X41 shuts down suddenly, will not restart

[nili]

I have owned my X41 (not tablet) for 5 years and I never had any trouble with it, until a week ago, when it suddenly shut down while I was working with it. I do not mean a shutdown in due form (Windows ist shutting down etc.), but a sudden power off where everything stops at once, as if someone had flicked a switch. There is in fact an audible click when the shutdown occurs. Simply pushing the power ON button would not restart it (no response at all). To restart it, I actually had to remove the Li-battery, connect the external power supply, then push the ON button. Everything seemed fine again, until...

After about two hours of running normally, the notbook shut down once more (this time, the external power was plugged in). Same procedure to restart it, but this time, in addition to removing the Li-Battery, I had to plug/unplug the external power several times before the notebook responded to the power On and restarted.

I went through the above procedure a few more times, as the sudden shutdowns recurred. The notebook always runs for a seemingly unpredictable amount of time, for periods ranging from approx. 30 seconds to several hours, although runtime periods tend to decrease. The number of plus/unplugs of the external power required to restart the notebook increase, too.

The external power source is obviously OK, as the green processor control light briefly flashes everytime the ON button is pushed, even when the attempt to restart is unsuccessful. The Li-Battery seems to be OK too, capacity is still good and the voltage at the connectors is 16V.

I am about to trash my x41 as it has become too unreliable for real work; sending it in to a Lenovo repair center takes too long.

Has anyone experienced similar problems and if yes, is there a remedy?

Thank you for your help!

Cheers, Nili.

[Harryc]

Does it shut down if you leave the battery out of the laptop?

[nili]

Yes, the sudden shutdowns occur regardless of wheter the Li-Battery is in place.

[Harryc]

Pull all drives, internal plug-in cards (Wifi, bluetooth, modem), and all RAM. Does it now power up normally? If not, the systemboard is the issue. Just to make sure I'd also try another known working AC adapter just to say... yeah for sure that's not it.

[nili]

I want to make sure I understand your instructions: "all drives, internal plug-in cards (Wifi, bluetooth, modem), and all RAM" is what I can disconnect WITHOUT opening the body housing, right?

Could there be something like a thermal switch or an overcurrent protection that needs adjusting?

[Harryc]

There are no adjustments. The internal cards would have to be pulled using the hardware maintenance manual, and yes at least the keyboard would have to be removed for access. The hard drive can be accessed by removing a small external cover (one screw).
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 59181.html

[nili]

I went through your procedure and got as far as removing the three cards that I could access through the Customer Access Bay. Disconnecting them did not remedy the problem. I also checked the power supply by using a brand new one from another Thinkpad.

The notebook did eventually restart (for whatever mysterious reason) and then it had another one of its "strokes", possibly the last one, because now there is no sign of life left: no more flashing control lights when pressing the power ON butten, nor does the Li-battery load when I connect the external power. Looks like it has gone to Lapto-Heaven after all...

[RealBlackStuff]

Is that the place whose name they have abbreviated to LAPland?