My A21p is dying!

It's been a good little laptop, but I think it's reached the end of its time--it keeps shutting down. Sometimes it stays on for an hour, other times it turns off after a few minutes.

 

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Overheating? needs cleaned?
Battery is bad? maybe it would work if it remained plugged in.

 

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Checked the cpu fan...good. The battery has never held a charge since I've owned the laptop, but I removed it just in case it was the culprit...same problem. We have it parked on the kitchen table, where it's been for the last couple of years. My wife did move it last week while cleaning, and it hasn't been the same since. I also checked the voltage on the ac adapter...good.

Anyway, it was given to me for free. We got some use out of it and gave Linux Mint a whirl while we were at it. Yep, I think it's time to retire this old computer and donate it to Free Geeks. I've been looking at the laptops at Best Buy and think I might have found a replacement...

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Lenovo+-+IdeaPad+Laptop+/+AMD+Phenom%26%23153%3B+II+Processor+/+15.6%22+Display+/+3GB+Memory+/+320GB+Hard+Drive+-+Black/2171094.p?id=1218312457552&skuId=2171094

 

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if you have no battery in it have you tried checking the connection of the power cord? as they get old the conection doesnt touch constantly and without battery to keep it on it will just shut down

 

I put the battery back in the system; however, I'm pretty sure there's no charge in it. The laptop is probably more than ten years old--the battery being the same. I'm not sure how I would verify the power connection, but that is a good possibility. Suggestions?


I suspect it's something internal--hardware issue.

 

Maybe she jolted the power supply loose...

 

Well, she unplugged it at the wall, leaving the adapter plugged into system. I'll give it a look, but I'm still not sure how to verify the connection.

 

have you checked the condition of the thermal paste that sits between the processor and the heat sink?
if that has degraded (and the chances are it has on a 10 year old laptop)then it doesn't matter how good your fan is.

ten bucks and ten minutes easy work will likely fix the problem

http://www.insidemylaptop.com/apply-thermal-grease-laptop-processor/

 

I replaced the grease when I checked the fan. Thanks for the idea.

 

Checked it this morning: it locked up during boot up. There's something seriously wrong with the system, which I can't fix. :shrug:

 

what OS is it running?

what exactly happens when you try to boot it?

 

I'm running linux mint 9--Isadora. I removed the hard drive, and it wont even power up. It's giving up the ghost, quickly falling into the abyss.

 

Nice lenovo, yah, lenovos are terrificly well made sturdiness wise.

As far as durability goes, Lenovos are the top for laptops. They can take a tank shell and keep on going. I dropped mine from a four foot high table, open. I dusted it off, and kept of typing in power point, no damage whatsoever.

 

Yeah, this is the second used Thinkpad that I've owned, and I have a lot of faith in them. We have a Toshiba, which seems to be doing fine, but I want another IBM. I'm thinking of swapping out the hard drive and loading Ubuntu, maybe upgrading to 8GB of RAM.

 

WAHHHHHHT????

Lenovos are the worst quality PCs on the market. A cheap Chinese brand with horrible customer service. Maybe things are different outside of China though... but one drop does not make up for the horror stories I have heard.

edit: not turning off is not a feature either. A friend had a lenovo that wouldn't turn off even when it overheated... it melted and that was the end of it.

 

Hmm... That hasn't been my experience. I know that the two Thinkpads that I've owned were made in Mexico. It could be that the quality has gone down, because both my laptops were considerably old but well-made. :shrug:

 

I just learned that IBM sold its pc division back in 2005--interesting. On the other hand, I'm reading some good things about Lanovo; however, some of those are dated.

 

Mexican manufacturing is very different from Chinese, I suggest that is the critical difference.

I have another example. One time my friend took his Lenovo in for repair (in China). It was less than a month old and a very expensive gaming laptop. When he went to pick it up, they told him they can't repair it because he voided the warranty by spilling liquid all over it. They showed him his laptop with irreparable liquid damage. You might think there isn't anything wrong, but my friend never spilled anything on his laptop - he brought it in because it was overheating. Customer service spilled their cola on it or something, and blamed him.