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Question

Laptop Won't Charge/Turn On (Lenovo Y50)

Apr 21, 2017 8:46AM PDT

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to grab some advice regarding my laptop. Out of the blue, my Lenovo Y50 (purchased about 3 years ago) stopped charging. I took several approaches including reseating the battery, reseating the charging port, uninstalling ACPI, and eventually replacing the battery with a new one.

1. AC adapter only - Computer turns on, but abruptly shuts off after 10-30 mins of use (gaming, Facebook, homework)
2. AC adapter only, uninstall Microsoft ACPI- Complaint Control.. - As soon as uninstall happens, abruptly shuts-off
3. AC adapter and battery - No charge, runs off battery
4. AC adapter and fresh installed battery - charges up to 40-60% - no longer charges. Charges again when reseated

I guarantee you this will be my last Lenovo, customer support asked me to pay 70$ for inspection, followed by $350+ for replacement (I am a broke college student please help).

I can't determine whether it can be a BIO issue, driver issue, charging port issue (does anyone know if Y50s allow ports to be replaced?), or a motherboard issue (I replaced the motherboard about a year ago, so I highly doubt it).

Best,

Discussion is locked

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Answer
First
Apr 21, 2017 9:00AM PDT

All makers charge money when out of warranty or support contract. You will just get another thing and repeat your dissatisfaction with OOW (out of warranty) experiences.

This sounds like a failed bit of hardware or possibly a non-Maker component. For battery issues I always use the maker's parts (yes, expensive at times) but the goal is to fix it. So I start with the cheapest possible parts (heresy to some!) like the CMOS battery. I do the usual removal of the big battery, the charger, hold down the power button for 60 seconds and then release, slip in the battery and apply the charger. I DO NOT turn it on but wait for the battery to charge. If it doesn't charge in this condition there is some other hardware failure.

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Answer
Possibly a dirty power source
Sep 5, 2017 11:40AM PDT

Saw this thread and wanted to post a potential solution, as I had the same problem recently:

The y50-70 (and many modern computers) have security features that shut the computer down if a component on the machine detects a power surge. In this case, buying a no-break or voltage regulator should solve the problem, and this is a good practice anyway to protect your computer, especially if you keep it plugged in for long periods of time and/or use it in an older building / country with unreliable power.

If the computer does not even turn on:

You can try resetting your computer by holding the power button down for ten seconds, then releasing. The next step would be to open the computer and disconnect the main battery for 10 seconds to reset it.

However, if you keep the computer plugged in for long periods of time, especially if you live somewhere with a dirty power source (for example, I live in Mexico), your computer may have locked itself up to protect itself from a power surge.

In this case, you need to open the computer, disconnect the main battery, and find a smaller, 3v battery on the motherboard that starts the BIOS (this is a small, round object just above the main battery on the MoBo that says something like "CR2032-3V-etc" and has a red and a black wire coming out of it). To reset the BIOS battery, you unplug it from the MoBo just like you did for the main battery, wait 10 seconds and plug it back in. Be sure to ground yourself before working on the computer.

If this solves the problem for you, then to prevent future failures, you'll need to buy at least a new surge protector and ideally a voltage regulator or no-break system, as this means you have an unsafe electrical current charging your computer.