First off, give the retailer a ring. If they won't hear anything, then try contacting Lenovo directly. Point out that you've dropped it and ask if they'd look at it anyway. The worst they can do is say "no".
Unless you've something like a short in a USB socket, then I highly doubt it's USB-related, unless the connection to those ports were cracked in the drop, but it's highly unlikely - they're normally soldered in pretty damn well, and often glued in too.
I think the most likely issue is one with the power socket itself, or perhaps the CPU/GPU heatsink has been slightly dislodged, and the CPU/GPU is overheating.
I've seen it in laptops where the CPU overheats, the laptop shuts down, then it won't turn back on again until the chip has cooled down, which sounds like what's happening to you. If that's still the case (the laptop is still switching on for consistent short time) then it should be a relatively simple and cheap fix. It will void your warranty, but then I can't see Lenovo taking the laptop back anyway, as I'd imagine they'd just cite damage from a fall, and I think that's fair enough to be brutally honest. You'll need to take the laptop apart (see the guide I link to below), remove the heatsink/pipes and clean up the thermal gunk, apply some new thermal gunk, then reinstall the heatsink. You'll need something to remove the gunk - 100% alcohol or some
thermal paste cleaner, and if you don't have a tube of paste hanging around, you'll need a drop of
thermal paste too. If there are any pads between the heatsink and a chip, just leave them as they are - you won't need to remove or replace them.
I've just replaced a power socket in a Dell laptop, and had to desolder the socket on it. In some previous laptops I'd looked at they just had the socket 'loose' in the laptop, sliding into a little recess and then using wires to connect it to the motherboard. Sadly not that one - one of the issues with good build quality I guess!
Looking at pictures of the Thinkpad Edge jacks, it appears they too are soldered to the board, but if you're happy taking a laptop apart and desoldering and soldering, then feel free to attack it yourself. All you're going to do is lose a couple of quid buying a new jack from Ebay. If you feel it's getting the better of you, then reassemble it and send it off to a company to do the job for you. To my knowledge, the Dell one I did was the first proper soldering I'd done since high school, and I can't even be sure I did any soldering at high school, as I certainly can't remember it, so if you've any soldering experience at all, you should be fine. You will need a solder sucker though.
If you do decide to tackle it yourself, then there's a service guide
here which will show you in a step-by-step manner how to strip your laptop down. It won't go into replacing the jack, but it'll get you to the point where you can get to it.
Most annoyingly, looking at that guide, it appears that your laptop has a "DC-in sub card", which will be a card which can be unscrewed and disconnected from the motherboard, so in theory you could just replace that card, rather than soldering a new socket in, yet it doesn't give a model number, so I can't search for one. I'd imagine
somewhere would have such items, but I'd guess you'd need to see the card to see a model number.
Otherwise, there are companies which offer to replace jacks for you. Personally, I'd try reseating the heatsink first.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2012 10:15PM by gav.