Bricked Thinkpad x220 with 6.12-rc0

Bricked Thinkpad x220 with 6.12-rc0

[Pavel Machek]

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Hi!

So I thought I'd help testing 6.12-rc0, and now my machine seems to be
a brick (help! :-) ).

I had one -rc0 booted. It hung after few days of use, so I rebooted
into newer -rc0. I believe I let it suspend.

When I returned, it failed to wake on USB keypress, and power button
was black. I hit power button, and it started pulsating. I believe I
tried 4 second powerdown, but no.

Ok, that should be easy, right? Battery was already removed, so I
removed power, reconnected power... but no.

When I press power button, it starts producing some noise (hdd
spinning up), but power light goes pulsating, not on, and I stare at
black screen.

I removed everything, let it sit for a while, but behaviour was the
same. I'm now letting machine "cool" with everything removed,
but... It seems EC is very confused.

Should I try removing CMOS battery?

Is there some magic combination I can hold during boot?

Any other ideas?

Best regards,
								Pavel
-- 
People of Russia, stop Putin before his war on Ukraine escalates.

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Re: Bricked Thinkpad x220 with 6.12-rc0

[Linus Torvalds]

On Thu, 26 Sept 2024 at 13:01, Pavel Machek <pavel@ucw.cz> wrote:
>
> When I press power button, it starts producing some noise (hdd
> spinning up), but power light goes pulsating, not on, and I stare at
> black screen.

No beep?

> I removed everything, let it sit for a while, but behaviour was the
> same. I'm now letting machine "cool" with everything removed,
> but... It seems EC is very confused.
>
> Should I try removing CMOS battery?

It probably won't help. Last time I had something like that, it was
the EFI variables being messed up and messing up the boot as a result.
That's all in flash.

The CMOS battery these days tends to really just be for maintaining
the real-time clock.

But if it's easy to get at, it won't hurt to try either.

> Is there some magic combination I can hold during boot?

I don't see anything  about keys during power-on in

  https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/0a60739_04.pdf

but you can try the usual suspects (hold ESC / Fn / etc during power-on).

But that lenovo pdf says
 1. Make sure that every connector is connected tightly and correctly.
 2. DIMM.
 3. System board.

for your symptoms.

That said, my first suspicion would be a dead harddisk, just because
they happen and you hear noise (but it migth just be the disk getting
power on its own, and making noise even with a dead system board).

The BIOS _might_ be trying to resume from sleep from a dead disk, and
not even initializing anything else.

And the disk is easy to get at, so try just removing it first. That
might get a stuck BIOS unstuck, and you'd get a "no harddisk" error
instead of a hung BIOS that tries to access something that doesn't
reply.

At least that way you'd have a suspect.

              Linus

Re: Bricked Thinkpad x220 with 6.12-rc0

[Pavel Machek]

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Hi!

> > When I press power button, it starts producing some noise (hdd
> > spinning up), but power light goes pulsating, not on, and I stare at
> > black screen.
> 
> No beep?

No beep. And no beep when I tried booting with RAM removed.

> > I removed everything, let it sit for a while, but behaviour was the
> > same. I'm now letting machine "cool" with everything removed,
> > but... It seems EC is very confused.
> >
> > Should I try removing CMOS battery?
> 
> It probably won't help. Last time I had something like that, it was
> the EFI variables being messed up and messing up the boot as a result.
> That's all in flash.

EFI variables. Ouch. But those really should be later in the boot.

> The CMOS battery these days tends to really just be for maintaining
> the real-time clock.
> 
> But if it's easy to get at, it won't hurt to try either.

I thought it was under RAM cover, but it is not.

> > Is there some magic combination I can hold during boot?
> 
> I don't see anything  about keys during power-on in
> 
>   https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/0a60739_04.pdf
> 
> but you can try the usual suspects (hold ESC / Fn / etc during power-on).
> 
> But that lenovo pdf says
>  1. Make sure that every connector is connected tightly and correctly.
>  2. DIMM.
>  3. System board.
> 
> for your symptoms.
> 
> That said, my first suspicion would be a dead harddisk, just because
> they happen and you hear noise (but it migth just be the disk getting
> power on its own, and making noise even with a dead system board).

I suspect it is disk spinning up on its own. Confused bios and
harddisk dying at the same time seems like a lot of coincidence. (And
it dies before initializing RAM, normally disk is way after that).

I have spinning rust which is easy to reach, plus SSD which is not. I
removed HDD, and now only reaction on power button is that power LED
starts blinking.

Nothing else, no CPU fan, nothing. No beeps with removed
RAMs. I'd expect BIOS to initialize RAM, and then to access EFI
variables. AFAICT it does not get there. So either hardware died, or
EC is very confused and fails to boot main CPU.

Not sure how EC keeps its state (not from CMOS battery -- right?) so I
guess I should leave it without power for several hours hoping it
clears the fault...?

