Malfunctioning W530. Directly to the trashcan?

[thinkpicadilly]

I have a ThinkPad W530 that has given me many satisfactions throughout the years, but now its life seems to be coming to and end - and I refuse to accept that.

Issue number one is that 90% of the times I turn it on, it won't boot (same problem happens if I restart the laptop). The light on the power button gets lit, and I can hear some fans spinning, but not even the bios screen shows up. I have tried everything: the famous trick where you repeatedly press the On button with the laptop unplugged; removing the battery or the charger; disconnecting RAM, HDD, and everything except the CPU; changing the bios battery; everything to no avail. After many (many) trials, the best solution seems to leave it on, running on battery, until it dries out. Then the chances of booting greatly improve - although it is not guaranteed. My guess is that it's a motherboard problem, but I don't have any way to check that.

Issue number two is that the cable from the power brick was broken a long time ago, very close to the connector that goes into the laptop. So I had to do a very rough fix by cutting through the connector rubber to get some cable to join with the rest of the power brick cable. This works, but of course it's not ideal, a bit dangerous, and quite fragile (I have to re-fix it quite often). Problem is, a new power brick for a W530 is crazy expensive, and does not seem to be worth it given the problems the laptop is having.

So, my question is, what would you do with a laptop like this? I have a newer ThinkPad for everyday use, but I don't want to throw away my beloved W530. Yet, I don't find any other choice. With the problems it has, I believe it's impossible to sell it in whole; maybe the parts are worth something. I don't see any way to fix its problems, but any advice on that regard would be greatly appreciated. And given its condition, it's super annoying to give it any real use. So, I kindly request your advice.

Regading the specs, it has an i7-3610QM, 8 GB RAM, and a 256 GB SSD (and stock specs everywhere else).

[atagunov]

Hi,

First question is - is it giving you any beeps? beeps are the usual way many computers tell you why they can't boot into BIOS

Re fixing: replacing the motherboard might be the easiest solution. You're welcome to check around ebay for new motherboards.
Alternatively I'm sure there'll be plenty of people willing to buy it from you and replace the motherboard themselves.

Where in the world are you? I've been wanting an W530 for a while %) This forum has a section for selling stuff too.

Breaking down into parts and selling them separately might be possible as well, some people do it on ebay - but that will definitely require time and effort. You processor has value, your RAM has some value, your keyboard has value, your SSD has value, screen panel, body parts, etc. But probably easier to sell as a package.

I've been surprised to hear about the power brick. You only need to search by wattage and plug type.. All 135Wt round barrel Lenovo power adapters are good. This guy had some in London but I'm not sure if he still got any..

I don't think the W530 will refuse to run on a 90W adapter either, try it if you like. It may be slower to charge battery and/or throttle down the CPU I think. In a pinch I'd even try to plug in a 60W one. You know Thinkpad can detect what adapter it's got plugged and shouldn't try to pull more power than the power adapter is designed to deliver, so this should be electrically safe to try lower-wt adapters. Or was there some notch on 135W round barrel connectors that would prevent lower-power adapters from being plugged in physically?.. Never dealt with a 135W to be honest.

P.S. I should probably hold my horses and not try to buy a W530 now.. got too may projects going on..

[kfzhu1229]

Leaving the machine on until the battery dried out... it seems like the machine needed a bit of time to "preheat" before it would work...
In that case it could be some dying capacitors but that you can't tell easily.
It could also be some failing solder on the gpu or the chipset, or perhaps even a failing cpu.
Do you have a guarnteed working cpu that can go in this thing?
This thing can take any sandy bridge or ivy bridge mobile cpu.
Also try pressing on the graphics chip and the chipset chip perhaps and see if that would make a difference.

[thinkpicadilly]

Hi,

First question is - is it giving you any beeps? beeps are the usual way many computers tell you why they can't boot into BIOS

Re fixing: replacing the motherboard might be the easiest solution. You're welcome to check around ebay for new motherboards.
Alternatively I'm sure there'll be plenty of people willing to buy it from you and replace the motherboard themselves.

Where in the world are you? I've been wanting an W530 for a while %) This forum has a section for selling stuff too.

Breaking down into parts and selling them separately might be possible as well, some people do it on ebay - but that will definitely require time and effort. You processor has value, your RAM has some value, your keyboard has value, your SSD has value, screen panel, body parts, etc. But probably easier to sell as a package.

