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I have a Lenovo R61 that was working fine except that the fan has been rattling lately. I came back to it after a normal day and it was off. It would not power on at all. The indicator light for the AC power being plugged in would not come on, either. I reseated the battery, and nada. I tested on another laptop and confirmed the AC adapter is fine.

Finally, a colleague removed the battery and plugged it in, and it worked! However, it only worked for 2 or 3 mins and spontaneously shuts off. Almost as if a fuse or circuit breaker is tripping internally.

Any recommendations? (btw, I have Ubuntu, not Windows, installed on this thing, so no Windows-centric recommendations, please)

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A rattling fan's ability to cool is typically diminished. Can you still hear the fan rattling? If not, it may have died completely. Either way, heat will build up rapidly in a computer with a dead or impaired fan, and an overheated computer may respond by unceremoniously shutting down. Check and replace the fan.

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This is the issue. These Thinkpads will simply shut off if they get too hot - the easiest way to tell is that it won't cut back on immediately, but if you wait for a few minutes it'll cut back on fine. – Shinrai Sep 23 '10 at 14:08
This is the second fan already! I'll try this suggestion, though. Thanks. – JDS Sep 23 '10 at 15:29
I have a customer's Z60t which was behaving erratically until I located a cooling problem. Now it works fine. – Randolph West Sep 23 '10 at 17:44
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I have an R60 - but have never experienced your problem.

Your comment about ubuntu vs. Windows got me thinking. In order to rule out an OS or software caused problem, try booting into the BIOS (on ThinkPad, press F1 at the very 1st start-up screen). Leave your system ON in BIOS for a while. If it still shuts off prematurely, you have a hardware problem.

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Oh, I'm sure it is hardware -- it won't even stay on long enough to boot to anything! i.e. it powers off before it even gets to the post screen. – JDS Sep 23 '10 at 15:29
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