Best regards (and thanks for help),
								Pavel
-- 
People of Russia, stop Putin before his war on Ukraine escalates.

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Re: Bricked Thinkpad x220 with 6.12-rc0

[Harald Arnesen]

Pavel Machek [2024-09-26 22:52:29]:

> Hi!
> 
>>> When I press power button, it starts producing some noise (hdd
>>> spinning up), but power light goes pulsating, not on, and I stare at
>>> black screen.
>> No beep?
> No beep. And no beep when I tried booting with RAM removed.

Just some random thoughts, probably not very helpful:

I assume you have tried pushing F1, F12 or the ThinkVantage Button 
during boot?

Remove and re-insert all ram.

Especially if it has an i7 processor, could it be overheating? Try 
removing the heat sink and apply new thermal grease (and clean the fan, 
of course).

I have one of these machines myself, never had any problem with it.
-- 
Hilsen Harald

Re: Bricked Thinkpad x220 with 6.12-rc0

[Maciej W. Rozycki]

On Thu, 26 Sep 2024, Pavel Machek wrote:

> > > When I press power button, it starts producing some noise (hdd
> > > spinning up), but power light goes pulsating, not on, and I stare at
> > > black screen.
> > 
> > No beep?
> 
> No beep. And no beep when I tried booting with RAM removed.

 According to: 
<https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/x220_x220i_x220tablet_x220itablet_ug_en.pdf>
pulsating power-on LED indicates the sleep mode:

"The power switch stays lit whenever the computer is on, blinks when the 
computer is in sleep (standby) mode, and is off when the computer is off."

I guess the system has become confused somehow.  In the old days pressing 
and holding <Insert> while powering a PC up would clear any leftover NVRAM 
(ESCD BIOS) state (I earned a dinner once this way).  I guess this trick 
no longer works nowadays?

 I presume you've studied the linked document for any hints?

 NB I do believe disconnecting all the power sources is enough for the EC 
to get completely reset.  It's also what said document suggests to try if 
you can't bring a system out of sleep (standby).

  Maciej

Re: Bricked Thinkpad x220 with 6.12-rc0

[Pavel Machek]

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Hi!

> > > > When I press power button, it starts producing some noise (hdd
> > > > spinning up), but power light goes pulsating, not on, and I stare at
> > > > black screen.
> > > 
> > > No beep?
> > 
> > No beep. And no beep when I tried booting with RAM removed.
> 
>  According to: 
> <https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/x220_x220i_x220tablet_x220itablet_ug_en.pdf>
> pulsating power-on LED indicates the sleep mode:
> 
> "The power switch stays lit whenever the computer is on, blinks when the 
> computer is in sleep (standby) mode, and is off when the computer is
> off."

So... I disconnected CMOS battery and now I have two different
blinking patterns. I googled a bit, and it seems it is symptom of some
PROM failing. So likely Linux had nothing to do with this, and sorry
for the noise.

I have X230 now. Suspend/resume works without bricking it with
(different?) 6.12-rc0. I hate the keyboard, and X230 came with bad
battery and won't charge X220's battery (bad Lenovo!!), so I got
another X220. If this one dies with blinking LED, I'll certainly let
the world know.

Best regards (and thanks for all the help),
								Pavel
-- 
People of Russia, stop Putin before his war on Ukraine escalates.

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Re: Bricked Thinkpad x220 with 6.12-rc0

[Maciej W. Rozycki]

On Mon, 30 Sep 2024, Pavel Machek wrote:

> > > No beep. And no beep when I tried booting with RAM removed.
> > 
> >  According to: 
> > <https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/x220_x220i_x220tablet_x220itablet_ug_en.pdf>
> > pulsating power-on LED indicates the sleep mode:
> > 
> > "The power switch stays lit whenever the computer is on, blinks when the 
> > computer is in sleep (standby) mode, and is off when the computer is
> > off."
> 
> So... I disconnected CMOS battery and now I have two different
> blinking patterns. I googled a bit, and it seems it is symptom of some
> PROM failing. So likely Linux had nothing to do with this, and sorry
> for the noise.

 One final thought: have you tried another PSU?  I've seen all kinds of 
weird behaviour with hardware due to issues with a PSU.

 To give you an odd example: an Ethernet switch failing to communicate 
despite the link established with exactly one other device and working 
correctly with everything else.  What would you blame?  The other device?  
No.  With its PSU replaced the switch started to communicate with said 
device too.

 If there are power regulators onboard the x220, it might be worth 
checking them too (as well as any associated electrolytic capacitors).

> I have X230 now. Suspend/resume works without bricking it with
> (different?) 6.12-rc0. I hate the keyboard, and X230 came with bad
> battery and won't charge X220's battery (bad Lenovo!!), so I got
> another X220. If this one dies with blinking LED, I'll certainly let
> the world know.

 Good luck!

  Maciej