I've been surprised to hear about the power brick. You only need to search by wattage and plug type.. All 135Wt round barrel Lenovo power adapters are good. This guy had some in London but I'm not sure if he still got any..

I don't think the W530 will refuse to run on a 90W adapter either, try it if you like. It may be slower to charge battery and/or throttle down the CPU I think. In a pinch I'd even try to plug in a 60W one. You know Thinkpad can detect what adapter it's got plugged and shouldn't try to pull more power than the power adapter is designed to deliver, so this should be electrically safe to try lower-wt adapters. Or was there some notch on 135W round barrel connectors that would prevent lower-power adapters from being plugged in physically?.. Never dealt with a 135W to be honest.

P.S. I should probably hold my horses and not try to buy a W530 now.. got too may projects going on..

Hey, thanks for your reply and help. No beeps whatsoever, so no clues there. Just a black screen, a flash from the ThinkLight, On button gets lit, and some fan noise.

May give a new motherboard a try, just wasn't sure whether the investment would make sense. Same goes for the power brick; I have seen a wide range of prices, so maybe I could get one for ~60 euros (or a bit less if I'm lucky), but if I have to add that to the new motherboard, may not be worth it. In any case, although it came with a 170W one, it's good to know that a 135W brick may work too - that will probably reduce the price. Will check the forum section for bricks!

By the way, I'm in Spain. Cheers!

[thinkpicadilly]

Leaving the machine on until the battery dried out... it seems like the machine needed a bit of time to "preheat" before it would work...
In that case it could be some dying capacitors but that you can't tell easily.
It could also be some failing solder on the gpu or the chipset, or perhaps even a failing cpu.
Do you have a guarnteed working cpu that can go in this thing?
This thing can take any sandy bridge or ivy bridge mobile cpu.
Also try pressing on the graphics chip and the chipset chip perhaps and see if that would make a difference.

Hey, thanks for the tips, will try them! Unfortunately, I've been moving countries a few times in the last years, so I don't really have access to any other hardware to make tests. Regarding the "preheating", I would say it's not really the case, since once the machine boots and works fine, it's still not able to properly reboot (same thing happens).

[atagunov]

Will check the forum section for bricks!

You may wish to make a "[LF]" (looking for) post there.. Or else if you decide to part with the machine you can make a "[FS]" (for sale) one - that would need to have an asking price in it though. Full disclosure: I have never tried W530 with a lower-power bricks.. You see I wasn't even aware 170W existed.. Though I see them for £22 for sale on UK ebay: link.

[kfzhu1229]

Hey, thanks for the tips, will try them! Unfortunately, I've been moving countries a few times in the last years, so I don't really have access to any other hardware to make tests. Regarding the "preheating", I would say it's not really the case, since once the machine boots and works fine, it's still not able to properly reboot (same thing happens).

If you do wish to replace the motherboard and the power adapter, I do have a 135W brick that came from a T520 (yes it's a custom order T520 that came with a 135W brick) that has a motherboard fault that no longer charges battery. Perhaps if you don't mind that quirk you can even work around with that machine (you can use the W530 to charge the battery if you use the W530 battery)!

[cadillacmike68]

I found a genuine 170W power supply for about $21 earlier this year. They are out there.

What is the MTM and date of your W530 and what is the screen resolution?

[RealBlackStuff]

If you remove battery and all the RAM, then only plug in any 20V 65/90/135/170 Watt Lenovo charger, it should beep 1-3-3-1 if you try to boot.
If yours has 4 memory slots (2 under KB, 2 under small bottom-cover), make sure to remove them all.
If no beeps, then usually the motherboard is a goner.
Alternatively, try reseating all modules a few times.
Even gold contacts corrode eventually.

[thinkpicadilly]

I found a genuine 170W power supply for about $21 earlier this year. They are out there.

What is the MTM and date of your W530 and what is the screen resolution?

Thanks, good to know. The MTM is 2438-24Y. I found this in the database:

i7-3610QM(3.3GHz),8GB RAM,1TB 5400rpm HD,15.6in 1600x900 LCD,2GB Nvidia Quadro K1000M,DVD,Intel 802.11agn wireless,1Gb Ethernet,UltraNav,Secure Chip,Camera,9c Li-Ion,Win7 Pro 64

Swaps I've made to it are a 256 gb SSD in place of the HD, and a Spanish (no backlit) keyboard. According to this (and my memory recalls the same), the screen resolution is 1600x900. Regarding the date, I bought it around August 2013, if that helps.

