Some recent ThinkPads can be destroyed by changing a UEFI-BIOS setting

[Redaktion]

Some modern ThinkPad laptops apparently have an issue with the UEFI-BIOS. When a certain setting is activated, this action can potentially brick the laptop. The only fix in this situation: Exchanging the motherboard.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Some-recent-ThinkPads-can-be-destroyed-by-changing-a-UEFI-BIOS-setting.346156.0.html

[just]

This happened yesterday to my X1 Extreme. I made a change while uefi was set to 'both' and I selected the discrete graphics card. The result is a 1-hour old laptop that now serves as a brick.

[Browningate]

Just one more reason not to buy brand new laptops.

[Todor Gerasimov]

P52 died in my hands. :( its for repair now.

[Sergey D]

My 4hrs old P1 died this way. Already sent this 64GB brick back to Lenovo. Also got stuck pixel out of the box on that 4K panel. Some real quality concerns.

Hint: return them as RMA and buy a new one again - while I was waiting for my 64GB config for a week they got price cut of $600. Crazy! So getting a new one now is cheaper that repairing.
C'mon Lenovo, this is sub par! I'm probably staying with MacBook for another year or Razer.

[Fanny]

Piece of s*** P1 died on me like that.  I have heard of this issue since the much earlier P50-series, can't believe this haven't been fixed.

[crazybob]

count me in. brand new P72 bricked, just 1 hour after buying. LENOVO BURN IN H3LL!!!!

[sean_codes]

just happened to me from lenovo vantage update.... got the laptop yesterday and now its bricked

[randominternetguy]

I don't think it's necessarily Thunderbolt-specific. Changing the display adapter mode with the latest bios can brick it as well.

forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-X-Series-Laptops/Another-X1E-BIOS-brick-Changing-graphic-mode-in-BIOS/td-p/4252501

[Daniel Bull]

This also affects the T580.
I am not amused, brand new out the box, powered up changed a few BIOS settings, now its a doorstop!

Whats worse is it looks like they have fixed the problem with a BIOS update but they shipped my T580 with an out of date BIOS!!!!

[thomasavatarici]

Two bricked in early 2019 using Lenovo update program for bios
a thinkpad W540 and  a W541.... I7 quad cores.
The 541 was exchanged (lost a week of work) and the 540 will be out two weeks for repair by Squaretrade.
Shame on Lenovo---we need a class action suit to recover lost time and business !!!!

[Xy Zi]

P52 with this issue, I happened to change both the Thunderbolt & display settings of which either one will brick the machine.  Obviously bad QA testing on Lenovo's end but I understand mistakes happen.  It's been over a month since I sent my laptop for repair & they still don't have an ETA of when they'll have a motherboard for it!  Totally unacceptable for a top tier business class workstation to have support this poor especially for a problem Lenovo knew they had mid last year!  What's really frustrating is I know I could've fixed it myself without a motherboard replacement by using an external programmer to flash the BIOS but I opted to send it in thinking I'd have it back in a week or so since it's covered under warranty.  Definitely should've spent the extra $300 & just bought the similarly spec'd Dell mobile workstation, lesson learned.

[miner]

Has this issue been fixed? I notice comments are from about 2 to 2.5 years prior to my making this post. I purchased an X390 (20Q0) late 2020, and am having difficulty getting the power delivery to to charge the laptop. I found this thread while researching that issue.