Hello,
I've been trying to repair this old T530 laptop. It is in really good condition, with no almost signs of use.
However it is dead. There was no prior information provided, how it died, or so. The board is extremely clean, there is no dust inside, etc.
It does power on and it charges the battery. However the display stays black, also the USB devices (like a mouse) don't initialize or power on - that means it is essentially brain dead.
Fan spins for about 4-5 seconds, then stops. The CPU will get really hot eventually, but the fan will not spin up, nor the laptop will shut down.
I tried powering up only the board with no other cards attached, with one known good stick of RAM. Also I removed the RAM and checked if it will beep.
Nothing works.
Next I tried flashing the BIOS with some (3 or 4) dumps from the internet. There are two chips (ME and BIOS), I did flash them both. Nothing. And I used the right dumps, as some of them were for the version with discrete GPU.
Next I reflashed the original BIOS and cleaned the ME region (manually - that might be a problem?), still nothing.
I put the original BIOS back for now.
Next, I measured every single power rail and it seems they are all present. I also checked most of the fuses (Lenovo loves them apparently), and they all check good.
Next, I used the thermal camera to check if anything was getting hot on the board. Sadly it is covered with that darned black tape, but nothing sticks out.
Measured the two crystals near the PCH with an oscilloscope (32KHz and 25MHz), both are spot on.
I also replaced the CPU with another one - probably known good, can't test it really in another machine. Behavior stayed exactly the same with the other CPU.
The board is taking 1A at 20V, or sometimes 0.8A at 20V. Current is steady all the time.
Interestingly sometimes it decides to draw 1A, sometimes just 0.75-0.8A.
Since I wasted enough time on that board, I am asking here if perhaps anyone has any info about those Lenovo boards or what to check next?
Thanks!
I've been trying to repair this old T530 laptop. It is in really good condition, with no almost signs of use.
However it is dead. There was no prior information provided, how it died, or so. The board is extremely clean, there is no dust inside, etc.
It does power on and it charges the battery. However the display stays black, also the USB devices (like a mouse) don't initialize or power on - that means it is essentially brain dead.
Fan spins for about 4-5 seconds, then stops. The CPU will get really hot eventually, but the fan will not spin up, nor the laptop will shut down.
I tried powering up only the board with no other cards attached, with one known good stick of RAM. Also I removed the RAM and checked if it will beep.
Nothing works.
Next I tried flashing the BIOS with some (3 or 4) dumps from the internet. There are two chips (ME and BIOS), I did flash them both. Nothing. And I used the right dumps, as some of them were for the version with discrete GPU.
Next I reflashed the original BIOS and cleaned the ME region (manually - that might be a problem?), still nothing.
I put the original BIOS back for now.
Next, I measured every single power rail and it seems they are all present. I also checked most of the fuses (Lenovo loves them apparently), and they all check good.
Next, I used the thermal camera to check if anything was getting hot on the board. Sadly it is covered with that darned black tape, but nothing sticks out.
Measured the two crystals near the PCH with an oscilloscope (32KHz and 25MHz), both are spot on.
I also replaced the CPU with another one - probably known good, can't test it really in another machine. Behavior stayed exactly the same with the other CPU.
The board is taking 1A at 20V, or sometimes 0.8A at 20V. Current is steady all the time.
Interestingly sometimes it decides to draw 1A, sometimes just 0.75-0.8A.
Since I wasted enough time on that board, I am asking here if perhaps anyone has any info about those Lenovo boards or what to check next?
Thanks!
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