After returning from a vacation, my laptop no longer knew when the lid was closed, and would often lose lots of battery from the screen not going to sleep. It was especially frustrating when it was somewhere like in my backpack while walking or biking and the touchscreen would be activated by the movement of my backpack or case. The screen could be tapped by the keyboard both keeping the computer awake (wasting battery) and opening unwanted apps or documents.

Diagnosis

Thankfully Lenovo makes all of their laptop OEM parts available to the public, so I decided I'd try to fix it myself. After looking inside the bottom panel I saw magnets embedded bottom of the case, indicating that a hall sensor was at the top of the screen near the camera. I rebooted the laptop into the BIOS (so I could eliminate an operating system issue) and placed a magnet in front of and around the camera area. Since the screen was still not turning off, I concluded that the hall sensor itself was at fault. I referenced the Hardware Maintenance Manual provided by Lenovo to find what part I'd need to replace. The image below exposed that the hall sensor was actually not on the camera module, but part of the cable itself (a sort of flex-pcb cable).

Preparation

Lenovo carried the replacement cable on their website for about $50, so I ordered it as well as some double sided adhesive strips (similar to the kinds used on iPhone batteries). The strips were used on the LCD panel and are one time use so I made sure to have some on hand before attempting anything.

I was quite intimidated by this repair. I've opened many laptops in the past and that did not bother me, however what did worry me was that I had to remove the glass LCD panel which was secured to the body with double-sided tape. If I failed to remove the tape properly, I would probably be forced into putting unnecessary strain on the glass LCD panel, cracking it. Disassembling laptop screens is also something I had never done before. I watched disassembly examples from other Lenovo laptops but I couldn't find one that seemed to have a similar style panel. I had no choice but to go in blind. I spoke to my friend who used to work at iFixit, and even he was concerned with the difficulty of the repair. It did not deter me from attempting the repair though, but did make me extra cautious during disassembly.

The total repair time came out to right around 1.5 hours.