Thinkpads Forum

I have a Thinkpad P51s. Over the past week, my laptop would randomly shut down and would only restart after I pressed the emergency reset button. It would then work for a day or two and then again shutdown and once again would only start up after pressing the reset button.



Yesterday, it shutdown again but it won't start up even if I press the reset button.



I tried removing the external battery and disconnecting the internal battery and then oressed and held the power button. Also tried holding down the reset button button. Repeated the same with RAM removed. Nothing helped. Even removed the CMOS battery connection and reinserted it but nothing helped.

Today I tried all those steps again and it booted up one time, sent me to bios screen to set the date and time and then ran for a minute or two and shutdown again. I again tried the reset button, it booted up again and then shutdown after 15 seconds or so. I haven't been able to get it to boot back up again no matter what I try.



It makes no sense to me why this is happening. Does anyone have any idea what's going on and how I could fix this?



My laptop is not in warranty anymore. I did email a representative a screenshot when I still had my warranty showing that I was not able to extend it online.



Also, while my laptop was in warranty it had already had it's motherboard replaced 3 times because any external display that I connected to it would flicker irrespective of whether I tried windows or ubuntu. The last replacement was about 40 days back.

Try the "Power Button Trick" as a last resort; good luck!

- - - - - - - - - -
www.masnick.com/2007/09/07/the-secret-t ... ck-to-life

"...unplug the AC adapter and take out the battery. Then, you push the power button 10 times in a row at one second intervals. Next, you push and hold the power button for 30 seconds. Then you put the battery back in and push the power button… and she lives. The computer came back, good as ever.

I asked the guy what the power button pushing incantation did and he said “static discharge” so apparently there was some sort of static that caused a short or something. I tried to get the guy to explain in more detail what happened, but he said “dude, you know as much as I do… but your machine is working.”

adi92 wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 07, 2018 12:49 pm

Also, while my laptop was in warranty it had already had it's motherboard replaced 3 times because any external display that I connected to it would flicker irrespective of whether I tried windows or ubuntu. The last replacement was about 40 days back.

Some repair centers give 90-day warranty on repairs and replacement parts. You may try to argue this with them, making the claim that your issues are a continuation of a problem they failed to fix (or new issues introduced by their last repair) and see if they are willing to take responsibility and replace it again, free of charge. I wouldn't hold my breath, but what have you got to lose?

Good luck and welcome to the forum.

Thank you for your replies. The power button trick didn't work unfortunately. Currently waiting to see if I can get them to fix the laptop under the 90 day claim. Let's see what happens.

Update: everytime i do the power button trick and then press the reset button, it works for about a minute and then shuts down again.. I'm so confused.

What does the reset button really do? Why does it work for a minute or so after pressing it?

Have you tried another power supply?
Booting from AC with both batteries removed/disconnected?
Tried other memory?
Reseat memory/wifi/WWAN and reseat HD/SSD/CD/whatever you have?

Does this help? Hurry to try it, once it's up...: https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/198 ... itself+off

adi92 wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 07, 2018 12:49 pm

Today I tried all those steps again and it booted up one time, sent me to bios screen to set the date and time and then ran for a minute or two and shutdown again. I again tried the reset button, it booted up again and then shutdown after 15 seconds or so. I haven't been able to get it to boot back up again no matter what I try.

It makes no sense to me why this is happening. Does anyone have any idea what's going on and how I could fix this?

Something like this happened to me once. Turned out, my keyboard was malfunctioning and that's where the power button is placed. With a brand new keyboard the problem was solved.

Alzo, make sure you haven't fiddled with the BIOS too much : https://www.notebookcheck.net/Some-rece ... 156.0.html