Comments on: The Secret Thinkpad Powerbutton Code To Bring Dead Laptops Back To Life

By: kylie

kylie — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:50:54 +0000

lord knows how or why this worked -but it did!!!! thank you!!! (on r51)

By: Credo

Credo — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:06:48 +0000

NO WAY!! .. thought this was an april fools! just booted up my x40 after a month of wondering whether to bin it or not.

Dude .. THANK YOU!!!

By: Gonzasco

Gonzasco — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 08:09:53 +0000

It worked and it’s my B day today! I love you & thank you!

By: ruudj

ruudj — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 22:43:36 +0000

I had this same problem. My wifes R40 ‘died’.
She’s lost without it.
Slowly everything began failing. First no hard drive, so I swapped drives, with no luck, but I managed to save all the documents.
I tried booting with CD and floppy..no luck. Then lastly even BIOS startup failed.
I used the manual, which did’t get me further.
I thought I needed a new laptop.

Two days later I found this solution. First it didn’t work, but after removing and reinstalling the RAM, the machine slowly came to life.

Nice!

By: jiji

jiji — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 19:08:28 +0000

Had a similar problem, but the key sequence did not work.

After I calmed down, I took the keyboard off the next day, I unplugged the BIOS battery and plugged it back in.

Voilá.

Thanks for the tips though.
Cheers.

By: Tam

Tam — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:58:12 +0000

I tried this trick on my x40 thinkpad and it worked fabulously (see above) and on a whim I decided to give it a whirl on my old t23. I spilled ice tea on it back in April and it hasn’t worked since. I figured that I must have fried my motherboard, but couldn’t bring myself to get rid of it.

I tried this trick on it and it sprang to life. I nearly cried! Truly, truly AMAZING.

By: Tam

Tam — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:50:56 +0000

There are no words to express my appreciation. My thinkpad x40 just died and I didn’t know why. This trick worked! I just started a new career and I need my computer.

Thanks!

By: NM

NM — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 04:48:03 +0000

Thanks! Googled “Thinkpad dead” and found your “incantantion.” It also has just worked for me on my 3 year old Thinkpad x200. Had the fan replaced earlier today and was running a Norton virus check on the million plus files on the hard drive. Wasn’t nearby when it died, but perhaps it overheated (never happened before… the previous fan was replaced because it was making lots of noise).

By: Jonas

Jonas — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 22:28:34 +0000

Hi,

Your trcik worked for me but with something more. As anybody knows now, this problem is caused by residual charge which prevent the Thinkpad to boot (is it a BIOS bug?). The solution is to drain complety the electricity off the Thinkpad and to reboot it.

For me it happened that the button trick wouldn’t work alone. I have to connect my T60 (without the battery) to my *unplugged* maxi dock, and wait for the “eject” LED to lit. Then I let my Thinkpad as is, the dock’s LED consuming the residual electricity (I let it as is a few hours). When the LED turend OFF, I did the button trick to ensure that no electricity would stay and I replugged the battery. The Thinkpad rebooted, good as new!

By: TechS

TechS — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 00:45:52 +0000

I tried this on my dead thinkpad. Booted up and went dead again. Tried again several times. Same result. Any other suggestions would be most welcome.