[Closed] Thinkpad has bricked. pointers for diagnosis?

Obvious, I know - but, you've checked the power brick?

its pretty much new, so honestly didnt question it. but i will.
just the sort of obvious pointer i was after, ill get the multimeter out, thanks : )

Graceful shutdown or immediate off?

Do you use it a lot on carpet / soft furnishings / the cat? Smells a lot like thermal shutdown / fan failure to me, this.

its pretty much new

Send it back, then.

Also,

I've had several hundred Thinkpads pass through my hands and have not seen a single PSU failure. If one were to fail, it wouldn't come back on again 5 minutes later. And in any case, y'know, battery. I think power brick is a highly unlikely cause here.

If you bought it new then there is very often one year at home support.  Phone them, they are very good.  I buy mainly lenovo now for just this reason

If you really want to fix it yourself, and I wouldn't want to myself if it was under warranty, then I've had a couple of recent thinkpads go down in the last year with a problem with the connector to the hard drive (can't really call it a disk drive any more I guess.  One place I worked referred to is as bulk memory but I couldn't handle the acronym).   In both cases Lenovo came and replaced the cable (one was a friend of mine at home rather than a business machine).

I think power brick is a highly unlikely cause here.

I absolutely agree - I'd be surprised if it was. But - worth ruling out? Yep.

This is generally just a fix for a Thinkpad that won't power up at all but it might be worth a go. Underneath you should find a little hole you can stick a small paperclip or pin through to hold down a "reset" button (this is required because you can't easily disconnect the internal battery). Press this down for a few seconds then release.

it's the power pack that's new (genuine lenovo) not the computer!

any possible problems if i press reset button?

cougar, i use it exclusively on the table, the fancomes on only rarely, it doesn't 'seem' to get hot much, which doesn't rule out thermal shut down i guess...

any possible problems if i press reset button?

What "reset button" are you referring to?

any possible problems if i press reset button?

What “reset button” are you referring to?

The one I suggested I imagine and NO. We had a lot of this with later Lenovos at work. I don't know if they still do, I've retired.

the fancomes on only rarely,

Does it come on when you start up the laptop? If not then maybe the fan isn't working at all (fan catching on the casing - yes it's a thing - or full of fluff - or knackered).

OK.

Remove the battery (the main one, leave the innards alone) and disconnect the power. Press and hold the power button for a few seconds. Reconnect the power, hit the power button again.

Does it still show "no signs of life"? Ie, absolutely nothing, there isn't anything you've failed to mention thus far, lights, noises etc?

thanks for all the help everyone.

i tested the charger last nigh and seem to be getting no juice at the computer plug. (its arriving atthe brick just fine)

so im off to buy another new charger and hope that's the fix

i had a thinkpad yoga nuke itself on me. main board power distrubution died at 3am in the morning, in the middle of a sea trials in the middle of the Mediterranean. more than a little inconvenient.

threw up a load of error messages, powered down, came back up for a few minutes and a whole load more error messages and then shut down for good. when i got back to the UK and gave it to the IT manager, he shrugged and said 'yeah, mine did that a few months ago', took the hard drive out and gave it to me to recover any files I wanted and gave me another laptop.

so im off to buy another new charger and hope that’s the fix

Appreciate you probably need it working ASAP, but thats a warranty issue, surely?

Last year when my daughter took her laptop but not the charger on holiday, Amazon prime got a compatible one to us on Anglesey twelve hours later. If it turns out not to be the problem, returns are easy.

Or I suppose you'll then have a spare one if they are dodgy power bricks

pin out for the square type power plug here.

voltage - Lenovo Trim Yellow rectangular power adapter - Super User

Appreciate you probably need it working ASAP, but thats a warranty issue, surely?

Thinkpad x240s are ancient so unlikely.

thank you jam-bo. better go and re check the power supply!...

ok, latest update:

I've checked the power supply properly this time (thanks jam-bo!). it's giving 20V as intended.

I've removed the battery, keeping plugged-in, and held down the power button.

and i've found the reset pin hole and given it a longish press, plugged in and no battery.

none of these has had any effect. the thing is still a door stop, showing no signs, not even that it has mains power ( flashing red LED normally).

so what would be my next course of action? I'm fine with getting it apart.

little bump as i could do with a bit more help.
but im thinking take it apart and, starting with power board, check for visible damaged circuitry. and clean out any guff obviously. sound about right?

Point of note,

I don't know specifically about the X-series, but I've worked on a lot of T-series and all the service manuals were freely available in the Support Downloads section of Lenovo's website.

In fact, here you go.

DOWNLOAD.LENOVO.COM "https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/x240_hmm_en_sp40a26001_03.pdf"

thank you cougar. nice of you : )