T470S suddenly stopped booting. Screen keeps black while everything else seems to work
Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2026 2:34 pm
Hi there. I have a T470s that originally came with Windows. I formatted the disk and installed Linux Mint on it as my sole OS more than a year ago.
Everything has been working flawlessly, with the exception of the electric part. At some point, one of the batteries just stopped holding any charge altogether, so I started depending on the AC cable and the other battery, which would then obviously hold much less charge than at the beginning, but still functions well.
Also, at some point, the charging led on the power button would suddenly start turning off and on again randomly, even though the charger never seemed to stop passing electricity through -- I never noticed any warning like 'charger disconnected'.
Anyway, some time ago I started going to bed with my computer playing YouTube stuff, without the charger connected, until the battery depleted. Then on the morning it would be as easy as plugging the AC cable and turning the computer on.
And then one day I was no longer able to do that. Now when I press the power button, the LED on it, the whole backlight keyboard, the LED on F keys and others (like F1, F4, Esc and Caps lock) and even the red dot on the lid, all turn on. Even the fan ejects some air -- though it doesn't sound, however I'm not sure if it used to every time I would the computer on. However, the screen stays black and there is no booting beep.
Also, I've noticed that while the computer is turned on, if I close the lid, the red dot on it will stay on instead of blinking, which seems to indicate that the system is not able to suspend like it used to.
What could be happening and is there anything I could try out?
Everything has been working flawlessly, with the exception of the electric part. At some point, one of the batteries just stopped holding any charge altogether, so I started depending on the AC cable and the other battery, which would then obviously hold much less charge than at the beginning, but still functions well.
Also, at some point, the charging led on the power button would suddenly start turning off and on again randomly, even though the charger never seemed to stop passing electricity through -- I never noticed any warning like 'charger disconnected'.
Anyway, some time ago I started going to bed with my computer playing YouTube stuff, without the charger connected, until the battery depleted. Then on the morning it would be as easy as plugging the AC cable and turning the computer on.
And then one day I was no longer able to do that. Now when I press the power button, the LED on it, the whole backlight keyboard, the LED on F keys and others (like F1, F4, Esc and Caps lock) and even the red dot on the lid, all turn on. Even the fan ejects some air -- though it doesn't sound, however I'm not sure if it used to every time I would the computer on. However, the screen stays black and there is no booting beep.
Also, I've noticed that while the computer is turned on, if I close the lid, the red dot on it will stay on instead of blinking, which seems to indicate that the system is not able to suspend like it used to.
What could be happening and is there anything I could try out?