[thinkpicadilly]

If you remove battery and all the RAM, then only plug in any 20V 65/90/135/170 Watt Lenovo charger, it should beep 1-3-3-1 if you try to boot.
If yours has 4 memory slots (2 under KB, 2 under small bottom-cover), make sure to remove them all.
If no beeps, then usually the motherboard is a goner.
Alternatively, try reseating all modules a few times.
Even gold contacts corrode eventually.

Well, last time I tried to overcome the problem was a couple years ago, but I'm positive that I got no beeps with all modules out. The faulty motherboard hypothesis seems strong, then. Thanks for your help.

[kfzhu1229]

Well, last time I tried to overcome the problem was a couple years ago, but I'm positive that I got no beeps with all modules out. The faulty motherboard hypothesis seems strong, then. Thanks for your help.

Do you have another CPU to test this machine with? Any sandy bridge or ivy bridge PGA mobile Core CPUs will work. If that still doesn't work then you are looking at a motherboard fault.
Well if you think you have nothing to lose, then perhaps you can try the toaster oven method with this motherboard. One possibility of this motherboard is a desoldered chipset or GPU. It might not be a permeant solution if it works at all, but it can give you enough life out of your current motherboard for a replacement one from China to arrive.

[thinkpicadilly]

Do you have another CPU to test this machine with? Any sandy bridge or ivy bridge PGA mobile Core CPUs will work.

Unfortunately not.

Well if you think you have nothing to lose, then perhaps you can try the toaster oven method with this motherboard. One possibility of this motherboard is a desoldered chipset or GPU. It might not be a permeant solution if it works at all, but it can give you enough life out of your current motherboard for a replacement one from China to arrive.

Well, why not... I may actually try this, hope it works!

[kfzhu1229]

Unfortunately not.

Then I suggest you grab one of those first. They should cost you no more than $5 for a sandy bridge i3.
Also, read about the procedures for the oven method.
I have personally tried 385F/196C for 8 minutes with success for other motherboards including a T42 motherboard and a crappy Acer laptop motherboard.
However RBS suggested a higher 420F./215C temperature.
Remove ALL the black plastic films and tapes, as well as anything that's in a socket (like the wifi card, CPU, RAM)
Use some foil balls as standoffs and mount them on at least 3 corners of the motherboard so the bottom does not touch anything.
Put the motherboard with the GPU facing upward and mount it on the standoffs carefully
After the time is up, SLOWLY let cool air get in and do not touch the board for the next 30 minutes and do not fire up the board for the next hour.
Best of luck!

[atagunov]

Remove ALL the black plastic films

Sir on a somewhat related topic - it's okay to just tear these plastics off, is it not? Should I need/want to?
And more importantly - how would you advise to attach them back?

[kfzhu1229]

Sir on a somewhat related topic - it's okay to just tear these plastics off, is it not? Should I need/want to?
And more importantly - how would you advise to attach them back?

If you don't take them off they will melt...
Also you need them back or the magnesium midframe will short the motherboard!
Oh yeah you also need to strip the motherboard out completely with the magnesium midframe removed
If the adhesive is no longer strong enough, just some double sided tape should do to tape the black tape back on

[atagunov]

...sorry to be overly-panicy, but could you confirm that there is no recorded case when the said double-sided tape shorted anything on the mobo or otherwise? That sticky glue?
I'm probably scaring myself too much at this point.. motherboards used to be sacredly untouchable to me a while ago

[kfzhu1229]

...sorry to be overly-panicy, but could you confirm that there is no recorded case when the said double-sided tape shorted anything on the mobo or otherwise? That sticky glue?
I'm probably scaring myself too much at this point.. motherboards used to be sacredly untouchable to me a while ago

Well you have not much to lose if you are in that case when the motherboard is totally dead...
You don't really need to cover the entire thing with double sided tape anyways, just enough to hold it down.
If you are scared of double sided tape shorting out, you can also put another layer of electrical tape under your double sided tape.

[atagunov]

Well you have not much to lose if you are in that case when the motherboard is totally dead...

