thinking a T410, thoughts?

T420 still have the classic keyboard. If you have to buy new, I'd look at those.

I had a T400s for almost 3 years (w 3 year onsite warranty) and had the system board replaced twice. The first time, it was after about 3 - 4 months, and it was from what I could tell the classic shut down problem. The second time seemed to be from overheating and finally was determined likely the first system board was not installed quite correctly. I would check for heat issues first and make sure that is not the cause. If it is, clean the dust bunnies, and possibly artic silver the CPU. You can also use TPfancontrol to help the heat issues, mine always ran hot. If you decide to keep it (I loved mine, it was a great traveling machine), I have a very good OEM battery I will sell if you need an extra. http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=106010 Good luck and let us know how it goes.

The heat issue might be the culprit. I'm not sure why, but the fan seems to run more often these days. I've been keeping track of what I'm doing when the shutdowns occur. The last three happened during disk cleanup, Zune sync with my phone, and a full system security scan, all running the HDD continuously.

Lenovo said that if the shutdown problem did not occur when the laptop was new, it would not develop over time. With that logic, it could be shutting down due to something else, i.e. heat.

Thanks for the input, and I'll let you know about the battery.

I spent some time tracking temps to a log file with TPFancontrol which confirmed to me I had a heat problem the second time. I bought mine shortly after the T400s came out and it had the early board which was replaced withe the revised board.

I had to call Lenovo support today, no one contacted me in the 24 hours after the case was created, as promised. As of now, the response is that it is out of warranty. Moving up the authority ladder now, don't expect much actually.

I don't plan on ranting and saying to hell with Lenovo, but do I buy another (rhetorical question)?

Update.

It took some time, but in the end, and to my surprise, Lenovo replaced the motherboard onsite despite the system being out of warranty. I never asked for that and I think it shows they will stand behind their machines, way to go!

Bad news, it did not fix the issue. Within a few hours of the new board install it still suffered a random shutdown. I will try the fan control program, and may try new thermal paste if warranted. If not, time to look for a replacement.