dmo.ca/ blog/ Thinkpad Voodoo Zombie Resurrection

Today, my Thinkpad T61 decided to stop working. While I was in the middle of reading email, it just stopped. Completely blacked out -- no AC light, no battery light, nothing. Here's how I got it working again.

Worried that I had a dead brick of a Thinkpad on my hands, I fired up the old desktop and started searching. The first hit was to this post on Mike Masnick's blog entitled "The Secret Thinkpad Powerbutton Code To Bring Dead Laptops Back To Life". The important bits are:

“Okay, this is going to sound totally bizarre, but I want you to give this a try…” He then had me unplug the AC adapter and take out the battery. Then, you push the power button 10 times in a row at one second intervals. Next, you push and hold the power button for 30 seconds. Then you put the battery back in and push the power button… and she lives. The computer came back, good as ever.

And yes, it actually worked.