I'm not the OP though I'm "hijacking" the thread to figure out how to replace nVidia-s on T61 motherboards which need it.
Assuming the BGA rework station does enter service there still will be a question of how to re-dress the mobo in plastics after the work

[kfzhu1229]

I'm not the OP though I'm "hijacking" the thread to figure out how to replace nVidia-s on T61 motherboards which need it.
Assuming the BGA rework station does enter service there still will be a question of how to re-dress the mobo in plastics after the work

Oh for BGA rework stations you don't have to do the plastics. That thing only heats up the GPU and its immediate surroundings so you just need plastics off for like a few centimetres worth of radius.
If you do decide to use oven to fix those boards yes you will need to totally strip it down and then remove all the plastic films and perhaps even paper labels. Plastics components like RAM slots are designed to handle that heat so they are fine.
If you do decide to use a BGA rework station, you might as well replace those with G86-741 chips as they also come with a newer die made in 65nm process and runs much cooler. Many other manufacturer's safe revision boards had those xx1 chips but not ThinkPads.

[RealBlackStuff]

It would be a lot cheaper (and easier) to buy a 14.1" 4:3 T61 motherboard with new nVidia chip, rather than a reball workstation.
Those mobos are available here: https://www.theboardroom.info/t61mobo.html (from TuuS)

[atagunov]

He he, messing with the station - if I ever get around to actually getting it going - is a hobby of its own.The other thing which seems worth trying was upgrading processors on boards where they are soldered in: X220/230(t) and virtually all modern Thinkpads. Re plastics they will need to be removed entirely if the process is to be done right.

So I'm genuinely interested in the safety of these double-sided sticky tapes when applied on top of motherboards. I imagine motherboards in many cases have got some sort of varnish applied on them, so perhaps any double-sided tape is safe here.. Unless that vanish has been damaged by heating up the board to over 200C.. Hmm.. Apply new vanish? %) I imagine theoretically some kinds of glue could be applied from a bottle, but then it should be a) definitely non-conductive b) non-permanent, in the sense that plastics can still be removed later if needed c) will not melt/flow like hot glue gun substance at higher temperatures

[thinkpicadilly]

Lots of good advice in here, many thanks to everyone. As a last question, to consider all possible options: what do you think would be a reasonable price to sell the machine in its current state (i.e. probably faulty MB and power brick with a bad cable)? Just in case, its specs are: i7-3610QM,8GB RAM,256 GB SSD,1600x900 LCD,2GB Nvidia Quadro K1000M. I'm in Spain, by the way.

EDIT: I mean, I haved looked up some reference prices, but most W530 for sale have been thoroughly updated, and most importantly, work well. So I'm not sure how to put a price to mine.

[atagunov]

to consider all possible options: what do you think would be a reasonable price to sell the machine in its current state (i.e. probably faulty MB and power brick with a bad cable)? Just in case, its specs are: i7-3610QM,8GB RAM,256 GB SSD,1600x900 LCD,2GB Nvidia Quadro K1000M. I'm in Spain, by the way.

Tough question.. some preliminaries.. I'm using UK ebay as my reference. Also I'm looking at the cost of particular components though I'm not convinced that's the right way to estimate the whole package..

• assuming 8Gb RAM is in two memory sticks of 4Gb each, here's a benchmark: £22 buy it now, I'd say it's about fair https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/373145576517 - well I probably wouldn't have paid more; I have too many of DDR3 4Gb sticks lying around already - I'd been shopping for 8Gb sticks this year instead snatching them slightly above £30 each; if the RAM is 4 sticks of 2Gb, well I'd probably say it's not worth much

• it is probably not without interest which SSD it is but you can get what seems a fairly decent modern/new Crucial MX500 of this size for around £30

• i7-3610QM seems valuable - but important point - we don't know 100% it works.. would have been nice to get it tested on some other machine..
  I've found one offer at £55 on ebay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224068031180 this ebay item has got socket listed as PGA 988 - I hope it's same as yours but please don't quote me on this

• what condition is the body in? Scratched/battered or nice and clean? Much play in the screen hinges? (For reference if I open screen on my T60 half-way to 45 degrees and let go of the screen lid, the screen free-falls over 2cm until the it gets caught by friction or something - these are problematic hinges; on other machines as soon as I try to rock the screen in its normal working (open 90 degrees) position the base of Thinkpad "wants" to move with it - these are solid hinges)

• screen condition?

