I need your help with a flaky W530

[JohnD.]

Hello everyone,

On 3-11-15 I purchased a W530 from Ebay. The listed specs are below:

Machine Type: 2436-CTO
Warrenty: Expired 10-16-2013
BIOS 2.59 (5-15-14)
CPU: i7-3610QM
Memory: 12 GB
SSD: Samsung Evo 840 128 GB (in primary HDD location)

After I got it delivered and opened the box, I hooked up the 170W power supply to the machine. I hit the power button, the Thinkpad logo came up and very quickly the machine just shut down. I hit the power button again, I get the Thinkpad splash screen and the unit shut down. So I did this a few more times and got the same result. I said let me go into the BIOS and check the settings. I did this and adjusted the time zone. I saved the settings in the BIOS and the machine restarted from there. I got into Win 8 on the machine and it was good. I believe I tried shutting down the machine to see if things were ok and I believe I was ok. This was a month ago and I have not touched the machine (powered it on) until yesterday to install Win7 on the SSD.

So when I powered the machine on (with the power supply connected), the Thinkpad splash screen came up for a short time then the machine shut down. I went into the BIOS again, adjusted the time forward for a second and saved the settings, the machine restarted and went into Win8. I boot the install disk for Win7 Pro (64 bit) in the machine and installed Win 7 (I had to hit Enter, then F12 to boot off of the CD-ROM). After the installation I was back to the same issue. I took the SSD out and installed a Segate 500GB drive, installed Win 7. Thinking maybe something was wrong with the SSD but even with the HD in the machine, same thing happened again. I had recovery disks that I bought last year for the W530 (Win 8 Pro 64 Bit) and installed that with the SSD this afternoon and I have the same issue.

So, when I hit the power button, the circle around the power button lights up green, the LED in the speaker mute button and the microphone button lights up for a second, the wireless indicator lights up, then the HD LED flickers for like a second or two and then everything shuts down.

I am outside the 30 day window to return the machine to the Ebay seller but I found out this afternoon that Ebay has a money back guarantee. I don't know if it would work for me since I have never used it before nor returned something I purchased from Ebay. One last thing I don't know if this matters but UEFI Secure boot is turned off in the BIOS.

I did run all of the tests that the machine gives you an option of from the screen when you hit Enter at the splash screen.

I am angry at myself for not playing with the machine more then letting it sit there.

Any help, thoughts that you can share with me, I would appreciate it very dearly.

Thank you for your help and time,
John

[hhhd1]

If you paid via paypal, which you probably did, you may have a longer period of complaining to them directly or requesting a refund from them.

Try to contact the seller on ebay, or complaining to ebay first.

[JohnD.]

Thanks for getting back to me.

I would really like to see if I and with the help of the people on the forum, troubleshoot the issue with the W530.

I am really curious on what's going on with it.

Thank you,
John

[RealBlackStuff]

If you have to reset the date(zone), maybe your CMOS battery is (near-)dead?
Before you replace it, check the Security/Password settings in BIOS.
Set them all to DISabled, then press F10 to save.

[Neil]

So, have you experimented with different power sources? Like, battery only, remove battery and AC only. Assuming your earlier attempts to boot were with a battery and AC adapter both connected., changing things up might lead to the culprit.

[emeraldgirl08]

Have you ruled out heat? Have you checked if the fan is spinning or if the thermal compound is in good shape? Also how about RAM? Not sure if a bad stick of RAM might cause the symptoms you describe but you might try ruling that out as well.