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Accidentally unplugged my laptop while BIOS update

Hello everyone,

 

This is the first time I upload a topic to a forum, ever, needless to say I'm desperate. A while ago I used to love my Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Yoga 1st gen (20FQ), I used it for everything, I told all my friends and family this was THE laptop, never had an issue or problem whatsoever and when something went wrong I called support and the warranty took care of everything. After 3 years my warranty expired and wasn't able to afford the renewal, so I thought I could live without it, but man, was I wrong. Just a few weeks after my warranty expired my laptop started to turn off from nowhere while watching a Youtube video, browsing the web or more important, working on my presentations for work. I dived into forums and after a couple of weeks of the same I thought I had the solution, all I needed was a BIOS downgrade. I went to Lenovo support and downloaded the BIOS version I needed. Everything started without any problems, but being a teacher for Jr. High sometimes I deal with kids in my office. So, while the update was going on a kid arrived and wanted to talk so we did, but the problem was that my desk is really small, so I tried to make some space for her notebook and the kid accidentally unplugged the power supply before the update was finish. I tried not to make a big deal of it and told her there was no problem, but after grading her ex-temporary homework I tried to turn on my computer and well, nothing happen. Since that moment I've trying to fix it, but all I get is a Black screen and 5 short beeps followed by another 5 short beeps and then nothing. I'm desperate, I have this old Lenovo Thinkpad x201 Tablet since I was in college and has been working on it but is not as good as I need. Before the Covid-19 pandemic I was able to do my presentations at home with my old laptop, but now I have to teach online and it doesn't have a web camera, nor mic, and the wifi adapter is failing and gets really hot and loud and... Ok I think you can guess all the problems an old laptop has. I mean, I spent a lot of money on the Yoga and wanted for it to last a long time but didn't. I know the situation is really bad all over the world but I'm afraid I can lose my job if I'm not able to keep pace of online work with the piece of junk I use a work station. I already tried unplugging the BIOS battery chord from the motherboard hitting the reset button for 10 secs or 20, or you name it, and nothing happens. I have tried a lot of tricks but non of them are really useful, so please, HELP ME!

 

Thank you all,

Best regards

J

 

P.S. I hope my English is ok, is not my first language

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Kaboom poof gone you won't get it back

Reminder⚠️

I'm just speaking from experience so what I say may not work 100%

Please try searching up the answer before you post here but I am always glad to help

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-> Moved to Troubleshooting

 

Two quick tips. 1) Check where to post before posting. Forum Bugs and Issues is for forum related stuff only. Any other tech issue should be in Troubleshooting. 2) You have wall of text. For getting any meaningful help, please add some breaks so its easier to read and follow.

^^^^ That's my post ^^^^
<-- This is me --- That's your scrollbar -->
vvvv Who's there? vvvv

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4 minutes ago, Kanna said:

Kaboom poof gone you won't get it back

Is there really nothing I can do? Pffff man I'm screwed 

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Just now, JYairGT said:

Is there really nothing I can do? Pffff man I'm screwed 

Only if the board had support for BIOS flashback but that isn't really seen on laptops 

Reminder⚠️

I'm just speaking from experience so what I say may not work 100%

Please try searching up the answer before you post here but I am always glad to help

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Your best bet and probably easiest is to go to a company that repair laptops and which has a programming tool.

They'll open the laptop, desolder the bios chip or attach a connector to it, program it with your bios, then solder it back if they had to desolder it. 

Maybe 15-30 minute job, they're probably charge you 50$ or something like that.

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1 minute ago, LogicalDrm said:

-> Moved to Troubleshooting

 

Two quick tips. 1) Check where to post before posting. Forum Bugs and Issues is for forum related stuff only. Any other tech issue should be in Troubleshooting. 2) You have wall of text. For getting any meaningful help, please add some breaks so its easier to read and follow.

Noted, this is the first time I post. Sorry for the inconvenience. I will delete it

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Just now, JYairGT said:

Noted, this is the first time I post. Sorry for the inconvenience. I will delete it

No need to delete anything. Like I said, already moved to correct subforum. Just add some breaks/paragraphs and you are good to go.

^^^^ That's my post ^^^^
<-- This is me --- That's your scrollbar -->
vvvv Who's there? vvvv

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1 minute ago, mariushm said:

Your best bet and probably easiest is to go to a company that repair laptops and which has a programming tool.

They'll open the laptop, desolder the bios chip or attach a connector to it, program it with your bios, then solder it back if they had to desolder it. 

Maybe 15-30 minute job, they're probably charge you 50$ or something like that.

Thank you, I'll try to find one nearby 

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Just now, JYairGT said:

Is there really nothing I can do? Pffff man I'm screwed 

Welcome to the forum!

