Thinkpads Forum

Hi, I'm new here.

After trouble with a lot of intermittend power failiures my T520 went dead: The green light around the power button on the keyboard stays on with a short blink off every second. No other detectable reaction from the ThinkPad

I already tried the 20-30s power pressing trick from the forum, als well as disconnecting the BIOS battery (now several months since I last tried). Today I tried again (still zero reaction besides the green power button as described above), but then I noticed that the CPU is getting hot when letting AC power connected for around 5mins.

So maybe the CPU itself is dead? Or some power regulators on the mainboard?
If anybody has any clues, thanks for letting me know. Also, if its likely the CPU, what kind of CPU still available I should look for replacement?

Thanks for any hints!

Get the T520 manual from the HMM link above.
Maybe a disconnected/dead fan overheated the CPU?
When did you last refresh thermal paste between fan and CPU?
Are you using a genuine Lenovo charger (90W or 135W, depending on CPU/GPU)?

The T520 supports Intel Core i3/i5/i7 2nd gen mobile CPU aka "Sandy Bridge". Though I suspect it's an issue with the system board.

If you find ones that are cheap you can get one to test.

Here are some compatible dual-core CPUs.
i3 2310M, 2330M, 2350M
i5 2410M, 2520M, 2540M
i7 2620M, 2640M

Did you find a fix? I have the same problem