Thinkpads Forum

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.