lenovo R500 dead following win 7 update

[PRAGUEGUY]

Hi, as the title says..I made an update via Windows update service..and no way to wake up the computer.
No reaction to pressing F1...no way to boot from the win recovery CD, not even access to boot m7
enu.
It just shows Thinkpad..to interrupt normal startup press blue think vantage button..Now I think after my last reinstall of
win 7 I did not install the Think Vantage toolbox stuff..anyway it doesnt work...
I am doing some translation work, I should really start using that PC..any advice? it is just braindead.

[PRAGUEGUY]

well, this looks [censored]... I read the forums..found the reset trick, with ten seconds ecetera pressing power button..
I have taken the pc apart, disconnecting hdd, optical, DIMM memory, wifi and even bluetooth daughter card (ninthis was difficult..had to tamper with the lcd panel bezel...anyway, I suspected the bluetooth, as the Bluetooth LED incicator below the display was on, even if the pc was braindead...
no luck as of yet.
also, due to my barbaric opening of the PC, I wander if I haveta warranty. I hope I had it more than two years...as then I have no warranty .
one important thing,
..
when I tried the power button thing, and launched the pc without DIMM, there were beeps. A cycle of 3 beeps, the signal listed in the manual as ..reseat DIMM. which I tried.
Does this mean the motherboard is not dead? thanks

[lead_org]

is the USB ports in okay condition? is there any pins that touch each other?

[PRAGUEGUY]

One of the USB connectors is quite bad why is that a hope? Should I disconnect it? If so. How please?

[PRAGUEGUY]

is there any way I can get rid of the bad USB port? I cannot access it...in one of the USB ports, the central plastic part is missing, it is not possible to insert a connector. I do not belieeve I could repair it...is there any way i can just remove it physically? I have no idea of how to access this.

[RealBlackStuff]

Get a very good light and a magnifying glass.
Then inspect your damaged USB port. Compare it with a good one.
Quite possibly something inside the faulty USB port is shorting/making false contact.
By straightening that out, your laptop might come back to life.
Remove battery/power adapter before you start poking around.

[PRAGUEGUY]

got repaired for some 50 USD. good. |It was the USB ports, I was unable to fix it.
- the guy soldered on some usb ports on the motherboard. However they dont seem to work now.
When I press Find hardware changes in Device manager, I get a report back saying "device driver not installed successfullY". And I dont know, what device it is talking about. It only says System device. any ideas? sod the usb..I can hopefully get an xpresscard controller for usb2

[Kincade]

I know this is an old thread, but I have joined this forum to give my thanks to lead_org and RealBlackStuff. I have an R500 that went downhill almost from when I bought it. It wouldn't boot into Windows and latterly I was using a Linux Live CD to use it and eventually that wouldn't boot. All I could get to was the ThinkPad screen with no options to get to the BIOS or anywhere else.

Anyways, on seeing lead_org's suggestion about the USB ports, I knew one of mine was the same as PRAGUEGUY's, in that the central part was missing and had been for some time. I took all the bent pins out and then tried the computer and it worked!

So thanks guys! I read a myriad of forums with all different suggestions, I tried all things possible, but never thought about that dodgy USB port for one moment until I came across this thread in this forum.

Thanks once again, you guys are the greatest!

Kincade