Jan 29 2008
Rubber Chicken Tech Support
Late yesterday I got the call I’ve come to dread:
“Dad, my laptop is dead.”
Being the inhouse Geek Squad, I’ve long ago given up any hope of providing viable tech support over the phone. I can upgrade RAM, even replace a cracked LCD, but trying to recover a PC from the state of rowboat anchor over the phone, over a cell phone at that, is hopeless in my experience. I ask my son the usual — did you try another AC adapter, did you try taking out the battery and plugging in the adapter — but he was a step ahead of me and it looked as if his two year old Z61 was slated for a motherboard replacement.
I know he has screenplays on the thing, and all sorts of school stuff, so tossing the machine was not an option. It will probably be a few weeks before I return to NYC, so hands on transfer of the old hard drive to a new system would have to wait.
Ugh. Off I went to the Lenovo Employee Purchase site to find a deal on an R61, I really don’t want to eat $750 for a new PC.
This morning I idly Googled “dead ThinkPad” and found one of the wackiest solutions ever seen proposed for reviving the dead. This was on Masnick.com, Mike Masnick of TechDirt’s personal blog.
“So I called up IBM support and explained the situation. The guy on the other end then let me in on the secret power button code to revive your dead Thinkpad. After assessing the situation (totally dead laptop) he warned me: “Okay, this is going to sound totally bizarre, but I want you to give this a try…†He then had me unplug the AC adapter and take out the battery. Then, you push the power button 10 times in a row at one second intervals. Next, you push and hold the power button for 30 seconds. Then you put the battery back in and push the power button… and she lives. The computer came back, good as ever.”
I called my son this morning and walked him through the process. He was skeptical, but went through the motions.
There was silence. Then those wonderful words: “Oh my god …..thank you thank you thank you.”
I don’t know what happened, I don’t want to know what happened, but all I know is a single Google search saved me nearly a thousand bucks.
Awesome! Glad I could help in some way. I agree that it’s quite a wacky solution, but I’ve now had to use it three times, and it works every time. Have your son jot it down somewhere or just remember it. I wish all my computer problems were so easy to fix.
I thought that only worked during a new moon…
Great post but you left out the part where you sacrifice a goat and paint your body blue in he light of a full moon.
Thank God it worked or Eliot would kill you for losing stored screenplays.
Great Post my man. Truly inspirational.
Jim
Sounds like CPR!
Ugh — Now you’ve done it. You gave away my top secret “you are a god” ThinkPad tech support secret. Now I’m going to be reduced to a mere mortal again. I hope you have a big backyard because your garbage is never going to be picked up again and you’re going to have to start burying it.
Perhaps junior should learn to back up?
Just a thought.
As funny as it sound it does work.
I did not try another squenece coz it is working now, but it is possible that just taking out the attery and pressing the ON Off for 20 seconds does the same.
I.e resets the protection circuit.
It works incredibly. I was going to buy a new one, but happened to find your post. You saved me hundreds dollars.
It works fine …
thanks
my laptop is dead….
dumb
Worked on my “Dead” T41. Thanks
Nope, no help with my t41
Craziest process I’ve ever heard. But it worked like a charm on my T61! Thanks!
I can’t believe this actually worked. I was stuck. Tried all else. No money to get fixed. And this worked on my T41. Crazy days. Thanks
This worked for me too! I’d dropped my T61 from my bed and it would not turn on. Was kinda skeptical but thought would give it a try…and it worked!!! Thanks so so much
This is unbelievable! It actually works!! One dead x200 tablet brought back to life – thank you so much!!.
Thank you — just worked to revive my R61.
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I am a computer engg by trade. I did not believe you when I read this post. I thought this was BS.
I _knew_ I had a dead laptop (Lenovo T61P) and I either had a short circuit, or a bad power plug.
It turned out to be static on the board which the static sensor sensed and it would not allow the laptop to turn on.
The Lenovo rep had me remove the battery and disconnect the AC adapter. Then she told me to hold down the power key for 10 seconds, pause for 2 seconds and repeat the process 3 times. This would discharge any static buildup.
Plugged the AC adapter back in after that and it worked like a charm.
Shut it down, put the battery back, turned it on, worked like a charm again.
And I thought I knew everything.
You guys are genius. Just got my U330 working!
Oh my god! This just saved the laptop and we are abroad!
Holy cow! It worked! How did you DO that?!?