• what battery and in what condition? original/aftermarket? do you remember what % of original capacity it was the last time it worked?

• which layout is the keyboard? worn/in good shape?

Interestingly your structure frame doesn't seem to cost much in US: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283926503975 but getting it to Europe now seems nigh impossible (seems post isn't working US -> Europe, we have a much wanted package stuck for over 2 months now).. not to mention postage is costly.. If anybody wanted to upgrade a T520 or T530 to W530 there would be a need for that structure frame I understand.. I did want frame/motherboard/CPU like yours for a while but then I've already paid for 3-4 relatively big acquisitions in Thinkpad land this year already..

[thinkpicadilly]

I apologize, had several rough weeks and couldn't check these things. Thanks for the answer, I'll certainly check the individual price of the components to get an idea.

By the way, the answers are:
- It has two 4gb ram sticks
- The SSD is a Kingston SSSDnow V300, 240 gb
- The body is in decent condition, but not perfect. Maybe a 6 out of 10.
- The hinges are very solid, no screen falling at 45°
- Screen seems perfect as well
- The battery is the original one, with 9 cells (I believe), so it protrudes from the body a bit. The condition is bad however, I haven't checked the capacity but my guess is around 25%.
- The keyboard is aftermarket, spanish layout (no backlit). Rather good condition.

[atagunov]

Hi, so we wanted to put a price on it right?.. Actually now that I've asked all the questions I'm beet stumped.. The SSD would fetch £30 + postage I guess in UK, but then you may wish to re-use it too. For RAM it's better to check current auctions.. Very rough guess is £20 + postage, but I don't know.. The body and screen are a tougher job.. I guess one option might be to sell the screen separately as a screen assembly - shouldn't be that difficult to separate it from the bottom.. I did want a W530 but I have to reign my expenditure in this year.. I've already purchased 3 * R60 + 1 * T60 + X220t + X230t parts + lots and lots of other stuff this year and I already had one T60 before that.

Why don't you you put an FS (for sale) in the market place of this forum? Maybe start at £80 - £100?.. FS items have to have a price on them. It won't cost you anything and you can forget about the FS topic for a while if it suites you better if there is no immediate reaction. Some photos say on imgur.com would be nice in the FS topic.

[thinkpicadilly]

That sounds like a good idea. Thank you for your help!!!

[TheForgottenKing]

What he said. Trashing such a machine is a huge waste. You could get a decent amount for it, especially if you parted it out and sold the dead board for parts (or just sold it whole).

[xelonakias]

Hi
Just do not expect to get too much out of it.
I wanted a decent laptop for the kids, so I looked around in december 2019.
I Bought from its first owner a w530 with a 480gb SSD, 32 GB ram, FHD screen, plus an ultrabase, an HDD ultrabay for a second 500 gb 2.5' HDD, a ultrabay dvd writer, the 170 AC brick, plus a logitech mouse and a samsonite travel bag, the whole bunch for 500 euros (Greece).
Speaking strickly from my point of view, would I be in the market for a machine for spares I would pay a maximum of 100 euros for the device you discuss, because....prices.
Well, that's my two cents opinion.
Hope you do make it work eventually though.
Cheers

[kfzhu1229]

Hi
Just do not expect to get too much out of it.
I wanted a decent laptop for the kids, so I looked around in december 2019.
I Bought from its first owner a w530 with a 480gb SSD, 32 GB ram, FHD screen, plus an ultrabase, an HDD ultrabay for a second 500 gb 2.5' HDD, a ultrabay dvd writer, the 170 AC brick, plus a logitech mouse and a samsonite travel bag, the whole bunch for 500 euros (Greece).
Speaking strickly from my point of view, would I be in the market for a machine for spares I would pay a maximum of 100 euros for the device you discuss, because....prices.

I mean on its own though the W530 is still a pretty good laptop, but well even comparing to its competitors at the time, the HP Zbook 15, and the Dell Precision M4700, it fell short on graphics. While the latter two have MxM Type A graphics interface and can be modded (along with modded BIOS) to a GTX 965M if not a 1050 Ti (though you have to spend crazy amounts of money for these modules), that's not possible on the W530 because the GPU is soldered in place.
So well the W530's platform can have lots of potential but that thing's soldered GPU means that graphical demanding tasks can be forgotten of.