So this is my daughters school laptop. It started off intermittently crashing with a BSOD; I think the error was inaccessible boot device. In this model, there is an 2.5" sized adaptor that connects a NVMe SSD to the motherboard via a ribbon cable. After replacing the SSD and refitting, nothing was being detected in this adaptor. I ordered a replacement adaptor but no change with that.
Cut a long story short, Googling this showed it is a common fault with T570/T580/P51/P52 lappies. Lenovo were swapping out motherboards and supplying new base covers to fix under warranty. But this system is out of warranty now so had to fix it.
The fault was the pins of the HDD1 FPC ribbon connector on the motherboard having come away from the pads. There was little solder on them from the factory. Resoldering fixed the problem however how did that happen?
So on the base cover, Lenovo have two brackets that correspond to the two ribbon cable connectors on the motherboard. When the cover if fitted, these brackets push down on the flex cables to keep them in place (lines up where the yellow box is in the attached image). But this in turn pushes the connector downwards on the flex side, hence the pins lift off the pads due to the insufficient soldering.
So cut of this bracket and replaced it with some one sided foam that will push down on the connector itself, not the flex.
Putting this here for others if they need to do this mod outside of warranty. BTW, the connector is difficult to resolder with the pins raised up. Would be easier to remove and reflow a new connector into place.
Cut a long story short, Googling this showed it is a common fault with T570/T580/P51/P52 lappies. Lenovo were swapping out motherboards and supplying new base covers to fix under warranty. But this system is out of warranty now so had to fix it.
The fault was the pins of the HDD1 FPC ribbon connector on the motherboard having come away from the pads. There was little solder on them from the factory. Resoldering fixed the problem however how did that happen?
So on the base cover, Lenovo have two brackets that correspond to the two ribbon cable connectors on the motherboard. When the cover if fitted, these brackets push down on the flex cables to keep them in place (lines up where the yellow box is in the attached image). But this in turn pushes the connector downwards on the flex side, hence the pins lift off the pads due to the insufficient soldering.
So cut of this bracket and replaced it with some one sided foam that will push down on the connector itself, not the flex.
Putting this here for others if they need to do this mod outside of warranty. BTW, the connector is difficult to resolder with the pins raised up. Would be easier to remove and reflow a new connector into place.
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