02/05/201708/08/2022Computer
Issue: Several Lenovo laptop models have had issues returning from sleep, suspend or hibernation mode. An affected laptop may be fine one day but wont power on the next. In this state the Power LED indicator light may do nothing when pressed, or may blink 3 times but the laptop remains idle with a blank black screen. No beeps, no BIOS post messages, no keyboard backlight, nothing. Your laptop is now a very expensive but not construction worthy brick. Below are solutions to get your laptop powered back on and running.
Prevention (sometimes) – Update your Lenovo laptop BIOS!
Solutions – try the solutions below one at a time until your laptop fires up.
Solution #1 – Power Button Drain
Old faithful. If this works, think about buying a lottery ticket.
- Unplug power
- If your laptop has removable batteries, remove them
- Press and hold the power button for 30 seconds
- Return battery and power
- Power on
Solution #2 – Reset Hole
Yes, your expensive Lenovo laptop came with an emergency reset hole.
- Unplug power
- Find a thin paper clip
- Locate the EmergencyReset Hole on your laptop
- Press and hold the Reset Hole for ten seconds with the paper clip
- Power on
Solution #3 – Fully Drain All Power (internal batteries)
Completely drain all power from the laptop – some disassembly required.
- Unplug power
- Remove bottom cover (search Youtube for a removal guide for your model)
- Remove both removable and internal Batteries
- Press and hold the power button for 30 seconds
- Replace batteries, return bottom cover
- Plug in and Power on
Solution #4 – Remove CMOS battery
Last chance garage – give that little ole battery a kiss & a rattle in the hand like a pair of dice and pray for power!
- Unplug power
- Remove bottom shell of the laptop – Search YouTube, your laptop’s support website or this website for a how to guide: https://www.ifixit.com/
- Unplug the CMOS battery for 30 seconds
- Replace battery and the shell
- Power on
Solution #5
This involves Fed-Ex. This is not the step you want.
- It’s hard to update the BIOS when your computer wont turn on so…
- Call Lenovo Support
- Ship package
- Contemplate your brand selection process
- Forgive all when that baby’s back, powered on and rockin!
39 thoughts on “Lenovo Laptop Won’t Turn On – Blinking or No Power Light”
I never liked the Lenovo Laptop
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Thanks. Step 1 worked. Buying my lottery ticket now
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I’ve always love Lenovo laptops…certainly been more reliable than any other devices I’ve used and supported over the past 30 years. However, I have a Yoga that just had a system board replacement to resolve a bad USB port (2 months before warranty expired and I would “buy it” from my employer), and then a couple of weeks before I get my replacement device and “buy” this device, which I absolutely LOVE btw, I go to power it up Monday morning and nothing. No power light, nothing. Went through ALL of the normal troubleshooting steps, including removing batteries for a while. Now it does something…the power light blinks once…when I push the power button, but that’s all. Anything else to do other than find a replacement motherboard on eBay? Does anyone know the logic behind the various power light blink sequences?
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Bless you! Reset with a trusty paperclip!!!
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I performed the reset hole but still not working. What would I do?
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Just did the reset on my laptop following the first step. Now I’m back on line
Thanks alot.Reply
Nice work, resetting the CMOS on my E540 worked, thanks!!
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thanks it works after changing ram and ssd drive on my laptop T460 it failed to turn on
i used paper clip Before was a terrfiying momentsthanks God bless you
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Re-seated the memory and it fixed my issue.
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Thanks mate!!!
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After steps 1, 2, and 3 did nothing, I was very nervous– but a CMOS battery cycle did the trick. So thank you, internet stranger, for making my life significantly less stressful. I hope you stay at the top of the Google results, because you were very helpful.
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Yeah it worked for me as well. Thanks
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I tried the rest button, power button for 30 secs, and all the above but no luck. But then I took the back cover off, reseated the ram and also unplugged the internal battery (there’s a wire that connects it via plug to the board), and it worked :)
But not sure which of the 2 actions sorted it.Reply
Step 1 worked for me. Where can I buy that lottery ticket? :) Thanks a lot for assembling these troubleshooting steps!
