ThinkPad T470 suddenly shutting down at random
April 24, 2024 1:33 PM Subscribe
I got my current ThinkPad laptop around 2020 and have never had any issues with it. Yesterday it started just randomly shutting down with no warning. I ran Lenovo Vantage and double-checked to make sure everything (BIOS, drivers, Windows updates) are all up to date. I ran scans with Lenovo Vantage that found nothing off. Starting yesterday the laptop tray will show the battery immediately displaying 100% charged to 0% charged and will flicker back and forth between 0% and 100%. Just ran Lenovo Vantage battery diagnostics which are currently showing "the primary battery is not detected."
I'm not super tech savvy and my Googling and Reddit searching has mostly turned up fairly complicated series of steps that involve booting machines in Ubuntu and other troubleshooting techniques that are out of my league.
When I run the hardware and driver update checks everything shows up fine. Sometimes the battery shows up in the tray as 100% charged and within seconds will show 0% or vice versa (like right now it's at 0%). If I unplug AC power the laptop instantly shuts down (this started yesterday). Yesterday the laptop started randomly shutting down even when plugged into AC power. I tried turning everything off, unplugging, removing battery, holding power button for 30+ seconds, but that didn't make any difference. I tried re-setting the battery settings in Control Panel back to default settings and that also didn't help.
When I tried to run the Windows command prompt powercfg /batteryreport this is what I get:
Battery report
BIOS N1QETA2W (1.77 ) 02/26/2024
OS BUILD 19041.1.amd64fre.vb_release.191206-1406
PLATFORM ROLE Mobile
CONNECTED STANDBY Not supported
REPORT TIME 2024-04-24 13:19:02
Installed batteries
Information about each currently installed battery
No batteries are currently installed
If I run the battery report using Lenovo Vantage this is what I get:
Primary Battery Status
Not installed
Secondary Battery Status
No activity
Temperature
18 °C
FRU part number
01AV492
Cycle count
171
Device chemistry
Li-Ion
Manufacturer
LGC
Design capacity
71.1 Wh
Full charge capacity
59.27 Wh
Manufacture date
11/25/2019
Design voltage
11.25 V
Voltage
9.86 V
First use date
08/31/2020
Firmware version
0001-00a7-0104-043c
Not quite sure what to do at this point? Buy a new battery? Post on some more technical forum? Take it to a shop? Time for a new laptop?
I'm not super tech savvy and my Googling and Reddit searching has mostly turned up fairly complicated series of steps that involve booting machines in Ubuntu and other troubleshooting techniques that are out of my league.
When I run the hardware and driver update checks everything shows up fine. Sometimes the battery shows up in the tray as 100% charged and within seconds will show 0% or vice versa (like right now it's at 0%). If I unplug AC power the laptop instantly shuts down (this started yesterday). Yesterday the laptop started randomly shutting down even when plugged into AC power. I tried turning everything off, unplugging, removing battery, holding power button for 30+ seconds, but that didn't make any difference. I tried re-setting the battery settings in Control Panel back to default settings and that also didn't help.
When I tried to run the Windows command prompt powercfg /batteryreport this is what I get:
Battery report
BIOS N1QETA2W (1.77 ) 02/26/2024
OS BUILD 19041.1.amd64fre.vb_release.191206-1406
PLATFORM ROLE Mobile
CONNECTED STANDBY Not supported
REPORT TIME 2024-04-24 13:19:02
Installed batteries
Information about each currently installed battery
No batteries are currently installed
If I run the battery report using Lenovo Vantage this is what I get:
Primary Battery Status
Not installed
Secondary Battery Status
No activity
Temperature
18 °C
FRU part number
01AV492
Cycle count
171
Device chemistry
Li-Ion
Manufacturer
LGC
Design capacity
71.1 Wh
Full charge capacity
59.27 Wh
Manufacture date
11/25/2019
Design voltage
11.25 V
Voltage
9.86 V
First use date
08/31/2020
Firmware version
0001-00a7-0104-043c
Not quite sure what to do at this point? Buy a new battery? Post on some more technical forum? Take it to a shop? Time for a new laptop?
