Lenovo Ideapad won't turn on

kartvelo

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Aug 12, 2003
10,461
At home
Hi there.
Plugged in or not plugged in makes no difference.
Press the power button - indicator light comes on, stays on maybe 20 seconds, goes out. Nothing else appears to happen.
Internet says to try a few things, but they don't work. Also suggests removing the battery then re-installing it, but I'm pretty sure this isn't a replaceable battery and haven't been able to get the back off anyway because I don't have a tiny enough Torx drive to do so.
it's still under warranty, but some work needs to be done in the next few days that requires using the expensive software installed on the laptop. Can't afford to buy another copy to install on an old machine, can't afford to wait weeks for repair process.
Now what?
 

Couperin47

Member
SoSH Member
Sounds like the battery has no charge, it's either dead or your charger has died and is not charging it. If you have a Multimeter you can check to see if the charger is outputting the (probably) 20v, if it's like Thinkpads, the pin inside the connector should be +, but please don't short the output while measuring. Otherwise, sorry, but under warranty it needs to go back to Lenovo. or you're probably trashing your coverage.
 

Bowhemian

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Nov 10, 2015
5,701
Bow, NH
I had a similar problem with a Dell laptop not too long ago. It required taking off the back cover, remove the battery/unplug it, then press and hold the power button for 20 seconds. I had to do this on several different occasions, and it worked perfectly. The hardest part was removing the 20 or so screws on the back/bottom of the laptop.
 

bohous

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 21, 2005
4,421
Framingham
Hi there.
Plugged in or not plugged in makes no difference.
Press the power button - indicator light comes on, stays on maybe 20 seconds, goes out. Nothing else appears to happen.
Internet says to try a few things, but they don't work. Also suggests removing the battery then re-installing it, but I'm pretty sure this isn't a replaceable battery and haven't been able to get the back off anyway because I don't have a tiny enough Torx drive to do so.
it's still under warranty, but some work needs to be done in the next few days that requires using the expensive software installed on the laptop. Can't afford to buy another copy to install on an old machine, can't afford to wait weeks for repair process.
Now what?
I would be surprised if the battery isn't removeable, although this may be a thing with newer laptops. A set of precision screwdrivers like this is a good investment. I have a similar set and surprised how often I use them.

edit: If you want to try to crack it open and need the screwdrivers immediately it looks like HD carries a nice set in-store depending on your location.
 
Last edited:

Max Power

thai good. you like shirt?
SoSH Member
Jul 20, 2005
7,879
Boston, MA
Have you held down the power button for 30 seconds or so? That usually cuts the power completely to the board and does a full reset. If it doesn't, you can try disconnecting the main battery and reconnecting it to see if it starts up. Some laptops also have a CMOS battery that you may have to disconnect and reconnect as well. That's a little round battery with a small wire coming from it and going to the motherboard. Like you said, you'll need the set of tiny screwdrivers to do it, but you should probably be able to get those quicker than a warranty return.

If it's just broken, you should see if the hard drive is removable when you have it open. Then you could purchase an identical model laptop and swap the drives. That would get you back up and running immediately while you worked out warranty return. You'd just have to figure out what to do with the second laptop when the ordeal is over.
 

kartvelo

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Aug 12, 2003
10,461
At home
Quick follow-up:
Got it repaired under warranty, and it was out and back in about a week and a half.