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So I was watching some YouTube videos earlier and my computer suddenly shut off, similarly to what you would expect if it had overheated. I don't expect that it did overheat: I wasn't actively monitoring the temperature, but I checked after it clicked off and it was relatively cool to the touch (and it's thin, so I would almost certainly feel severe overheating).

My suspicion is that it's a battery or power problem. The current status is that I cannot power it on and the power button (as well as the button to boot to BIOS) do nothing. When the adapter is plugged in I get an amber light that blinks occasionally and periodically. If I press the adapter into the port with a bit of force, the power light comes on but the machine won't power up. The light then remains on unless the adapter is unplugged and the power button is held down (as you would do for a hard reset). No fan noise is ever evident, and the screen and keyboard remain entirely dark.

It's probably worth noting that I've been using an off-brand replacement adapter, since the OEM one stopped working. Starting 1-2 days ago I began experiencing "loose connection" problems with it, where it would only provide a charge when it was inserted at some angles (not that there's much wiggle room). Before that began, on a couple of occasions I've had the screen suddenly flicker and go dark without the machine shutting off, which has always been easily solvable by unplugging it and closing/opening the lid. Needless to say, this latest development is unprecedented.

Machine is a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro, all original hardware except the adapter. The only "modification" I've made was configuring the BIOS to allow me to boot into Linux from USB, but that was about a week ago now with no trouble, and I was using the native Windows 8.1 on the SSD when the shutoff occurred.

I'm looking to see if anyone knows anything about this or has experience with this kind of issue, and can corroborate or dispel my suspicions that it's a battery problem. Advice on remediation would also be appreciated; there's no insurance on the machine, so if someone knows an easy fix I'd love to hear it, but if not I will bite the bullet and bring it to the local repair shop.

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Thanks to Power Jack Repair I figured out how the loose power receptacle on my Lenovo 20266 laptop is related to this Lenovo no response power issue. I've had this EXACT (Model 20266) Lenovo laptop since 2014. Since that time, the female power receptacle on it has broken twice. Each time, prior to having the laptop repaired, I continued to use it which required me to finagle the male portion of the AC adapter's power receptacle inside the female portion of the laptop power receptacle in order to get the laptop to take a charge. All the while doing this the connection would get looser and looser to the point it would hardly work (connect) at all. The danger in finagling the male and female power receptacles this way, is that doing so bends the pins a little bit at a time each time you do it and this may cause the pins to touch within the female portion of the laptop power receptacle which in turn may short out the motherboard (MB) or as I finally figured out it can also cause the power cycle process of the laptop, which is controlled by CMOS, to become confused.

In my case, each time the power receptacle has been broken like this and I've finagled the power receptacles (before having it repaired) to get the laptop to take a charge, the laptop has gone dark. Each time this happened, I initially thought I had shorted the MB. The first time this happened, I sent the laptop to Lenovo for a MB replacement, but Lenovo got it to work again without replacing the MB; however, as is typical with Lenovo, they didn't tell me what the problem was or how to fix it or address it. The second time it happened, I thought I had blown the MB again - because Lenovo never told me it had not been blown the first time - so I called Lenovo to get the MB fixed again and they said "your out of warranty and on your own". Needless to say, this is the last time I'll buy or recommend Lenovo.

So looking for a solution, I found this awesome video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yjPUOnAqP4 from the guy at Power Jack Repair and hearing the comments at 0:40 (about the pins touching inside a broken power jack) and seeing the comments posted on the screen at 32:20 (about how to reset the laptop when it is confused about where it is in the power cycle - power up and power down properly - process) I was able to put 2+2 together; the fact is, I had not shorted out the MB. I looked at the pins in the female power receptacle (as in the video at 0:40 mark) and could see that several were touching.

So, WITH THE INTERNAL BATTERY UNPLUGGED FROM THE MB, I used a screw driver to separate the pins. Then, following the instructions on the screen at the 32:20 mark of the video, I had already opened the back case of the laptop, and I had already unplugged the battery connection to the MB. So then I unplugged the CMOS battery which is the round battery in the upper left of the opened laptop. Then I left these two batteries (the mail battery and the CMOS battery) unplugged and let them sit for an hour unplugged which allowed all the power remaining in any circuits to drain.

Then, after that hour, I plugged them back in and put the cover back on the back of the laptop and then I plugged the male power receptacle of the AC charger back into the female power receptacle of the laptop and finagled them to get the laptop to charge. Then, I let the laptop sit and charge for about an hour. Then, while it was still plugged in, I pushed and held the power button for about 70 seconds (the Power Jack Repair guy says to hold the power button in for 64+ seconds, so I did it for 70 seconds) and after releasing the power button, I left the laptop alone - pushing no other buttons - and just let it sit there. Then it reset itself and it came up to the login prompt in about 30-60 seconds. Thanks to Power Jack Repair. So the pins touching "may" short the motherboard, BUT it "may" also confuse the laptop and cause it to go dark and lose it's place in the power up and power down cycle which is stored in CMOS and other circuitry inside the laptop.

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  • An excellent and thorough answer! I can't confirm this myself since I'm no longer in possession of the laptop in question (I don't remember what happened to it, there's a chance it went into storage and I'll be able to test this fix in the future), but since you were having pretty much exactly the same symptoms I'm hopeful that it could work Jan 11, 2017 at 18:33
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Try taking the battery out, unplug the power adaptor and then keep the power button pressed down for 30 seconds or more. Then reinsert the battery and try again.

I'm currently on my ninth ThinkPad and this has worked for me on a couple of occasions. Perhaps the IdeaPad line is similar in this way. It drains power from the capacitors or something.

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  • Thanks for the answer. I don't really trust myself to disassemble such a densely-packed machine to get at the battery (or, more to the point, put it back together afterward) so I've taken it into the shop. I've accepted your answer though, because this is similar advice to what I've seen online and I'm guessing it could help someone else in the future. May 27, 2015 at 21:35
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The method I used to fix a family member's Thinkpad Yoga which has the same issue is:

  1. remove all back screws,

  2. pry open the back cover,

  3. remove battery and CMOS (yellow disk battery),

  4. leave over night,

  5. put CMOS and battery back in,

  6. boot (can take 2 boots to reconfigure CMOS),

  7. press whatever key your computer tells you to set the date with,

  8. set date,

  9. save and exit BIOS,

  10. fixed?

P.S. This is not usually permanent fix but can be done repeatedly to fix if won't turn on again.

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