Response by poster: Not sure if this is worth mentioning. Before yesterday the battery seemed to be working fine and held a charge for 6-8 hours.
The battery report currently shows 171 cycle count and I've read a few places so far that "A typical laptop battery should handle several hundred charge cycles before there’s any meaningful change in battery capacity. Most can handle 500 to 1,000 cycles before battery capacity becomes a problem."
posted by forkisbetter at 1:48 PM on April 24
The battery report currently shows 171 cycle count and I've read a few places so far that "A typical laptop battery should handle several hundred charge cycles before there’s any meaningful change in battery capacity. Most can handle 500 to 1,000 cycles before battery capacity becomes a problem."
posted by forkisbetter at 1:48 PM on April 24
It could also be another part of the power system, like the part that connects to the battery, but I would contact Lenovo and complain that the battery is failing after only 171 cycles. With luck they will send you a new one. It's totally possible that there was some short or issue in the battery that tanked it overnight or burned out a contact.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 3:50 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 3:50 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]
I don't know what's going on with the battery, but random shutdowns make me think of overheating. An empty battery would generate alerts about running out of power before it shut down.
Worth cleaning out your cooling fan to see if the problem goes away. YouTube can show you how, or take it to a shop.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 4:28 PM on April 24
Worth cleaning out your cooling fan to see if the problem goes away. YouTube can show you how, or take it to a shop.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 4:28 PM on April 24
I had a Thinkpad once that would shut down randomly (and also blue screen and, memorably, red screen and psychedelic screen) and it turned out it was all because the charger had gone bad, which is really weird. When I replaced the charger, everything was fine. A few years later the same thing happened, with the same solution.
With your laptop, what happens if you take the battery out and run it only off the charger? If the problems continue then it's probably not the battery; if they stop then you've probably narrowed it down. (Unless you also have a second, internal battery?)
Seconding that overheating is another thing that can cause a laptop to just suddenly shut down.
posted by trig at 10:10 PM on April 24
With your laptop, what happens if you take the battery out and run it only off the charger? If the problems continue then it's probably not the battery; if they stop then you've probably narrowed it down. (Unless you also have a second, internal battery?)
Seconding that overheating is another thing that can cause a laptop to just suddenly shut down.
posted by trig at 10:10 PM on April 24
(Unless you also have a second, internal battery?)
It does.
To check which one is failing, remove the removable battery and (running off the adapter) run the Lenovo diagnostics again, preferably three or four times over fifteen minutes or so. It should now report on the internal battery only; if it now shows no batteries at all even only once you need to get the infernal one replaced, but if that looks good each time with a full report like in the initial post, get a replacement for the removable battery.
(appropriate typo left in)
posted by Stoneshop at 2:26 AM on April 25
It does.
Primary Battery StatusI'm not familiar with the T470, and it's unclear whether the internal one is called the primary battery, but either way one of them has gone bad in a way that it messes up the power status and makes Windows shut down immediately.
Not installed
Secondary Battery Status
No activity
To check which one is failing, remove the removable battery and (running off the adapter) run the Lenovo diagnostics again, preferably three or four times over fifteen minutes or so. It should now report on the internal battery only; if it now shows no batteries at all even only once you need to get the infernal one replaced, but if that looks good each time with a full report like in the initial post, get a replacement for the removable battery.
(appropriate typo left in)
posted by Stoneshop at 2:26 AM on April 25
Right, reading comprehension...
