Thinkpad T460 - BIOS works correctly, but no boot

BeardyHat

Junior Member
Sep 28, 2014
2
1
81
This machine was working just fine last night, but I opened it up this morning to put a new WiFi card in it and since then, it has refused to boot up. The behavior is this:

1. Press power button
2. System shows Lenovo BIOS/Diagnostics screen
3. Clicks and reboots

I can get into the BIOS no problem and tweak settings all day, but as soon as I attempt to boot it, the speakers click and the system reboots.

I have attempted the following:

1. Use the original WiFi adapter that I removed

2. Tested new/different RAM SODIMMs

3. Removed the batteries and discharged the capacitors

4. Removed the batteries and run on AC power only

5. Restored BIOS settings to default

6. Attempted to boot to Ubuntu from USB (Same behavior as above)

7. Removed all motherboard screws in the case that one might be causing a short

8. Experimented with BIOS settings such as UEFI/Legacy

I think that's about it. But I'm not sure where to go from here and any ideas would be appreciated; let me know if I can provide more information. This computer has been fully disassembled and reassembled by myself in the past (several times) in order to replace various components and do general troubleshooting and I've never experienced this issue with it.

Thanks

I've forgotten to mention that it also won't run its diagnostics from the BIOS. It just reboots instead.
 
Last edited:

pete6032

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2010
8,027
3,492
136
Any chance you crimped a wire while putting the laptop back together? Only other thing I could think of is static charge fried something.

Edit - is the SSD seated properly? What happens if you try and boot with no ssd?
 

BeardyHat

Junior Member
Sep 28, 2014
2
1
81
Any chance you crimped a wire while putting the laptop back together? Only other thing I could think of is static charge fried something.

Edit - is the SSD seated properly? What happens if you try and boot with no ssd?

Thanks for the reply,

I was thinking a little more about this today and I believe I've fried the motherboard with static, due to improperly shutting it down. That's just a guess anyway; I was poking through my BIOS options and discovered the option to essentially disable the batteries in the system until the AC is plugged back in. I didn't do this. Since there is both a removable battery in the T460 and then a smaller internal one, I think it still had current running through it when I opened it up and removed the WiFi card. I've done this numerous times before without issue, but I think the other day was the final straw for my incompetence.

To answer your questions:

1. Unlikely I crimped any wires, as before I reinstalled the bottom cover, I turned the machine over to test it before putting it back together.

2. SSD has been seated and reseated, as well as attempts to boot from a bootable USB.

I really suspect that I killed the system with static, considering even trying to run the diagnostics from the BIOS (not the ones that come up with the BIOS boot screen) causes the system to power down and restart.

My only solace is that I learned a thing, assuming my above paragraph is correct. Even if it isn't, at least I can do it correctly next time.
 
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ch33zw1z

Lifer
Nov 4, 2004
39,472
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Thanks for the reply,

I was thinking a little more about this today and I believe I've fried the motherboard with static, due to improperly shutting it down. That's just a guess anyway; I was poking through my BIOS options and discovered the option to essentially disable the batteries in the system until the AC is plugged back in. I didn't do this. Since there is both a removable battery in the T460 and then a smaller internal one, I think it still had current running through it when I opened it up and removed the WiFi card. I've done this numerous times before without issue, but I think the other day was the final straw for my incompetence.

To answer your questions:

1. Unlikely I crimped any wires, as before I reinstalled the bottom cover, I turned the machine over to test it before putting it back together.

2. SSD has been seated and reseated, as well as attempts to boot from a bootable USB.

I really suspect that I killed the system with static, considering even trying to run the diagnostics from the BIOS (not the ones that come up with the BIOS boot screen) causes the system to power down and restart.

My only solace is that I learned a thing, assuming my above paragraph is correct. Even if it isn't, at least I can do it correctly next time.

You probably damage the motherboard. The option to disable the batteries is there so you can swap parts without unplugging the battery(ies). You still have a little hope tho, try a couple more things:

1. remove all DIMM's and cause a post error, this could kind of "jog" the laptops BIOS

2. Unplug CMOS battery and try some other things, like step 1

3. Leave the batteries unplugged while you work on it, and only use a/c power while testing.

Laptops (PC's in general) can get weird about stuff and sometimes causing it to lose CMOS settings and / or POST error can get it back on track. I can recount quite a few instances in my 20 years where this worked.