Chosen Solution
Hi, I hope you are still here. I have a Lenovo Thinkpad E531 that I use rarely. I recently tried to use it for the first time in about 3 months, and it appears completely dead. The only sign of life is that when I plug in the (original) Lenovo power adapter to the laprop, the i in Thinkpad flashes red 3 times. That is it. Power button does not light up, nothing. I can believe the battery is completely dead and un-chargeable, and it is now removed. I also removed the hard drive, DVD drive, and RAM with no change in the problem. I tried measuring the power plug with my voltmeter. Of course the 120VAC plug is plugged in to a live outlet. Then measuring the plug that goes into the laptop, from the rectangular grounded outer shell to the inner central pin, there is zero voltage. Should it be reading 20V (live) even when not plugged into the laptop? If yes, that is at least one of my problems. Or is it smart so it only goes to high voltage when plugged into the laptop? Thanks for any ideas or help. Update (03/23/2022) Answering partly my own questions, in case someone else has a similar problem … I took the whole laptop apart. Confirmed 20V measured internally at the power plug, so the power supply is smart enough to not make the central pin live unless it is plugged in. I also measured my battery. 10.8V printed on the battery, measured at 11.7V, go that is not the problem either. Checked the switch and where it connects to the mother board. The power button is connected to a 4-wire ribbon. When the button is pressed, the two middle wires are momentarily connected. I’ll assume the outer wires are to light the button, but did not test. Also tried shorting the two wires on the motherboard that the power button would connect when pressed - no change. That was enough for me. Checked the easy things - power, battery, power switch, and will basically give up now … except, as I have learned with other laptops over the years, I will try again once in a while to see if it fixes itself. Yes, it does happen, LOL.
@aleinstein1905 A 3 blink Thinkpad logo light indicates that the laptop is initially connected to AC power, so at least it knows that power is available, which you already proved anyway. Try a power refresh and check if that works just in case the BIOS got corrupted due to the flat battery and possibly a flat RTC battery Since you have it open it will be easier and also that you have removed the main battery as well. Make sure that you have re-assembled the laptop in that the memory is inserted and the power button board is reconnected. The HDD and ODD initially won’t matter. Do not insert the main battery and then remove the RTC battery and then press and hold the Power On button for a full 30 seconds and then release it. Here’s the hardware maintenance manual for the laptop. Go to p.73 to view the steps to remove the backup battery (aka RTC battery or CMOS battery). Also with the RTC battery disconnected, measure its voltage. If it is <2.5V DC replace it. The replacement part # is 04W4118 (or compatible equivalents are 01HY789 & 01HY790) Search online using the part number only to find suppliers that suit you. Reconnect the RTC battery and the charger and try turning it on. Hopefully it will POST (but not boot if the HDD is still out) and give a message about no OS etc. You should be able to get into BIOS though (press F1 when the Lenovo logo is on the screen) If it does start you might get a message about incorrect date and time. This is normal as the BIOS has been reset to default. Once the D&T have been corrected the message will not appear again the next time the laptop is started. If still no good it is a motherboard problem. What is the model number of the motherboard as printed on the board itself?
