G470 not booting from USB pen drive [ Edited ]

[finomeno]

I have a perfectly working 4GB bootable USB pen drive with an installation copy of Ubuntu 10.10 on it.

It works perfectly on several different laptops (Toshiba, Sony, HP).

But no luck on my new G470 (Core i3), which I bought last week in Russia (no OS, just FreeDOS on it).

Whenever I plug the drive in, it is recognised by the BIOS (i.e. appears in the boot order menu and in the BIOS settings), but when the laptop starts booting from it the laptop just hangs with a blank black screen or sometimes a white underscore in the top left corner (not blinking).

I have tried moving the USB drive to the top of the boot order in BIOS settings, but to no avail.

Trying to switch to the drive under FreeDOS does not give any results either.

Checking on other laptops the drive still works fine, both for booting or reading under different versions of Windows and Linux.

Is there some setting I might have missed in BIOS or maybe a newer version of the BIOS ROM I should flash?

Seems strange that a brand new laptop is not capable of doing something as simple as booting from a pen drive (especially since other computers, like my 6 year old HP and even a 10 year old Toshiba have no trouble in doing whatsoever with the same pen drive).

Any help greatly appreciated!

[yigit]

try this one first:
http://consumersupport.lenovo.com/uk/en/DriversDownloads/drivers_list.aspx?CategoryID=370748

[finomeno]

Thanks for the suggestion.

This issue is not Linux related, so you might have moved it to the wrong topic.

Tried to make a Win 7 bootable install on the same pen drive. No luck. But still works on other laptops. So not a pen drive issue either.

Haven't tried to flash the BIOS yet though.

Mine is an older version: 40CN20WW (v1.07)

The one you suggest is 18CN44WW (v2.53)

Any idea whether it can be run from under FreeDOS? Or should I install Win7 from CD first?

Благодарю!

[yigit]

you should flash the bios update first.

[finomeno]

It's a G470, my mistake in initial description.

Found the right BIOS update here: http://consumersupport.lenovo.com/ot/en/driversdownloads/Drivers_Show_4480.html

Flashed with new version - 40CN05WW (v2.04) replacing the original one 40CN20WW (v1.07). All went fine - new BIOS installed and works.

The problem persists though. Whenever I choose to boot from a USB pen drive the laptop just hangs with a blank screen not reacting to key strokes (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and I have to power it off with the power button.

Please help!

Thank you.

[yigit]

press f2 when you see lenovo logo at start-up and set default settings for bios > save and exit.

[finomeno]

Not helping.

Not even setting USB as the first device to start from (it is avaialble in the list if the combuter starts with the pen drive inserted):

[yigit]

remove the hdd if you can, and check if it boots from usb pen.

[jvgeli]

having the same issue on my g475. it used to boot on USB but now everything just freezes and I am hearing a loud beeping sound sometimes. Its not linuz nor the pen drive as ive tried with other machines as well.

[yigit]

you may have hardware ( possible ram ) issue due to beep sound.
also, check your bios version.