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Thinkpad W520 won't turn on [+pics]

W500/W510/W520 and W700/W701 Series
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jcvjcvjcvjcv
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Re: Thinkpad W520 won't turn on [+pics]

#31 Post by jcvjcvjcvjcv » Sun Jan 29, 2017 6:10 am

Windows didn't bark at the new motherboard, so no activation issues. The downtime also seems to finally have triggered the 'maximum lifespan mode' of the battery.

I netted three screws from this adventure, the one that was stuck on the I/O daughter board and one long case screw. Apparently I put one short screw inside in the wrong hole there (near RJ-45), so now the long one doesn't fit. There were no threads in the hole the small one was supposed to go.

And also one short screw that I had in the bucket of case screws. I couldn't find where that one had to go, lol. The other three short ones sit under the battery, the fourth?

Anyway, I'm happy it's back up and running, so for now I'm happy and I'm not going to take it apart again.

Haha, BIOS 1.16 also means the RAM is running at 1600 :D
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RealBlackStuff
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Re: Thinkpad W520 won't turn on [+pics]

#32 Post by RealBlackStuff » Sun Jan 29, 2017 7:19 am

FYI: every removable screw, with its location, is pictured and described in the HMM, Chapter 9.
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
.

jcvjcvjcvjcv
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Re: Thinkpad W520 won't turn on [+pics]

#33 Post by jcvjcvjcvjcv » Fri Feb 03, 2017 4:28 am

Now it randomly refuses to resume from sleep. It powers up with all the lights etc., but then shuts down a few seconds later with a loud "clunk" [and repeat]. Pulling the battery and pressing the power button for a few seconds solves that problem. So far it's three times this week out of probably 40 times I resumed it from sleep.
:(
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RealBlackStuff
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Re: Thinkpad W520 won't turn on [+pics]

#34 Post by RealBlackStuff » Fri Feb 03, 2017 10:01 am

Image

jcvjcvjcvjcv
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Re: Thinkpad W520 won't turn on [+pics]

#35 Post by jcvjcvjcvjcv » Fri Feb 03, 2017 10:07 am

If only that would exist :lol:

EDIT: Might be a BIOS issue. Will update this weekend.
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rdchinoy
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Re: Thinkpad W520 won't turn on [+pics]

#36 Post by rdchinoy » Sun Apr 03, 2022 2:20 am

I have had this problem on an off for the 10 years I have owned my W520.
As this is the best post I could find on the internet I am putting all I know into this one place. Should anybody face this problem.

My problem my bat was dead and as I use it on my desktop its not an issue.
At first it would refuse to wake up. So I turned off sleep. And used it like that.
Then it would refuse to power up. i.e. you hit the power button nothing happens no light, no fan, no beep code no LED fashing. Just dead.

Then as there was no working bat every time the power failed and came back on (Frequent power fails are common in my country).
The laptop would not power on.
Right now its back to not powering on.

Things I noticed and did over the years.

1. I noticed that this would happen anytime the humidity hit 80%. So my solution was to put on the a/c in summer and get the humidity down to 30% this normally got it working. This would happen only during the peak rainy season. So I lived with it.

2. After a point this would happen no matter what the humidity was. This time I got out the hair dryer. I would lift the key board and warm up the mother board. To about 45-50c this would get it to boot up.
After a point even this stopped working.

3. A frequent thing I would do would be to pull the bat, pull the power supply and pull the cmos bat and hold a key down for 40 seconds (IBM recommends this to all Think pad customers with this problem. This rarely worked but sometimes it did. I found that leaving the cmos bat disconnected for at least 30 min worked a little better.

4. I found a lot of dust and goo from black tape all over the board. So I cleaned it all up with ISO and a soft tooth brush. THat helped.

5. Removing and reseating all the hard drives, memory sticks and cards and cleaning the connectors is also something I try.

6. The last time this happened I found that if I disconnected everything. And set the laptop aside for a week or two. The next time I plugged it on it powered up. But I noticed that I was holding the laptop upside down at the time. So I suspected the keyboard.
Sure enough it turned out to be a stuck power button i.e. it would start and then shut off. Holding the keyboard upside down unstuck the button.
So right now I have to figure out what pins to short to get the power button on. While I wait on a new keyboard.
Also since I have found the board view and schematics I feel confident I can figure this out.
For some reason unless you have the original hard disk in the orignal bay. It does not want to power on.

In summary
1. Make sure there is no dust on your mother board esp if you have high humidity.
2. Change the power settings to power on with a/c attach. (In the bios setting).
3. Make sure you have a well seated hard disk in the hard disk bay.
4. Make sure you have 20 volts on yoru brick.
5. Figure out its not your keyboard by pulling the keyboard and figuring out a way to jump start it.

Wish me luck. And if anybody has spare W520 boards they want to donate for spares and R&D let me know. I have local adds in USA / Auz / UK where I have friends. I have this obsession of fixing things that go broke on me. I cant sleep well till I solve the problem. lol.

Ps: Just my luck. None of the 3 viewers were able to open the board view file. Either this one or the one on the link with the view s/w. I get a divide by zero error when trying to open it.
Hona wants a .bdv file.
Tebo wants a .tbv file
Test Link gives a error and crashes.

Has anybody been able to use any of these files ?. What am I missing ?

rdchinoy
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Location: Vijayawada, India

Re: Thinkpad W520 won't turn on [+pics]

#37 Post by rdchinoy » Sun Apr 03, 2022 4:34 am

Taken from wayback.
After your power adapter and dc connector the next component is F14 this is rated for 15 Amps 24 volts. After this Q28 is the second component after this fuse. Chk the source drain and gate on Q28.
If you got voltage on Q28 Chk Q31, Q32, Q36 and Q37. If you got no voltage on gate on Q29 check Q30, Q33, Q35 and resistor that is on this gate line.
Q28 P-Channel 30-V Mosfet SI7149DP, Q29 N-Channel 30-V Mosfet SIS402DN.

To view the .brd file get openview
https://www.finalfixer.com/2019/12/boar ... d-brd.html

Ps: Anybody facing this problem. I would strongly recommend you change your keyboard. Esp if the power on / off is on your keyboard.
Any of the cheap China keyboards will work. Not sure why but as soon as I plugged in my new keyboard the machine came on and is working fine.

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