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    Can not log into x220 BIOS; How to reset BIOS without entering setup

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by neeivour, Jun 11, 2011.

  1. neeivour

    neeivour Newbie

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    I chose the boot as "legacy bios only" after receiving the x220. I did a clean install of Win7 ultimate 64bits (which means the setting soft provided by Lenovo does not work) and then updated the BIOS to 1.15.

    After all these, the machine runs mostly fine but I noticed that I could not log into the BIOS setup any more. Pressing F1\F2\F12\thinkVamtage when the bootup screen shows up (press thinkVantage bottom....), and nothing happens. It does not beep as it did before and does not respond to the buttom press. That means I could not choose bootup device either - it will log into Windows from HDD no matter how you tried to boot from other devices. If I get the HDD out, then I can boot from other devices - but I did set HDD as low priority before.

    Any ideas on the problem? And I guess resetting the BIOS might solve the problem, but how?



    Any help is appreciated.
     
    neeivour, Jun 11, 2011
    #1
  2. SuperRoach

    SuperRoach Notebook Guru

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    It took me a little bit to get used too, trying delete got me nowhere, but F1 did. I had to press it earlier than expected too, but I guess you've tried that.

    Does F12 work to select your boot devices?

    That option I didn't think could be locked down.
     
    SuperRoach, Jun 11, 2011
    #2
  3. neeivour

    neeivour Newbie

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    Thank you for your relply. Early pressing F1 did not help. And the problem is that, F12 does not function either.

    I tried to call Lenovo, but they asked my model and serial then said, you have to register your warranty next week then call us back. Disappointed.

    Actually I got it solved - in a desktop user's way. After unplugging the AC power and the main battery, I disassembled the keyboard and palmrest, then unplugged the BIOS battery. Wait for 10 mins and boot. "BIOS checksum error, default settings loaded" - as expected. Then everything went fine. I do not like it this way, but got raged by Lenovo's customer service a little bit.

    NOTE: you can NOT clear password in this way. For desktop usually you can, but for thinkpad, NO.

    Furthermore, I guess the problem I described is some bug in the BIOS system. At least I did not receive warnings for any of my operations mentioned in the post. It seems that the BIOS setting got stuck and accessing it failed for some reason.
     
    neeivour, Jun 11, 2011
    #3
  4. Thors.Hammer

    Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast

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    Really? I have never heard of this and have never had to do it. Someone gave you a line.

    As for this problem, did you ever setup a BIOS password?
     
    Thors.Hammer, Jun 11, 2011
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  5. neeivour

    neeivour Newbie

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    I did setup the BIOS password and it remained there after the reset. But it did not create any problem.
     
    neeivour, Jun 12, 2011
    #5