Lenovo Yoga 13 Will Not Boot

[MJ8121]

Hello all. This is probably a duplicate of some kind; but I have scoured dozens of threads and there are often a few varying details. So here goes ...

For the past couple of months, my Yoga 13 was sometimes refusing to wake up after being in sleep mode. Usually, a hard restart works; but, that has recently stopped working. Sometimes I could successfully turn it back on after I left it for several hours. The same is true when it turns off or tries to restart. Fast forward to today - I have been unable to get the machine back on since Sunday.

When I turn it on, the power light comes on like normal, along with the battery light. The caps lock light also flashes on at this same time. Typically, caps lock stays off (and unresponsive), but the power and battery lights stay on. Sometimes those two lights flash off and back on twice before staying on (on - off - on - off - on). Other times, they just stay on from the beginning. Most of the time, the fan turns on when I turn it on too.

Throughout all of this, nothing shows on the screen (or an external screen). Based on the battery light, it seems that the battery charges and runs fine. Also, the system has an SSD, so it is hard to tell what the hard drive is doing.

I am hoping that you all can help me narrow down what the problem is, so that I can determine whether it is worth trying to fix it. I have only had this laptop for a little over 2 years and it was quite expensive, so I would hate for it to go to waste and for me to have to buy a new machine so soon. Also, I am willing to open the bottom of the machine for diagnostic purposes.

Thank you in advance for any help. Let me know if I left out any pertinent information.

- MJ8121

 

[Laptop_Nerd]

Hi,

You've pretty much done all the possible troubleshooting steps but here are some more that may help.
- Start by doing a hard reboot, remove the battery and unplug the AC adapter then press and hold the power button for 20 seconds then try booting it up again.
- If this will not work, do test the AC adapter if it's working properly. Remove the battery and power the laptop with just the AC adapter connected and see if it will boot up or not. do also try a different AC adapter that has the same voltage and see if it will work or not.
- Proceed with reseating the RAM's if trying a different AC adapter will not work, remove them all for couple of seconds then put them back in making sure everything is seated properly.
- If it will still not work, connect an external monitor and see if you'll get any display from it. If there's a display on the external monitor that could mean that the problem is the built in display.
- But if there's still no display on the external monitor that means the problem lies in the motherboard.

 

[MJ8121]

Thank you for the suggestions, Laptop_Nerd! Unfortunately, the battery is internal on this model and my torx bit is a bit too big for the screws in the bottom of my laptop. So, I have to go grab some new ones before proceeding with these steps. Honestly, I'm probably out of my depth here - I assume that it's okay to unplug an internal battery and do a hard reboot while it is still open?

- MJ8121

 

[MJ8121]

Hi,

You've pretty much done all the possible troubleshooting steps but here are some more that may help.
- Start by doing a hard reboot, remove the battery and unplug the AC adapter then press and hold the power button for 20 seconds then try booting it up again.
- If this will not work, do test the AC adapter if it's working properly. Remove the battery and power the laptop with just the AC adapter connected and see if it will boot up or not. do also try a different AC adapter that has the same voltage and see if it will work or not.
- Proceed with reseating the RAM's if trying a different AC adapter will not work, remove them all for couple of seconds then put them back in making sure everything is seated properly.
- If it will still not work, connect an external monitor and see if you'll get any display from it. If there's a display on the external monitor that could mean that the problem is the built in display.
- But if there's still no display on the external monitor that means the problem lies in the motherboard.

Well, I tried all of these steps and came to the conclusion that the problem is most likely the motherboard. None of these steps changed anything in terms of the behavior of the machine. I also think I made things worse while putting it all back together somehow, as now the power button does nothing. Either way, I was not going to spend the hundreds of dollars on replacing the motherboard anyway, so I guess a new laptop is in order.

Thanks for the help Laptop_Nerd!