Student-Contributed Wiki

An awesome team of students from our education program made this wiki.

Symptoms include the computer randomly shutting off, the performance of the computer dropping, and the computer physically getting hot.  

  • Check the fans by placing your hand near the fan vents. If you feel little to no hot air blowing out, dust may have accumulated within the fan or the vents.To get rid of the dust, remove the bottom cover as shown in the Bottom Cover Replacement Guide, and gently blow the dust out with compressed air.Check the fans with your hand again.

If the problem persists, refer to the below section: The Fans Need Replacements.

If blowing compressed air into the fans and vents did not fix the problem, your fans have likely broken down, and you need to replace them. Refer to the Fan Replacement Guide.

Thermal paste can also affect the temperature of the laptop. Too little thermal paste between the central processing unit (CPU) and the base of the heatsink results in the laptop overheating, as there is not enough of a connection. Too much thermal paste can also result in overheating, because the thermal paste then acts as an insulator, trapping the heat within the CPU. If the thermal paste is old, it will not function properly or with as much efficiency as it should. Lenovo is known to not use the best brand of thermal paste, so it may need replacement. Using a higher-quality compound for thermal paste will help the temperature during any graphic or CPU intensive programs, such as gaming. In all cases, refer to the Thermal Paste link of the introduction of the Fan Replacement Guide.

The device is unable to connect to a Wi-Fi network or showing no available connections. This problem can be due to the Internet Service Provider (ISP), the Wi-Fi settings, or hardware issues. The following section assumes the laptop cannot connect to any Wi-Fi network.

  • Under the network tab in the taskbar or the search bar, navigate to Network and Internet Settings.Click on and follow the Troubleshoot Problems.If no problems are identified, try checking adapter settings.On the left panel, navigate to Wi-Fi.On the right panel, click Change Adapter Options.From there you can see available networks; right-click on the network you want to connect to.Click Connect.Note: This could require administrator privileges.

The troubleshooting dialogue could reveal outdated drivers if the laptop doesn’t automatically update the driver. Follow the steps below:

  • Scan for outdated drivers on this website.Follow directions to update drivers.Note: Updating drivers should happen automatically.Restart the computer.

No connection to the Wi-Fi could be due to a faulty or malfunctioning Wi-Fi adapter. To replace the Wi-Fi Adapter, follow this guide.

Symptoms are the computer has been plugged in but is dead, or displays the message “plugged in, not charging” even when low on battery.  

  • Ensure that the charger is rated at 135W. Other chargers rated at 90W or 65W are known to have issues charging the laptop.Inspect the computer adapter for any frays or damage. If there is damage, consider getting a replacement.Also, be sure that the AC adapter is connected directly with the wall socket, and not running through any surge protectors or extension cords. Use another device from the same power source to be sure that the socket has power.

  • Ensure that Airplane Mode is off.Check to see if turning on/off conservation mode has any effect.Make sure Windows is on the latest update.

Lenovo has a threshold percentage where it will display the “plugged in, not charging” message to prevent overcharging and extend the battery life. If the computer is in the 80-100% range, it will likely not charge.

If none of the above solutions worked, there could be a driver problem for the battery threshold. Try the following:

  • Go to the device manager and click on the + sign before the battery.Right-click to uninstall Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery.Shut down the machine and restart. Windows will automatically detect the missing software and reinstall it.If the issue persists, open the Lenovo Vantage application and check for driver and/or application updates.Check to see if the computer will charge while powered off. If it does charge, then there is a Basic Input Output System (BIOS) issue. It is recommended to seek help from Lenovo Customer Support, as BIOS issues are tricky, and can mess up your computer if the wrong setting is changed.

 

Symptoms include the computer powering off immediately when unplugging, the battery lasting only an hour or two, and the computer not powering on unless if charged to full capacity.

If the laptop is taking an excessively long time to charge, the battery may be over-discharged.

