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My laptop (Lenovo Thinkpad W530) has been experiencing intermittent shutdowns, starting a couple of months ago.

These shutdowns (and sometimes freezes - which eventually shut down the laptop) increased in frequency from a couple a week to every couple of minutes. Shutdowns can sometimes occur immediately once the OS starts, right after the initial Lenovo startup screen.

The laptop can enter periods where it will continously shutdown after the first shutdown occurs (if more startup attempts are made), and after this period can work for 10 mins - a few hours. These shutdowns occur after the start screen, however.

I have:

  • replaced the stock drive with a new Sandisk SSD
  • installed Kubuntu (from scratch, new HDD), was previously running windows 7 on previous HDD
  • Checked temps w/ sensors on Kubuntu, they stay within acceptable bounds until the shutdown occurs (max 45-55 deg Celsius)
  • Used different batteries, and ran on and off AC power, with and without a battery
  • Changed from "Nvidia Optimus" (aka Switchable graphics in the BIOS, which switches between Integrated and Discrete graphics), to always running on Discrete graphics
  • Turned off the option in the BIOS that auto-reactivates NVIDIA Optimus

Note : The computer does not undergo any shutdowns while in the BIOS

Note (After turning off Optimus): After a shutdown, the laptop will now shutdown a few times instantly after turning on, before the launch screen, and shutdowns are sometimes correlated with moving the laptop, but at other times it can be shook/moved without any problems.

I assume that this may be a motherboard problem, possibly correlated with temperature.

Specs:

  • OS: Windows 7 and Kubuntu
  • Laptop: Thinkpad W530
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • CPU: Intel (R) Core i7-3720QM (2.60 GHz)
  • SSD: Sandisk (replacement, used to be stock)
  • Video card: NVIDIA Quadro K1000M
AAA
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1 Answers1

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Likely a problem with CPU power supply. Especially the VT1326SF Vcore stepdown converter chips. Seems a common problem, at least on the W530 and W530 boards that I bought for cheap on ebay.

Either it's some minor fault that's easy to fix (i.e. ripped connector, broken power button) or no Vcore, with all other voltages present, according to the schematics that you can find online. Had that on at least a couple of broken boards from ebay.

W530 uses 3x VT1326SF for CPU and 2x VT1326SF for Intel graphics inside CPU, and a VT1318MF controller. Swapping the VT1318MF doesn't fix the problem. Some of the unreliable boards had one of the 3 VT1326SF phases missing, no PWM pulses at the output towards the L97 inductor that stabilizes Vcore after the stepdown regulator. Seems like a W530 somewhat runs unreliable with one VT1326SF burnt out and refuses to work with 2 or more VT1326SF burnt open.

Googled this since another refurbished W530 had a sudden shutdown/power loss and I found it's a common thing. Guess I'll order a couple VT1326SF on ebay and try my luck soldering these BGA suckers and see if it fixes it...

The Mechanic
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