My Lenovo IdeaPad is freezing right up until I hit the BIOS, and it won't come back to life after that.
My Lenovo IdeaPad is freezing right up until I hit the BIOS, and it won't come back to life after that.
Hello, I have a problem with my Lenovo Ideapad 5 15ARE05 (Ryzen 4700, lots of RAM, Windows 11, no special graphics card). My laptop was sitting on a desk while only one browser tab was open. I didn't use it for about an hour and half, then the screen got messy and turned off. So I had to turn it off by pressing the button long. After that, when I tried to turn it back on, the light on the power button came up, but I could change the keyboard brightness. However, the picture was all black. Touching the hand did not make it overheat. I left it working for about 5 minutes and then tried again. This time Windows started up, but maybe after 30 seconds everything went black again. So I wasn't sure if just the screen or something else. I tried connecting via HDMI to the screen, but that didn't work either.
I turned it off again and waited for a few minutes, then turned it on and started playing music. This time, the screen got messy again, and there was loud noise coming from the speaker. Because my warranty expired 6 months ago, I started looking around to see what could be wrong. Here is what I tried so far: I tried to boot into safe mode (couldn't do it because everything froze before I even reached that point). Sometimes the screen goes black right away; I just see the backlight panel turned on without any Lenovo logo or anything else. I tried opening the BIOS, but everything froze after 10 to 30 seconds there too (I can always control the keyboard's brightness with a key combo).
I opened the back side of the laptop (there was only a small amount of dust, nothing special, cleaned everything; no burnt spots or anything unusual on the motherboard). I disconnected the battery for some time and that didn't help. I also disconnected the CMOS battery, same thing. Disconnected the SSD and the Wi-Fi module, and all of those gave me the same result: it would freeze either at BIOS or after a period of time when there was no bootable device on screen. The RAM is soldered inside. Put everything back together now; sometimes it will boot Windows or try to do that, then get an error like "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" (What failed: ntoskrnl.exe), but after the BSOD pops up, everything freezes again.
The ventilator is spinning, and the backlight is still possible to change. Any advice what could be the problem? Sounds like something serious because this BIOS freeze happening after a short period of time is not something you would expect to happen and it is stopping me from doing some troubleshooting and figuring out what is happening. Thanks.
I left my laptop sitting on my desk with just a browser tab open. I didn't use it for about an hour and a half, so the screen got all messy and then turned off. Maybe you have trouble because the laptop is getting too hot if it acts weird after a while. Did you try plugging in an extra charger or display? If your laptop only has one processor built-in inside the back, maybe check if there are any BIOS updates waiting to be installed on that machine. Anyway, did you look at the cooling fan or vents for dust or bits of junk blocking them up...?
Hi Luftij, my cooling system looks good and there is no dust. My laptop has been sitting for about two and a half years, so I don't think old thermal paste is causing the trouble. But I can try replacing it just in case. The problem right now is that my laptop overheats too fast. About nine out of ten times, when I turn it on: the power button lights up, the keyboard gets brighter, and the fan starts spinning. Then after five seconds, the lights go off and the fan stops. The main light stays on even though everything has stopped. If I don't force shut it down, the fans spin back up slowly, but then I can control my backlight with Fn + Space (keys 1 through 10). But then again: Windows tries to start, and after ten seconds, everything freezes or the screen goes black. Also, if I open the BIOS, it freezes too after about ten to fifteen seconds.
I didn't think heat glue was a problem either. Have you put fresh thermal paste in when you cleaned your computer fan?