I'm trying to repair a family friends laptop, It somehow managed to break during an update cycle and got constantly stuck there.

After plugging the HDD into another computer and copying over the family friends files she needed to keep, I tried to use the Lenovo OneKey restore.

This went well, however as soon as Windows 8 tries to update, it will always fail this update and then get stuck in another loop after failed updates.

 

I would be greatly appreciative if anyone can suggest a way around this. My first plan was to try to install Windows 10, however when holding down the OneKey button, the only options that work there are 'Normal Boot' & 'Rescue' - The option for boot options and BIOS do not work, and it kicks the laptop into a normal Windows boot, the failed update messages that continues as normal from there - so i can't try to install anything from USB.

 

I've tried to reinstall from OneKey, then disable EVERYTHING on the auto-startup list (which by the way Lenovo, is absolutely huge and full of bumf no one needs) to try stopping anything from holding onto file locks whilst the update is trying to edit them if that was the issue. So im currently out of ideas to get this back to working order, unless I put it back to Windows 8, then entirely disable the update mechanisms so it can't ever produce the error by itself when it fails to update.

One of the many reasons I dumped the hard drive, went with a clean install of Windows 8.1 then ran the update to Windows 10.

One option - if you have a Windows 10 disk, you can boot from it and follow the upgrade path. It will ask you if a new install or re-install at some point - choose re-install and you should be good to go.

Lastly - the issue with Windows and Windows Update is sometimes the updates get jumbled up and they are applied out of sequence. This causes the installed system to hang, and fail to work properly. The only other option is to try and use "restore points" to go back before the last update was installed.

Once you have the bugger identified - then you can selectively "hide" it to prevent it from installing. Do this by running Windows Update manually, view updates, right click on update causing issues and choose hide.

Good luck.

CB

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One of the many reasons I dumped the hard drive, went with a clean install of Windows 8.1 then ran the update to Windows 10.

One option - if you have a Windows 10 disk, you can boot from it and follow the upgrade path. It will ask you if a new install or re-install at some point - choose re-install and you should be good to go.

Lastly - the issue with Windows and Windows Update is sometimes the updates get jumbled up and they are applied out of sequence. This causes the installed system to hang, and fail to work properly. The only other option is to try and use "restore points" to go back before the last update was installed.

Once you have the bugger identified - then you can selectively "hide" it to prevent it from installing. Do this by running Windows Update manually, view updates, right click on update causing issues and choose hide.

Good luck.

CB

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As noted in my original post, I have no access to the boot order. Due to the only menu items that work when starting with the recover button being Normal Boot & Recover. BIOS & Startup just do nothing except restart and boot into Windows as normal. If there is a repair for this, this would be immensely helpful. As im currently stuck with what recover can bring me, with no option to just wipe and install from disc (well, flash drive in my case)

 

There are over 110 updates available, is there any way of quickly nailing down the likely culprits? 

I will get my G580 out (need to charge it anyways) and see if I can find some options for you.  As far as the updates go, you can narrow down the list by removing "languages" and then anything related to drivers. That should only leave security related updates and some system updates for IE and the like.

CB

When I use the little novo button to power up the system it does show the following options:

1. Normal Startup
2. BIOS Setup
3. Boot Menu
4. System Recovery

This appears just after the Lenovo logo expires, in a small "dos" box.

If you do not have these options I will see if I can find a link to a key combination for accessing BIOS or Boot Menu.

CB

Again, as noted in the previous posts.

"BIOS Setup" & "Boot Menu" do not have any effect. they just restart the laptop and it boots Windows as normal. Only 'Normal Startup' & 'System Recovery' options work unfortunately.

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OK....  Now the only other options I can find is the occasional option to hit F2 for BIOS at system start up.  The usuall method that appears to be work is rapid fire continious cycling of the key.... IE machine gunning it.  Personally I have tried this on mine and it works sometimes - more due to luck than skill on the keyboard.

 

The only other option I can consider would be a "power drain" to reset BIOS and restore defaults.  This is done when you remove the AC power and main battery, then press and hold down the power button for 30 seconds.  It drains any capacitve power stored in the notebook and returns BIOS values to default state.

 

When the AC and Battery are restored, try booting with the novo button and see if BIOS appears in the listing.

 

CB

Right. So it's somehow got worse.

 

During all this, the HDD decided to conk out. It's now been replaced with an identical drive. I installed Windows on it on another PC, and plonked it into the laptop.

 

Except the Laptop doesn't even both initialising the screen anymore. So i'm now totally lost with this, not to mention seriously unimpressed with Lenovos built in systems to repair things and access BIOS. It's done nothing but make this process more complex.

 

Is it possible to somehow remove the entire thought the laptop is lenovo, and make it act like a normal computer, hitting DEL or END to access things. I suspect the new hard drive may have removed a lot of the Lenovo stuff already, seeing as its now a standard NTFS partition with nothing but Windows 10 installed.

If you installed the OS with the hard drive in a different computer, then transported it to the notebook it will not work out as you have discovered. This is more due to the drivers and "under the hood" files that windows uses when installing, as the hardware used on the installing computer is different than the hardware in the notebook computer.

You need to contact support, order a replacement set of recovery disks then return the disk drive to a unformatted (unallocated) state to install from recovery disks. That process will return the notebook to it's factory setup.

If you do not want the Lenovo recovery and factory installed software on the notebook, you should again return the drive to unformatted state, leave it in the system and try to boot from a Retail DVD of Windows Operating System. The normal boot order of a notebook is HDD first, DVD Second, Removable (USB) devices third, then last would be PXE (Network) boot.

If you are still having issues with getting the system to install the OS onto the hard drive you will need to contact Lenovo Support and arrange for the notebook to be sent to a repair center where they can either re-flash the BIOS files, or replace the system board with a known working one.

Good luck.

CB

I have done the trick of installing Windows using a different computer, then moving it to the other computer before it fully initialises (the part where it restarts and boots into the new OS) to great success. This is the first time it has failed to do it, and i've done it plenty of times using both normal tower PCs and laptops. So I do not think that is the problem here.

 

I'm not going to order anything from Lenovo, as I expect it to cost money, and from working on this laptop, that is all they are after. They're configured in a manner that makes it very user unfriendly, and very likely the user will simply call support out of frustration. It is disgusting, and i shall always avoid Lenovo after this, and encourage family and friends to do the same.

 

Having said that, I still have a laptop that needs fixing, as the family friends cannot afford another laptop.

I have tried everything possible to get the screen to display anything. Removing the drive, the RAM, the battery (and motherboard battery). At this point, the display is not showing anything, nor is it showing any signs of powering. So either this is by design (wouldn't surprise me) or there is now a fault with the display. The most it does is beep, i assume they're error code beeps, but i cannot for the life of me, force this laptop into BIOS mode, or even display it's power on self test information. How do I get this laptop to do this? I cannot proceed until I can get into the BIOS, and attempt to undo whatever Lenovo did to it. All it is doing is searching for a hard drive, and not even checking the DVD drive or USB failing that.

The drive has been reformatted to a blank state, it's also been changed from an MBR drive back to the GPT it was originally, incase that matters.

I've already tried the free online download for recovery stuff, but the serial number of this is not recognised as one that is eligible for it.