[German]Owners of current Lenovo ThinkPad models who changes some UEFI/BIOS settings run the risk of breaking their devices. Here is some information.
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Devices fails with black screen
The problem has been running through various Lenovo forums for several months now and is also a topic at reddit. A device owner describes the problem like this:
Thinkpad X1 Yoga (3rd Gen) Stuck at Black Screen After Enabling "Thunderbolt BIOS Assist"
Hello, exactly one week ago, I changed enabled "Thunderbolt BIOS Assist" in the BIOS to support Linux. Following this, the system refused to boot to anything but a black screen. Thus, I sent the machine in for depot repair. I just received the machine back again today and the same thing occurred after enabling the same setting. After a long series of calls, I was told that no one is authorized to report BIOS bugs and that I should post here instead. I sincerely hope this is fixed, as this is a major error that required a motherboard replacement previously and will most likely require one again. I have started a new ticket for this repair and will be receiving a box tomorrow. However, I wanted to make sure this is passed along to someone who can fix this error.
The user wanted to enable the Thunderbolt BIOS Assist BIOS/UEFI option for a Linux installation. After saving the changes, the Thinkpad X1 Yoga no longer booted, but got stuck with a black screen. Other users confirm the effect in theLenovo forum thread.
(Source: reddit.com, Click to zoom)
On reddit.com there is this thread where another user describes it for a Lenovo Thinkpad P72 and posted the photo above:
New Thinkpad P72 – BIOS/UEFI corrupted, just black screen..
So I just received my P72, and it's FUCKED. If anyone have a tip on what to do, I'd like to hear it!
First thing I did was booting into BIOS and setting up my config – for RAID among other things. After the settings got saved'n'exit, the laptop seems completely bricked.
Suddenly I can't boot into BIOS, can't boot from attached USBs or the actual SSDs onboard either.
I only see the lenovo's "To interrupt normal startup, press Enter" splash screen, which is either followed by a black screen (but you can tell the screen is lit) OR a list of error messages and the option to continue normal startup or F1 into setup.
I tried resetting the CMOS, unplugging battery/AC, removing the RAM / drives, trying to update the BIOS via a bootable USB with the BIOS flash update set up etc., all in the various orders possible, but to no help.
Is the laptop just a sad case of dead-on-arrival? It worked PERFECTLY the very first time i booted.
https://i.redd.it/6gmdjkoltkr11.jpg
https://i.redd.it/uq1jk9yuskr11.jpgSometimes the "0251: System CMOS Checksum bad – Default configuration used." error doesn't appear btw.
Also this Lenovo forum post reported the issue for a Lenovo P52, when the BIOS/UEFI settings for Thunderbold support for Linux installation has been changed.
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The case was probably first taken up at notebookcheck.net, where it is unclear which Lenovo devices are affected exactly. At notebookcheck.com the following devices are listed as affected:
Notebookcheck.com also lists the sources where users reported this issues.
Probably a fix for bricked devices
One advice is, to send the bricked device back to the vendor for repair. Within this Lenovo forum post a Lenovo employee explains the reason for this behavior.
Do you mean 1)you had experienced black screen when enable Thunderbolt BIOS Asssist, then 2)Disable Thunderbolt, but you still see the black screen symptom ?
Or, do you mean you experienced black scrren issue when disable Thunderbolt regardless of Thunderbolt BIOS Assist mode setting ?
Also, can you try to remove the WLAN device in order to change the number of PCI devices on the system ?
As it looks, this doesn't really help in the described cases. But there is a working solution, which is described in this blog post (and here briefly). It probably boils down to flashing an EPROMS using suitable hardware – nothing for normal users.
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