Lenovo SL510 laptop suddenly went dead.

[aqk]

I have an old Lenovo SL510 Thinkpad, that over the last few years, I have upgraded the RAM to 8 GB, replaced the original Hitachi 300 GB disk with a Kingston 120GB SSD, and replaced the DVD drive with the original Hitachi disk (which then became my D drive and it still works GREAT!).
The last few months the WiFi seemed kinda flaky. It periodically went dead after a tun on and boot, so I'd have to connect via an Edimax USB WiFi instead. And this summer, there seemed to be a lot of heat blasting out from the fan.
I went to boot it today and the system was dead. The power-button light came on for 2 seconds and then went off. I note also that the blue LED on the D-drive's tray also lights up for 2 seconds.
As far as I can see (or hear), the fan doesn't even turn on in that 2 seconds. Also no BEEP.

I've done the usual tricks- tried it it with no battery, tried holding down power-button for 10 seconds with no battery or external powersource, but nothing seems to work.
Anyone have any other tricks I can try?
I DO NOT wish to buy a new laptop, unless I can get a barebones one - with no RAM, No hard disk, and maybe a more powerful processor. Are such things sold?
Or possibly I could buy just a SL510 Mainboard to put in the present laptop.
What are my choices here?

 

[aqk]

Well, no one seems to have offered a solution or at least advice, so I shall further add (TWO days later!) -
I just pressed the ON button on the laptop and it BOOTED! Right into Grub. And then to Win-10. First time in 3 days!
I'll try restarting next and re-booting into Linux.
And then try a Power-off and see if I can power back on.
The battery had been removed these three days but the power cord was still connected.
I am wondering if this "dead" issue will recur as it does with the internal Wi-Fi (above).
Will it get worse and worse?
Why is the laptop alive today but dead yesterday?
Any ideas?

 

[MusenMouse]

I would try to blow some condensed air into the exhaust to knock out any dust, do it sparingly though or hold the fan with a toothpick so it does not overspin and damage the fan. Hopefully this will help with the heat that you felt. For the wireless I would go to the Lenovo site and download the latest wireless driver and install it, as well as the BIOS if you feel comfortable with it.

I couldn't really tell you why the laptop suddenly decided to die, maybe it was overheating and had to shutdown to protect itself from overheating? Otherwise I am not the best person to say what to do hardware wise if the above troubleshooting does not help.

 

[aqk]

I would try to blow some condensed air into the exhaust to knock out any dust, do it sparingly though .....
...Otherwise I am not the best person to say what to do hardware wise if the above troubleshooting does not help.

Thanx! Any answer is better than no answer at all.
I've had the laptop for at least 7 years - maybe it's time I cleaned it! ;-)
This problem reminds of the old Dell problem a few years ago. Friends' Dells would refuse to boot and then one day WOULD boot! I think the issue was BIOS.
Maybe it's time I looked at a BIOS upgrade, if there is such a thing for such an "old" laptop.

 

[aqk]

I would try to blow some condensed air into the exhaust to knock out any .... ....
.... protect itself from overheating? Otherwise I am not the best person to say what to do hardware wise if the above troubleshooting does not help.

?? Strange. I replied to you with more detail, but my answer disappeared. Thanx anyway.

 

[Mousemonkey]

I was having issues with a sticky mouse button the other day and somehow deleted your post, sorry about that.

 

[MusenMouse]

I would try to blow some condensed air into the exhaust to knock out any .... ....
.... protect itself from overheating? Otherwise I am not the best person to say what to do hardware wise if the above troubleshooting does not help.

?? Strange. I replied to you with more detail, but my answer disappeared. Thanx anyway.

No problem. Looks like it is just the mods running amuck 😀

 

[rgd1101]

I would try to blow some condensed air into the exhaust to knock out any .... ....
.... protect itself from overheating? Otherwise I am not the best person to say what to do hardware wise if the above troubleshooting does not help.

?? Strange. I replied to you with more detail, but my answer disappeared. Thanx anyway.

No problem. Looks like it is just the mods running amuck 😀

Nope. We only make people disappear.