Turn off the laptop and let it charge for 24 hours with the battery attached. If the battery continues to take a long time to charge, consider a battery replacement using our guide here.

One possibility is that the battery plug has gotten loose and is causing the issue.  To test this possibility, follow the Bottom Cover Replacement Guide to remove the bottom cover, then unplug and plug in the connector again. Try to boot up the laptop. If the issue persists, a battery replacement is probably necessary.

The most common issue is that the battery has become weak through charging and discharging, and simply needs to be replaced. See the link here for a replacement battery.

The main symptom is distorted audio coming from the speakers and could be only on high volume or when the computer is unplugged.

If the speaker is crackling even on low volume, it is likely the speakers themselves are broken. To ensure this, listen to audio through headphones or through the Bluetooth. If the audio through the headphones or the Bluetooth is fine, the speakers are likely broken. Refer to the Speaker Replacement Guide.

If the audio is still crackling for headphone or the speakers, there could be a problem with Lenovo’s Energy Management Software.

  • First you need to uninstall Lenovo’s Energy Management program which you can do by searching the program up. Right-click and select “uninstall.”Next, create a new power plan and name it whatever you want; then go to Edit Plan Settings, then Change Advanced Power Settings. Then near the Processor Power Management, click on the plus sign.Click on the plus sign next to the drop-down title Maximum processor state.Change the value of Plugged in from 100 to 95.Restart your computer if necessary.

If the issue persists, see the “no sound troubleshooting” for this device.

Symptoms include either no sound through the speakers but sound through Bluetooth and headphones, or no sound at all.

If your computer has no sound, there is usually a problem with the sound drivers.

One possible solution is to uninstall the sound drivers and restart your computer. Windows will automatically reinstall the sound drivers upon startup.

  • To uninstall the sound drivers, search Device Manager and click on it.Scroll down to Sound, Video, and Game Controllers, and select the drop-down.Right-click on High Definition Audio Device and select uninstall. Restart your computer and test the audio.

If the above solution does not work, try updating the sound drivers manually:

  • Search for Control Panel; then, navigate to Hardware & Sounds, and then Sound.You will see a list of your audio devices the computer uses. Right-click on the Speaker and go to Properties.Under Controller Information, click Realtek Audio. In the new window, click Change Settings, Driver, then Update Driver.  You should see the message “Windows has successfully updated your drivers.”If updating your drivers does not work, you can revert to an older driver version.Search for “Device Manager" and click on it.Click the drop-down system devices, and go to Intel Smart Sound Technology. Double-click on that and a new window will pop up.Go to Driver, and click on the Previous Driver. This will revert the driver software to the previous version, which may fix the issue.

If none of these solutions work, there could be an issue with the motherboard or physical speaker in the computer. Refer to the replacement guide here. Alternatively, you can talk to Lenovo Customer Support for a motherboard replacement and see if your computer is under warranty.

Symptoms include: you can’t access certain portions of your device’s hard drive or you receive a notification that there has been a hard drive failure. 

Both viruses and malware can cause data corruption on your device. Running an antivirus scan can tell you whether or not your data has been corrupted. Anti-Virus software can prevent further corruption or fragmentation of your SSD.

Fragmented data makes the hard drive work extra hard which can slow down the computer or cause the hard drive to fail. Disk Defragmenter rearranges fragmented data so disks and drives can work more efficiently.

  • To open Disk Defragmenter, click the Start button.In the search box, type Disk Defragmenter.In the list of results, click Disk Defragmenter.Under Current status, select the disk to defragment.To determine if the disk needs to be defragmented, click Analyze Disk.Once Windows is finished analyzing the disk, check the percentage of fragmentation on the disk in the Last Run Column.If the number is above 10%, consider defragmenting the disk. Click Defragment Disk.

The SSD in your device can completely fail due to physical damage (impact, water, over-heating, etc.). If this is the case, your SSD must be replaced. To do this, follow the SSD Replacement Guide.