The secret Thinkpad powerbutton code to bring dead laptops back to life (2007)

I just tried this on a laptop that died 5 years ago. Same symptoms - one day it got really hot and then was dead dead dead.<p>Spent hours disassembling it and probing various test points, all to no luck. It seems the issue was somewhere before powering up the CPU, and therefore kinda out of my expertise.<p>But this method seems to have brought it back to life.<p>Shame I&#x27;ve now cannibalized the screen and trackpad and CPU heatsink :-(

I was under the impression that pressing the power button while unplugged was to discharge any electricity left in capacitors, to make sure everything was completely depowered

This sort of trick will fix a lot of annoying little issues on most PCs, like if you have a USB device that you know works but your PC won&#x27;t recognize it. Shutdown, unplug the power, then hit the power button on your PC a few times. Everything should be good. Works every single time I need it.<p>Once in a while after a resolution switch (e.g. exiting a game), one of my displays will go into its sleep mode and won&#x27;t come back. Unplugging it and hitting the power button a few times fixes this, no PC restart needed. My friend had a TV that&#x27;d do something similar once in a while and this fix worked for him as well.<p>I&#x27;d be willing to bet the specific sequence in this article isn&#x27;t really important, but rather that you&#x27;re draining every capacitor in the PC by hitting the power button without a power source available (my understanding of what&#x27;s happening with my fix).

This reminds me of an old ViewSonic LCD monitor I have. It occasionally corrupts its EDID memory for some reason, which causes the computer to not recognize the monitor anymore.<p>The procedure to restore it sounds similarly weird. You plug and unplug video connectors, the monitor power and boot&#x2F;shutdown the computer in a certain sequence. I didn&#x27;t believe that worked when I first read about it. I&#x27;ve done it several times over the years however and it did in fact restore the EDID every single time.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.tablix.org&#x2F;~avian&#x2F;blog&#x2F;archives&#x2F;2010&#x2F;06&#x2F;the_curious_case_of_viewsonic_s_edid&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.tablix.org&#x2F;~avian&#x2F;blog&#x2F;archives&#x2F;2010&#x2F;06&#x2F;the_curi...</a>

I had a similar issue with my Apple Watch.<p>One day the screen went black and stayed that way. Hard reset did nothing. The screen didn&#x27;t turn on when charging, but the watch got warm. Apple tech support said it was a hardware problem and I would need them to service the watch.<p>This is a 1st generation watch though, and their nearly $200 service fee seemed excessive. So I just let the watch sit around for a week or so. Then I tried charging it again and it worked!<p>What must have happened was that it was either a really bad software issue of some kind or an intermittent hardware issue that prevented the watch from working or rebooting, but when the power gave completely out and it was recharged, everything was set back into a functioning state.<p>The watch has worked perfectly (or as well as it ever did) for weeks now.

Soooo good!<p>I copy the &quot;trick&quot; here, to have it available, in case that page disappears:<p>&quot;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&quot;

Amazing that in the comments (last one dated 2015) that this was still the case up to (and perhaps exceeding?) the t410s. That&#x27;s a fairly recent device and wouldn&#x27;t surprise me if this secret discharge incantation was still on the books in later models as well.<p>Is this specific order a thinkpad related order, or is this just a generalized discharge reset? I realize that its fairly common to need to discharge, but is the order (10 presses here, hold for X amount of seconds there) important?

From the electronics designer perspective: this sounds very much like resetting the KBC by simply forcing any and all capacitors around it to discharge. KBC is a microcontroller, with its own firmware, and it 100% can lock up.

Sometimes these magical sequences are really just a set of hoops you send your users through so they will actually do what you want them to do (unplug machine for 60 seconds, plug back in). Otherwise they&#x27;ll half-ass it and miss the simple fix.

Indeed I&#x27;ve been doing this to &quot;dead&quot; laptops for years. It discharges any charge left anywhere in the laptop, and resets the charging&#x2F;power distribution stuff. Works very nicely, but usually is easier: Disconnect power, take out the battery, hold the power button for 30 seconds. Voila. Fixed.

Sounds more like a PMU reset than anything else...it would be interesting to see if the 10 1-second button presses are really necessary.<p>My DELL has a press and hold the power button an arbitrary period of time to do something similar when it won&#x27;t reboot.

Jesus H Christ, finally there&#x27;s an Easter Egg that&#x27;s actually about resurrection instead of chocolate bunny rabbits and jelly beans and colored eggs.

The seven years worth of &quot;omg, thanks!&quot; comments is pretty cool. Too bad the &quot;small internet&quot; is dying. Had it been a facebook comment or old tweet, it likely would have melted into obscurity.

I&#x27;m guessing the tech&#x27;s &quot;static discharge&quot; explanation would probably be more correctly described as discharging capacitors? I had a similar issue with an Asus u36sd laptop. I first realized it might the problem when I originally gave up on it(it already wasn&#x27;t my primary daily driver, just a work bench laptop) and put in away for a bit and then it worked a few months later after being totally discharged and when the problem repeated, I was able to bring it back with a similar incantation of pressing and holding the power button with not power or battery attached. Luckily the capacitor causing the issue was a decent sized electrolytic of the through hole variety(even though it was surface mounted laying on its side hanging off the board) so it was relatively easy fix once I figured that out.

Reminds me of this masterpiece of IoT reset dystopia from a GE smart bulb: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;1BB6wj6RyKo" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;1BB6wj6RyKo</a>

I have a T420 that stopped powering on one day and it worked fine when I swapped the whole keyboard assembly for a new power button... maybe that old keyboard is actually still working

Did a stint at Tech Guys (Part of DSG) and this was taught as what&#x27;s known as an ATX-Reset, basically clears out any left over electrical charge iirc.

Had the same issue with my previous laptop, an HP Probook 450. A lot of vague problems were resolved by removing the battery and holding the power button for a few seconds.<p>I&#x27;m sure the underlying problem was some kind of hardware damage because I dropped that laptop so often that it&#x27;s a miracle the thing still boots in the first place.

Tried this on a 7 month old AMD IdeaPad, which died suddenly during Win10 update. No luck.<p>Sent it back to Lenovo for warranty repair. Waiting on parts... estimate is 4 months!<p>Not sure if right-to-repair could have helped me get it fixed faster locally.

This also works on Dell rack servers to reset cmos&#x2F;drain the caps and reset the drac etc. well you only hold power with no ac plugged in for 30 but same thing.<p>Have done this a few times.

Does the incantation itself do anything or is it just a ritualization of repeatedly pressing the power button to remove all the charge from the system

Sounds the same as what Dell call a flea power drain.

Yeah I&#x27;ve had desktops with this problem. It&#x27;s not a magical sequence, you just connect the power circuit and let everything drain.

That Thinkpad is probably still working today. Typing this from my trusty old T420.

I’ve had to do this multiple times on my thinkpads!

Also works on ideapad, in case anyone is wondering

i could have seen this <i>before</i> i tossed my t410. (yea, i&#x27;m kicking myself)