 

I'm going to start off with your original issue. If the laptop isn't staying turned on when unplugged from the power cable and it get's to the point where if you even unplug the laptop it turns off, that generally means the battery in the laptop is dead(dead dead, not just uncharged). I've never seen software cause it. So the bios update wouldn't of even fixed the issue a battery replacement would.

 

Now for your second issue, if the computer lost power in the middle of a bios upgrade then it bricked the motherboard. You will need to call Lenovo or go through their online support and see what the options are, typically if it's a model that doesn't have dual bios(specifically for this situation) then you have two options.

 

1. You can send it somewhere to have the bios chip manually replaced(not a lot of places do this and at least in the US it is expensive).

 

2. You can replace the motherboard(can be expensive depending on model, usually isn't recommended unless the cost is less than a new laptop).

Main Desktop: CPU - i9-14900k | Mobo - Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Elite AX DDR4 | GPU - ASUS TUF Gaming OC RTX 4090 RAM - Corsair Vengeance Pro RGB 64GB 3600mhz | AIO - H150i Pro XT | PSU - Corsair RM1000X | Case - Phanteks P500A Digital - White | Storage - Samsung 970 Pro M.2 NVME SSD 512GB / Sabrent Rocket 1TB Nvme / Samsung 860 Evo Pro 500GB / Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2tb Nvme / Samsung 870 QVO 4TB  |

 

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Little off-topic but you have a cute dog if that is your dog in the pfp

Reminder⚠️

I'm just speaking from experience so what I say may not work 100%

Please try searching up the answer before you post here but I am always glad to help

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5 minutes ago, JYairGT said:

Is there really nothing I can do? Pffff man I'm screwed 

you can send it into lenovo and tell them what happened (or any third party repair shop that you trust)

 

worst case scenario is a motherboard swap

best case scenario is they can somehow flash the bios, or swap the chip

-sigh- feeling like I'm being too negative lately

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2 minutes ago, JYairGT said:

Thank you, I'll try to find one nearby 

Bios chip reprogramming isn't common at least in most countries, not even the US. And when you do find someone who can do it they usually charge a lot. I don't know where this person got $50 but I've never seen it for that price unless it was a scam.

 

Most places will just try to replace the chip and that's where it can get pricey with the soldering and time, plus part cost.

Main Desktop: CPU - i9-14900k | Mobo - Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Elite AX DDR4 | GPU - ASUS TUF Gaming OC RTX 4090 RAM - Corsair Vengeance Pro RGB 64GB 3600mhz | AIO - H150i Pro XT | PSU - Corsair RM1000X | Case - Phanteks P500A Digital - White | Storage - Samsung 970 Pro M.2 NVME SSD 512GB / Sabrent Rocket 1TB Nvme / Samsung 860 Evo Pro 500GB / Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2tb Nvme / Samsung 870 QVO 4TB  |

 

TV Streaming PC: Intel Nuc CPU - i7 8th Gen | RAM - 16GB DDR4 2666mhz | Storage - 256GB WD Black M.2 NVME SSD |

 

Phone: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 - Phantom Black 512GB |

 

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4 minutes ago, LogicalDrm said:

No need to delete anything. Like I said, already moved to correct subforum. Just add some breaks/paragraphs and you are good to go.

Thanks 

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Quick note it is possible to get the data of the laptop if that is most important

Reminder⚠️

I'm just speaking from experience so what I say may not work 100%

Please try searching up the answer before you post here but I am always glad to help

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3 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Welcome to the forum!

 

I'm going to start off with your original issue. If the laptop isn't staying turned on when unplugged from the power cable and it get's to the point where if you even unplug the laptop it turns off, that generally means the battery in the laptop is dead(dead dead, not just uncharged). I've never seen software cause it. So the bios update wouldn't of even fixed the issue a battery replacement would.

 

Now for your second issue, if the computer lost power in the middle of a bios upgrade then it bricked the motherboard. You will need to call Lenovo or go through their online support and see what the options are, typically if it's a model that doesn't have dual bios(specifically for this situation) then you have two options.

 

1. You can send it somewhere to have the bios chip manually replaced(not a lot of places do this and at least in the US it is expensive).

 

2. You can replace the motherboard(can be expensive depending on model, usually isn't recommended unless the cost is less than a new laptop).

Thank you so much for your help. I'm from Mexico, so I think its gonna be even more expensive since all of our tech comes from the US, but I'll try. Thanks again.

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5 minutes ago, Kanna said:

Little off-topic but you have a cute dog if that is your dog in the pfp

Thank you, Her name is Coco

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9 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Your best bet and probably easiest is to go to a company that repair laptops and which has a programming tool.

They'll open the laptop, desolder the bios chip or attach a connector to it, program it with your bios, then solder it back if they had to desolder it. 

Maybe 15-30 minute job, they're probably charge you 50$ or something like that.

Hopefully, Thank you so much

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8 minutes ago, Kanna said:

Quick note it is possible to get the data of the laptop if that is most important

Thankfully I had everything backed up, but thanks 

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