Continuous issues with Lenovo W550s

So I am on my third replacement. First two didn't turn on (would successfully turn on once in 100-200 tries, no exaggeration). I would then try to replace the default 500gb 7200rpm drive with my samsung 840 evo, which seemed work only if I disabled UEFI, but then later would eventually stop working as well for absolutely no reason. Starting from cold, it would do numerous different things. Sometimes it would show a different lenovo boot screen, sometimes it would go black, sometimes it would prompt recovery, sometimes the keyboard would freeze, sometimes it wouldn't detect the drive, sometimes it would but give me a black screen, sometimes it would give me some weird ERROR 2100 DRIVE NOT DETECTED. Basically it has been a pain in the ass and this third replacement is not any different.

I didn't bother trying to replace it with my samsung drive, but it still has issues on default. For example, look at the picture I've attached. When I put the computer to sleep, and try to wake it, sometimes it won't wake and remain with a black screen, or sometimes it will wake while screwing up my resolution. See picture attached.

It's been over 2 months and I still don't have a working laptop. It's just completely frustrating I don't even know where to begin.

 

Sounds like board level issue if the machine often fails to start or would randomly crash soon after start up. I don't trust newer thinkpads as it is (T60/T61 master race) but you should RMA the third one as well till they either give you one that actually works or solve the problems.

 

I am also experiencing these 2100 errors with my W550s. I installed Win8.1 on a Transcend 256GB M2 SSD and it will regularly fail to detect the SSD and attempt to boot from the HDD. I do not know what is wrong with this computer, but I am thinking of replacing mine too. It is very bad news that even two replacements didn't fix it for you. I still have to use my W510 most of the time because this W550 is so unreliable.

 

I hate to pile on, but my W550s has killed 2 OS installations (the original downgraded to Win 7 from Win 8.1 Pro) and my replacement Win 8.1 Pro (loaded from Disks they sent me.) My Recovery Disc creation from my original as delivered laptop did not create themselves in usable form.


I now backup daily and it is working but I am forever not trusting it. I wanted to replace my venerable W520, but that is still the one I trust the most and use the most.


I, too, would recommend sending this one back. The first two, they could have claimed the addition of the SSD was the problem. On this one you have not yet done that.

 

Have you tried a different SSD like a mydigital 256 GB one. I have one as my main drive and it works without any issue.