One additional thing to try is disabling the internal battery, which you should be able to do via the BIOS menu. On a different Thinkpad model it looks like this: Press F1 (or Enter or whatever other key it tells you to interrupt the normal startup, and then whatever key it tells you to enter the BIOS or Thinkpad Setup menu). When you're in the setup menu, there are tabs labeled Main, Config, etc. Use the right arrow key to get to the Config menu and you'll see a Power option. Arrow down to it, press Enter, and there should be a Disable Built-in Battery entry at the bottom of the list. Arrow down to that and press Enter to toggle. Then hit F10, or whatever it tells you on the bottom of the screen, to save and exit. (The specifics might be different on your model but the option should exist.)
If the issue is with the internal battery, then (hopefully) disabling it will bypass the problem without you having to actually open up the computer and disconnect the battery.
It's also not impossible that the battery itself is okay but some wiring connection somewhere is loose, in which case just replacing the battery itself wouldn't be enough. If you end up taking it to a shop, ask them to make sure there's no connector issue there that could cause intermittent failures. (And make sure they're familiar with thinkpads. As far as I know most laptops don't have dual batteries, and if you talk about an internal battery they might think you mean the CMOS battery, which is something completely different.)
posted by trig at 4:02 AM on April 25
One additional thing to try is disabling the internal battery, which you should be able to do via the BIOS menu. On a different Thinkpad model it looks like this: Press F1 (or Enter or whatever other key it tells you to interrupt the normal startup, and then whatever key it tells you to enter the BIOS or Thinkpad Setup menu). When you're in the setup menu, there are tabs labeled Main, Config, etc. Use the right arrow key to get to the Config menu and you'll see a Power option. Arrow down to it, press Enter, and there should be a Disable Built-in Battery entry at the bottom of the list. Arrow down to that and press Enter to toggle. Then hit F10, or whatever it tells you on the bottom of the screen, to save and exit. (The specifics might be different on your model but the option should exist.)
If the issue is with the internal battery, then (hopefully) disabling it will bypass the problem without you having to actually open up the computer and disconnect the battery.
It's also not impossible that the battery itself is okay but some wiring connection somewhere is loose, in which case just replacing the battery itself wouldn't be enough. If you end up taking it to a shop, ask them to make sure there's no connector issue there that could cause intermittent failures. (And make sure they're familiar with thinkpads. As far as I know most laptops don't have dual batteries, and if you talk about an internal battery they might think you mean the CMOS battery, which is something completely different.)
posted by trig at 4:02 AM on April 25
Just replace the battery. If it's not the battery you get a spare which is great. If it's the battery you may be able to claim warranty.
posted by kschang at 6:29 AM on April 25 [1 favorite]
posted by kschang at 6:29 AM on April 25 [1 favorite]
Disconnect the power, wait a minute, and then use a paperclip to press the emergency reset button on the underside of the machine. (Yes, there is a hole for you to reset it with a paperclip. You have probably never noticed it.) Wait a minute and then try charging the machine again. I recently had a similar issue with my X1; this resolved it.
posted by phooky at 8:16 AM on April 25
posted by phooky at 8:16 AM on April 25
kschang: Just replace the battery.
The T470 has two batteries.
posted by Stoneshop at 10:52 AM on April 25
The T470 has two batteries.
posted by Stoneshop at 10:52 AM on April 25
phooky: Yes, there is a hole for you to reset it with a paperclip.
https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/t470_hmm_en.pdf , page 48
posted by Stoneshop at 11:07 AM on April 25
https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/t470_hmm_en.pdf , page 48
posted by Stoneshop at 11:07 AM on April 25
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My similar laptop of a similar vintage has similar behavior as far as 100%-0%-100% battery instantly, though it doesn't shut down. That might be because I went in & turned off some of that auto-shutdown battery behavior stuff - that is in windows settings under "Power" and maybe in some other places.
Typically it will turn off fast or even instantly if it detects 0% battery, to protect the battery from discharging too much. If the battery is a bit flakey & the 0% battery readings are erroneous, then you have a problem such as the one you're describing.
Either way, the real solution is to replace the battery.
posted by flug at 1:39 PM on April 24