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Thanks for saving my computer.
Husband did it as I read your instructions. We had to pull the CMOS battery, I told my husband to shake it in his hand, pray, and kiss it and he said “don’t be silly”
“But it’s in the instructions!” I said.He ignored me and it worked anyway! Thank you!!!
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Open the laptop, remove and reseat the memory. This has happened to me twice now on my Lenovo Legion Y520 and both times removing and swapping over the memory modules has fixed the problem without having to do anything more. Good Luck!
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My lenovo ideapad laptop not on….
Charging light isnot on….no any response in my laptop…..
Please help meReply
My lenovo ideapad laptop not on….
Charging light isnot on….no any response in my laptop…..
Please help meThis is brand new
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See AlsoBeat Saber Hardest Songs RankedDid it on a 4-year old Lenovo X260 Thinkpad!
No light, no nothing.
Unplugged both internal and CMOS battery – and BINGO!
Back alive!
Thank you!Reply
Hi there I have the same problem tried 1234 and still won’t power up is there any other way of fixing this annoying problem
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Thank you so much! Step 1 didn’t work, but step 2 did :)
I had the power LEDs flashing like it was still sleeping even with the battery removed… Trusty reset holeReply
unplugged the laptop. Took out the battery. Taking the bottom off the laptop was easy. No hidden screws. A screw holding down the hard drive literally fell out onto the floor. I unplugged the ROUND cmos battery and a long lithium ion also. Left it unplugged while screwing the hard drive holder back in. Re-seated the memory. Put it back together and turned it on. It took about 2 minutes to do all that. Of course the time had to be reset in the BIOS after unplugging the cmos battery.
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Thank you for this post! Finally my Lenovo is working again. However, I was wondering how common is this error for this laptops? A friend wants to buy one but I’m not sure recommending her this one.
Thank you
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your post was a lifesaver
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Perfect! Option 3 worked for me!
We’ve found that this is a real problem when X1 Carbons are allowed to drain their batteries completely . With so many devices having been left in drawers in the office for the last 6 months, this is going to be a regular occurrence
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Awesome genius. #1 didn’t work for. I have Lenovo Thinkpad T480 (an year old) and this is the 2nd time this happened. I took the removable battery out, tried to press and hold the power button multiple times for different duration, didn’t work.
But the tiny reset hole when pressed with a small paper clip pin worked in less than 10 seconds I guess.
Thanks, I can now go back to my blogging.
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Lenovo Flex 5 81X20005US the step with pulling the battery cable out – carefully – worked, after holding the power down for 30 seconds i replugged the battery and it turned on. The bits you need are T5 “star” bits, t6 is too big and t4 is too small.
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None of this works for me except step 5, and step 5.4 is the most hilarious thing I’ve seen on the Internet this week. Thanks for that! LOL
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Solution 2 saved it. Thanks a lot.
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Thanks so much for this helpful post. I noticed when I plugged in the power to my laptop, the power button flashed green 3 times, but would not start. I performed the steps in sequence and it wasn’t until I performed Step 4 did my laptop finally start back up. Again, thanks so much for this post!
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This was great. Option #1 worked for me. Thank you SO much!!
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Used the reset hole for my t460s and display z back
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Hi Wanfadger,
Hope you are doing good.
Does your t460s was showing keyboard blinks 2 times and nothing else.I m facing the same issue where the laptop was closed on Thursday afternoon and when tried to start it on Monday, nothing happened.
Thanks
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Solution #6 chuck it in the garbage. :/
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For me (Thinkpad L15) works the #4 solution.
Thanks a lot.
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Thank you very much, you’re a life saver.
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Oh my goodness thank you so much! You are a lifesaver.
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Thank you so much second step worked for me,
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Where did you find it?
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