Thinkpads Forum

My beloved T-410 appears to have died a sudden death. The machine shows no signs of powering on, and even when I plug the machine in, the battery indicator on the lid shows no indication of power. I am thinking that this is either because the machine has run out of residual power, and the transformer has blown, or the PSU of the laptop has broken altogether.

Strangeley, the last time I used this machine, it was working perfectly, and powered off just fine... so whatever has happened has occurred while it has been in transit, in a powered off state.

I would welcome any insight into how I could troubleshoot this problem. The machine is covered by a guarantee [it was a refurb I bought two months ago], but I would rather keep this machine if I can fix it easily as it is in an excellent cosmetic state.

Welcome to the forum!

Sorry to hear about the troubles that you're having with that T410. They are fine machines, generally speaking.

There's an old trick which goes like this:

Remove the battery, hard and media drives. Unplug the AC adapter.

Press the "power" button ten times in a row holding it down for ten seconds each time and thirty seconds the last time around.

Plug the AC adapter - but nothing else - back in and try to power on.

Needless to say, you must have a *known good* AC adapter for any of this to make sense...

Good luck.

ajkula66 wrote:Welcome to the forum!

Sorry to hear about the troubles that you're having with that T410. They are fine machines, generally speaking.

There's an old trick which goes like this:

Remove the battery, hard and media drives. Unplug the AC adapter.

Press the "power" button ten times in a row holding it down for ten seconds each time and thirty seconds the last time around.

Plug the AC adapter - but nothing else - back in and try to power on.

Needless to say, you must have a *known good* AC adapter for any of this to make sense...

Good luck.

I followed the instructions and now the machine has powered on as normal. Thank you for this vital advice!

The only problem I had at first was a 'fan errror' message, but after blowing air into it to get it to rotate, this has disappeared.

Since you appear so knowledgeable, I have two questions:

1: Are you aware of the cause of the initial problem, or how it could be avoided? and would there be an increased chance that it could happen again now?

2: Apart from replacing the fan/heatsink assembly, are you aware of any fixes for fan problems? could this just be a spot of oil, or hair in the fan which is causing it to not spin-up on startup, which could easily be removed?

Thanks again for such valuable advice!

LenoMano wrote:
1: Are you aware of the cause of the initial problem, or how it could be avoided? and would there be an increased chance that it could happen again now?

No, not really. Sometimes machines just die in storage. I'd store it with battery removed, though.

2: Apart from replacing the fan/heatsink assembly, are you aware of any fixes for fan problems? could this just be a spot of oil, or hair in the fan which is causing it to not spin-up on startup, which could easily be removed?

Thanks again for such valuable advice!

You're very welcome.

The problem with fans dying way too soon on T410 is pretty well-known, so I'd just swap the entire heatsink. Do bear in mind that machines with discrete graphics use a different heatsink than the ones that sport integrated graphics only.

Good luck.

Thanks, Much appreciated advice there. If the fan dies, I'l replace the heatsink assembly as you suggested.

Hmm. I wasn't aware of a known problem with the T410 fans dying early. So far, mine is OK but I'll have to keep this topic in mind for future reference.

nikki605 wrote:Hmm. I wasn't aware of a known problem with the T410 fans dying early.

There's a 20-page thread on Lenovo forums...