I made a mistake today and connected a 12V supply to the 5V line of my Arduino, which was connected to my laptop. The laptop itself seems to be functioning well, but I've run into some serious issues:
1. The audio output has ceased to work. Neither the speakers nor headphones will produce sound, although the microphone is operating normally.
2. When I attempt to restart the laptop, it shuts down completely, and I can't power it back on until I use the pinhole reset method to drain the power. Normal shutdowns work fine.
I've already tried reinstalling the audio drivers and conducted hardware scans with Lenovo's Commercial Vantage, which suggest that all the audio components are fine. I also ran a hardware diagnostic from the UEFI, but it didn't include any specific audio tests.
My laptop is a Thinkpad T14 Gen 5 with a Ryzen 5 pro 8540U, running Windows 11. I really hope I don't have to replace the speakers – any insight on this would be much appreciated!
3 Answers
It's probably not the speakers that are damaged. Your issues seem more tied to the internal components that manage audio output. I'd recommend disconnecting the speakers altogether to see if the power cycling/restart issues persist. If they do, you might have a fried sound card or other component at play.
Just to reassure you: speakers are often pretty resilient! It’s likely there’s a deeper issue affecting the audio path. Best of luck! Hopefully, it’s just a minor fix.
Looks like you've put 12V through the USB's 5V line, which feeds into various components, including the PCIe bus that carries audio signals. It’s likely you’ll need a new motherboard, but your speakers may still be okay. The Commercial Vantage scan might not pick up subtle issues unless the sound card is completely damaged. One thing you can try is: disconnect the power, pull out the battery, hold the power button for 30 seconds, and see if that helps. Also, check if your BIOS has any boot diagnostics; it might give you more info about the audio too, but I doubt it's just a driver problem.
Thanks for the advice! Just to clarify, if I try the battery pull thing, will that void my warranty? I want to avoid any issues with that. Is that similar to using the pinhole reset? I've already done that.
Good question! Those methods are often seen as acceptable troubleshooting steps, so you should be fine. Just double-check your warranty terms to be sure. If you can't find audio tests in the BIOS, it’s likely just checking basic functions, but it's worth a shot.
Thanks! I'll give that a try and see what happens.