Question Lenovo t450s - Do you think this is a hardware or software issue?

[Hulk]

I'm writing this post as much to inform the community about my Lenovo experience as to actually fix my issue. Which I believe is hardware and not really worth fixing.

In 2015 I purchased a Lenovo t450s laptop. I reviewed it in an old thread around here if you're interested. Basically I liked the fact that it has a matte IPS screen and a nice form factor. I upgraded the RAM to 12GB and replaced the spinner drive with a SSD. Otherwise stock. I could never get it to upgrade to Windows 10. Always got some weird error which I can't remember right now and researched to death. Something about a device not being recognized or something stopping the Windows 10 installation. I'm still on Windows 8.1.

Anyway to my issue. About 2 years after purchase I started getting what I believe after doing some research is a pretty common Lenovo issue. The system goes "dead" and won't restart without unplugging (if plugged in) and removing all batteries. Then you press the start button to drain any charge left in the system. After doing this you can reinstall batteries or plug in and it will start up and work just fine. It's especially a hassle because the t450s has and internal battery which is a pain to remove. I removed it long ago so when this issue occurs I only have to pull the rear battery.

Also I should mention this issue will only occur when the unit is left unplugged. Sometimes it could happen an hour after going to sleep, other times it could "last" for days.

I researched this issue to death as well. Updated all drivers, bios, etc... changed power settings. Nothing worked so I just learned to live with it. When it first happened I wasn't too far out of warranty so I called Lenovo for help. They said I was out of warranty and I'd have to pay to have it fixed. I asked if they'd heard of this issue before. This person said no.

So now about a month ago I have a new issue where once the laptop goes to sleep it simply won't wake up without a hard reboot. The solution of course is I have to shut down the system every time I turn it off. I guess the upside is that this 2nd issue "encompasses" the first since I can't ever let the system go to sleep. So I guess I can put the internal battery back in.

So I'm wondering...

I'm thinking this is a hardware issue? What do you think?

If you have a Lenovo have you experienced this behavior?

It's really a shame because I'm kind of ready for a new laptop and still love the matte IPS display and keyboard on this laptop. There aren't a lot of laptops with good matte displays out there and the glossy ones for me are deal breakers. I just don't like the glare.

I'm just not sure if I want to take the risk on another Lenovo Thinkpad.

That's my experience, good and bad, with Lenovo.

 

[Hulk]

Update. I decided to order a new laptop and despite my experience with this issue I really like the Lenovo display and keyboard so I ordered a Carbon X1 pretty well equipped for $1000 during the President's Day sale.

Since I wouldn't need the old laptop I decided to try and upgrade to Windows 10 one last time. Upgrade didn't work again, got that weird error so I loaded the Window 10 files on a USB drive and booted from it to do a clean install. This worked perfectly and Windows even picked up my digital serial number and activated Windows 10.

The sleep issue seemed better with Windows 10 but it still happened now and then as I was testing. The easiest solution was to simply not have the laptop go to sleep. I did a little testing and power usage in sleep mode is just under 3 watts while if I don't put it to sleep but only turn off the display when the lid closes the power draw is 5 watts. So I cancelled the order for the Carbon X1. I'm hoping I can get another year or two out of the t450s running Windows 10.

While the upgrade from my current 5200u Broadwell CPU to the quad core 8250u Kaby Lake would have been a nice upgrade, especially for video work, I can get along with the 5200u.

Hopefully these posts will help somebody someday.

 

[pjmssn]

This is a weird issue and I am glad you were able to fix it. I have a Thinkpad T460 (i5-6300U, FHD, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) running windows 10 pro and I have never experienced any of the issues you mentioned with it. It is a good machine, I was considering upgrading to a T480 this year and get a quad-core processor, but my T460 meets all my current needs. I have access to a threadripper for heavy computing and the T460 is mostly used for office work and light programming and code development.

 

[C1]

Had a HP P4 notebook that sometimes wouldnt start unless the system was discharged by removing then reinstalling the main battery. Fortunately that didnt happen often.

Starting with T430, Lenovo began using chipped batteries. The fact that this happens when the unit is left unplugged is suggestive of something going on with the main battery power.

Lenovo uses a pretty sophisticated system (software application & hardware) for power management. That's probably why your experiencing a different interaction with using WINDOWS 10.

Some things to try :

- Disable the Lenovo power management (eg, driver in device manger).

- There's an outside chance that onboard battery chip has become an issue so replace the main battery with a Lenovo factory battery. (Do not try to use a non-OEM battery as you do not know what you are really getting.)

I would also replace the internal battery with a new OEM Lenovo factory approved internal battery. (Again, dont buy a non-OEM source replacement.)

- Update the BIOs an update is available from Lenovo for for model machine.

Ref:

https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/migr-4gxpeg

T450s Won't Power On
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkP...50s-Won-t-Power-On-With-Solution/td-p/2250790

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkP...ttery-disconnect-Any-solution-to/td-p/3966080

 

[Hulk]

Thanks for the tips. Now that I don't allow it to go to sleep I really don't have any issues. It uses 5 watts instead of 3 watts. Not a huge deal. I'm good with hit.

The Carbon X1 that I ordered and cancelled came in yesterday. Didn't catch the cancel in time. I had to open it and check it out before sending it back. My impressions.

The form factor is terrific. Width and length are a little smaller than my t450s, perhaps a quarter inch or so but it's also quite a bit thinner and somewhat lighter. Despite being so much thinner I was surprised at how sturdy it is. With the screen open you can hold it by a corner with one hand and the chassis shows barely any flex.

The screen quality looks about the same as mine, perhaps a little better because it has less of that blue tint that mine has. It's a very nice matte IPS display.

Battery life in my limited time with it seemed to be amazing.

Performance was good but not quite what I was expecting. I loaded up Handbrake and did a little test x264 compression and with my t450s and the X1 on battery the X1 was only 50% faster. I was expecting more like a 100% increase with encoding seeing how it has double the cores and they should have a little better IPC and clock. I also noticed that my t450s would ramp up the frequency and the fan would go on while the X1 stayed at around 1.8GHz. I have a feeling the power savings settings were holding it back. I didn't want to get out the power supply so that's all the testing I did before I sent it back.

When I do finally upgrade I'm definitely going with the X1.