Thinkpad W530 works only sometimes

[dcfbf]

Hi I have a Thinkpad W530 that was working fine until about a few weeks ago, it started shutting off randomly. I thought that it might have been the battery because I read that sometimes a bad battery causes it to shutting down. But when I tried to only run it off the power adapter, the same problem still came up. I already tried a new power adapter and a used, working battery but same issues came up. I also have changed the thermal paste and tried different ram in different slots. Is there anything else that could be causing it or will I have to replace the whole system board?

[SAIYAN48]

Have you tried cleaning out the dust and repasting the CPU?

[dcfbf]

Have you tried cleaning out the dust and repasting the CPU?

Yeah I have. Like I said in my original post I have already tried that and it still didn't work. Sorry if I glossed over that too fast.

[RealBlackStuff]

When you were repasting, did you take out the CPU for cleaning?
Maybe you didn't tighten the screw properly after putting it back in?
When it works, what temperatures does it have?

[dcfbf]

When you were repasting, did you take out the CPU for cleaning?

No I didn't

temperatures does it have?

It was around 50-55 degrees C when I did the quick CPU test. I couldn't stress test it or anything because almost every time I tried to boot into the OS, it would just shut down and reboot. When it did boot into the OS, I couldn't test anything because it would just shut down in about a minute or two after booting. Also the fans never ramped up which it probably should have done if it was cooking itself. Oh yeah and it also doesn't only shut down while booting into the OS either. When I did the quick ram test, it also shut down at around 70 percent completion which is why I thought that the ram was the issue. But it wasn't.

[kfzhu1229]

Maybe you should try a sandy or ivy bridge Core i3 with no turbo boost support, to see if it's the turbo boost that's causing the problem? I've had this on a dying Gateway motherboard before, basically the boost VRM phase is not supplying high enough quality power rail for the CPU to run smoothly

[dcfbf]

Maybe you should try a sandy or ivy bridge Core i3 with no turbo boost support, to see if it's the turbo boost that's causing the problem

Hmm I will try to order one to see what happens. But if that is the case couldn't I just turn off the turbo in the bios? Or is that not an option on the W530?

[kfzhu1229]

Maybe you should try a sandy or ivy bridge Core i3 with no turbo boost support, to see if it's the turbo boost that's causing the problem

Hmm I will try to order one to see what happens. But if that is the case couldn't I just turn off the turbo in the bios? Or is that not an option on the W530?

You can also use the windows power plan advanced settings and set the CPU max clock to 99%, which effectively disables the Turbo boost.

[dcfbf]

set the CPU max clock to 99%, which effectively disables the Turbo boost.

Ok so I tried it and it still didn't work. My guess is that the whole vrm setup is just dying then and not just the boost ones so my board is probably just going to die soon. That or something with the solder joints because it works better after I don't use it for a while. Guess I'll have to find a motherboard to replace this with. Thanks for the help though.

[dcfbf]

Not sure if anyone needs or even wants to know but it works now for some reason after I reseated the cpu.