Thinkpads Forum

My ThinkPad has been randomly going into sleep mode and locking itself, and I’m not sure why. Additionally, my left speaker is making a loud static noise. At this point, I feel like I’m trying to fix a sinking ship.

I have videos documenting the issues, but I’m not sure if this forum allows media uploads. If anyone would like me to email them for better context, I’d really appreciate it.

A few details that might be relevant:

I don’t have a battery installed. I’m currently looking for an OEM X230T battery, as my BIOS is 2.75 with the EC update, meaning third-party batteries won’t work.

I’m using 12GB of RAM (6GB Samsung + 6GB from an unknown Chinese brand). Not sure if this could be contributing to the issue?

There are other issues, but I’d like to focus on troubleshooting the sleep mode problem first.


Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

Maybe the lid closure magnet has come loose. That could mess things up.
But without looking at the laptop i can only speculate.

How should I go about checking? Could I email or pm you the video? I posted it on Reddit as well if search the title of this post on Google there should be a result that has a video attached. Thank you, hopefully I can get it fixed asap for my classes soon.

Youd have to remove the keyboard and palmrest.

Heres the maintenance manual: https://thinkpads.com/support/hmm/hmm_p ... 730_02.pdf
Instructions for palmrest are page 70, or 76 in the pdf.

If you’re really in a bind see if the school can let you borrow a laptop.


I see your reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comme ... t_speaker/

If you can make it into windows OS and search in windows search , follow these instructions to make the laptop do nothing when the lid is closed: https://kb.uconn.edu/space/IKB/10795452 ... ile+Closed

Im still shooting in the dark tho, the hypothesis being there is a problem with the lid close magnet. It may not be this. Just a hunch.

After adjusting the lid settings, my laptop initially worked, but I’ve now encountered another issue. The device shuts down randomly and blinks 14 times very quickly. It rarely gets past the login screen, and I’m still in the process of resolving driver-related issues and ensuring everything is up to date.

I’m wondering if this could be a voltage issue. I tried interrupting startup with lenovo text by pressing enter and ran a diagnostic by pressing F10, but when the screen displays "Please wait," the laptop shuts down and makes a faint mechanical clicking noise.

One potential factor could be the charger maybe? I purchased it from eBay for $20. Could this be causing the issue? I have videos of the problem, but I’m unsure how best to share them aside from creating another Reddit post.

Any guidance on diagnosing and resolving this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

an official original Lenovo charger is generally going to work better than an aftermarket.

one way to know if the charger is causing problems would be to use the laptop off the charger. if it works better without the charger than that'd indicate the charger is causing problems.


worst case, you may have to buy another laptop. between a good one and a less good one, you have spare parts to make repairs if necessary. old ThinkPads are cheap enough.

Try it with only 1 RAM-module and try it in both RAM sockets.

Gave the ram truck a try and was able to get further in the boot screen and was able to log in but shutdown shortly after,

Buy good thermal paste, artic silver 5 has always been my favorit but artic silver MX will also do, DO NOT buy liquid metal, one mistake and it will short out your laptop and is really hard to clean up.

Then open your laptop, take out the heatsink and fan, clean them(do not use compressor on the fan).

Remove old thermal paste with a soft cloth like pillow casing or Carbon fiber cloth and isopropyl alcohol.

Blow out dust, air from lungs, in the rest if the laptop.

Clean CPU with isopropyl alcohol, if dedicated GPU then clean that also.

Apply a pea size thermal paste on CPU/GPU and reattach heatsink and fan. Assemble the laptop and try now.

If the same, try booting a Live Linux distro and see how long time it last, to rule out hardware. Because if it is running good in Live Linux, something in your OS is causing the problem.

Report back

As others have said, use original charger, never mix ram(other laptops might allow it but ThinkPads will not), because it can cause all sorts of problems. Also usually try to keep it the same brand/model and size, some laptops allow the mixed sizes(mostly newer models), some don't.

Buy a battery from a shop so you have warranty if it break something or just stop working, do not buy from Aliexpress. You can buy online but choose a store that has been in business for many years and check battery and store reviews.

I went through a lot before I found one that didn't drain quickly after one week. Ended up with a no name that turned out to be Sanyo 1769 100Wh in new enclosure, it setled in 93.7Wh after calibration.