X201 Suddenly Died Completely

[robowens]

I have an X201 that was used rarely as one of our company computers. It needed a reformat and it went off without a hitch. I installed drivers, etc. from Lenovo and shut down with no issue. Then I attempted to power the machine on and it loaded to the Windows 7 (Enterprise) login screen, so I logged in with no problem. As soon as the machine made the login sound it suddenly shut down completely and won't do anything at all. No lights, no nothing. The charger is reading correctly with my volt meter. I have no clue what is wrong with it and I need to get it back to the employee. I have no idea what happened to it or why it would suddenly die like this - it hasn't been damaged in any way and looks like a fresh machine just out of the box. Do you guys have any idea what could have caused this or how to remedy this? I am at a loss! Very frustrating! I have never had an issue like this before!

Any help is hugely appreciated! Hopefully it's not a motherboard failure........

Thanks!
Rob

[RealBlackStuff]

Welcome to the forum.
If that machine has been standing around for a while, the battery could have gone bad.
Take it out, also remove the power adapter, then press on the Power-On button, and hold it down for 15-20 seconds.
Now just plug in the adapter (not the battery) and see if it boots.

[robowens]

Thanks for the reply! No luck. Still dead as a doornail...

We had an SL410 a while back and the charger port on the machine itself went bad. But that computer was used day in and day out... I'm thinking that may be a possibility, but I don't understand how it could have broken on this machine. The thing is in basically new condition and there's no play in the charger port itself. It's puzzling!

Thanks,
Rob

[rkawakami]

Some things to try:

- another, known good AC adapter (safest) OR verify that your current adapter works on another 20V Thinkpad (slightly dangerous if the supply is defective and causes the other Thinkpad to go non-functional). While you might be measuring the proper 20VDC, the supply may not provide enough current when loaded.
- remove all hardware (hard drive, memory, USB devices, etc.) and see if the system turns on and beeps 1-3-3-1.
- sniff test: Do you smell anything unusual from the exhaust port(s)? Something along the lines of burnt plastic? If so, something may have fried on the motherboard.
- more or less last resort: open it up and see if you can find any visible damage (burnt component, loose part that falls out, etc.). If you can manage to locate some of the lower-numbered fuses (F1, F2, F3), check them with a multimeter to see if they are still measuring 0 ohms. Those are typically the ones that protect the laptop from the DC input.

[Brad]

It is possible the X201 is still under warranty. Check the serial number at the Lenovo website warranty status page.

Brad