Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s Troubleshooting

The laptop shows no signs of powering up and is unresponsive with a black screen

Press the power button. If the device doesn't turn on, check to make sure the battery is fully charged. If the device does turn on but the screen is blank, the screen may need to be replaced. In order to do so please follow theLenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s Screen Replacement Guide.

The device will no longer stay turned on if unplugged despite being charged for a reasonable amount of time. This is usually a sign of an old or damaged battery. In this case, replacement is necessary. Please follow the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s Battery Replacement|Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s Battery Replacement Guide].

The battery will not charge, even after being off while charging for an extended period of time

The charging cable needs to be securely plugged into both an outlet and to the device in order to charge properly. Jiggle the cable at both the outlet and device to make sure it’s properly plugged in. If the cable is securely plugged into both the outlet and device and the laptop is still not charging, the cable may be damaged.

A damaged charging cable can cause the device to be unable to charge. Check the wall plug, the cable itself, and the power jack for damage.

Keep in mind that a squished part of the cable can be enough to prevent the device from receiving a charge. If you can’t find any visible damage to the cable, try using another cable that you know works to try to charge your device.

If the new cable works you will need to replace your laptop charger, if it doesn’t you may have a faulty battery.

The device will no longer stay turned on if unplugged despite being charged for a reasonable amount of time. This is usually a sign of an old or damaged battery. In this case, replacement is necessary. Please follow the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s Battery Replacement Guide.

Frequent or irregular blue screen of death or automatic shut off

One of the most common issues that can cause frequent crashes is incorrect or corrupted drivers. When a crash occurs look at the Blue Screen of Death and find the error message. Then google it to find the specific driver problem. Either update or reinstall the driver to fix the issue.

Another cause of crashes can be hard drive failure. When the hard drive is the problem most often the device will struggle to start up properly and crash as it boots up. Another symptom can be if the device regularly crashes when accessing a specific file. Please use the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge Hard Drive Replacement Guide to replace the hard drive.

The keys are unresponsive, broken, missing, or stuck.

Sometimes the keyboard will not respond, this can be due to faulty wiring or the keyboard being disconnected. In this case, removing the keyboard and check to make sure the ribbon wires are properly connected. If this is not the issue replacing the keyboard is necessary please follow the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s Keyboard Replacement Guide.

If keys can’t be pressed down, there may be something under the key holding it up or causing it to stick. If this is the case, remove the key using our Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s Keyboard Replacement Guide and check to see if anything is stuck below the key itself.

Having trouble listening to audio coming out via the audio jack or speakers.

Many times, the distorted audio coming from the Audio jack is due to the connected cable being improperly connected. To check this, push the connecting jack further in. If it does go further in, try playing audio through the jack again. If this does not fix the distorted audio, or the jack does not go further in, then there may be a problem with the headphones you’re trying to use.

Sometimes distorted audio coming out from the audio jack is due to the headphones you are using having been damaged in some way. In order to check this, use another pair of headphones that you know for certain are not damaged. If the distorted audio issue continues to occur, then the Lenovo’ s audio drivers may be out of date.

An out of date or corrupt driver can cause audio to be either distorted or not present at all. To check this, go to your computer settings and find your driver settings. Go to your audio driver and select “check for updates.” If there are no updates available or if the problem persists after updating, then your audio jack itself may be damaged.

In the event that audio remains distorted even after updating your audio drivers, then the cause may be from the audio jack itself being damaged. In order to confirm this, play audio through the Lenovo’s built-in speakers by turning up the volume with no devices connected to the audio jack. If the audio coming through the built-in speakers is not distorted, then your audio jack is damaged. Because the audio jack built into the motherboard it is necessary to use the Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E420s Motherboard Replacement Guide to replace it.

The laptop shows unreliable or no response when connecting to a USB component.

The USB port on the Lenovo will not function properly if the USB connection is unstable. This could be due to the USB component not being entirely plugged in. Check to see if there is any metal visible and if so push it further in.

If the device doesn't recognize the component at this point. Pull it out and try spraying some air in the port to clean out any dust or other particles before plugging the component back in.

If cleaning the port still does not fix the problem, you may have a damaged port. To check this, insert the component into a different port; if that fixes the problem, the original port may need to be replaced. Because the USB Ports are built into the motherboard it is necessary to follow the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s Motherboard Replacement Guide.

The laptop screen isn’t displaying parts of or the whole screen display.

If you have sections of the screen that remain black after the computer is turned on you may have dead pixels. To fix this please refer to the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s Glass Screen Replacement Guide.

If the screen is cracked and unresponsive after you have attempted software fixes your screen may need to be replaced, please follow the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s Glass ScreenScreen Replacement Guide in order to complete this repair.