Wouldn't mind going back to Windows 8 but how? The product key is in UEFI BIOS but HDD is stuck in non-UEFI mode.

OK I'll make a little guide for restoring Win 8 in UEFI mode on the Ideadpad S400/5, hope it helps some folks. Make sure anything you want on your Ideapad is backed up!

 

1) Things you will need:
- An ISO disk image of Windows 8 (non-pro) x64.
- An external USB HDD or USB stick with 8GB+.
- Some basic knowledge of how to partition and format disks, which is beyond the scope of this guide.

 

2) Preparing the installation media:
You'll need to make a primary partition on your external USB storage device around 6GB+, format it as FAT32 and mark it active. The FAT32 filesystem is required for booting from the USB device in UEFI mode. Once this is done use 7-Zip or similar to extract all the files from the Win 8 ISO image onto this new partition.  You might also want to copy the WIFI and LAN drivers onto here from Lenovo's website, I can't recall if Windows 8 has default drivers for them built in.

 

3) Make sure BIOS is setup correctly:
Restart your laptop and keep tapping FN+F2 until the BIOS settings come up. Check here that USB boot is enabled, UEFI boot is enabled and Secure boot is disabled (you can reenable it after Win 8 is installed). Save settings and exit.  Keep tapping FN+F12 as your laptop restarts to bring up the boot menu.

 

4) Setup Windows

If you performed step 2 correctly you should now see your external USB device as a EFI boot option in the boot menu. Select it and Windows 8 setup should start.  During Windows 8 install choose advanced drive options and (I recommend) delete all partitions on your Ideapad's internal hard drive, and then set Windows 8 to install in the now unallocated space. Windows 8 will automatically create the necessary tiny UEFI and system partitions it needs along with the normal large C: partition.

 

5) All Done

That's it! The product key should be automatically detected from the BIOS and Windows 8 installed already activated (minus Lenovo bloatware which you can get from their website if you want it). Remember to reenable secure boot in BIOS if you want it - extra security is never a bad thing with computers. Also you can keep your USB device around as a way to reinstall/repair Win 8 if you ever need it.

nice Guide...

THX

 

But

 

the Thing is....

Whay should anyone get win 8,...

 

we want to use Win 7 on the machine and Lenovo is  preventing is to do so !

 

 

I know it sucks, thing is I found ways to make Win 8 almost exactly like Windows 7 using nothing but free software. You can use Classic Shell to bring back the start menu and get rid of Metro screen/hot corners. Ribbon disabler to get rid of Explorer ribbon. There's several much nicer themes along with instructions on how to install them on DeviantArt site. Install your favourite mediia player, image viewer and music player to stop the annoying full screen Metro apps.

Yes it's stupid to jump through all these hoops just to make it like Windows 7 but 8 does have a few advantages at least - it boots faster and is more secure than Windows 7 and performs slightly better in some areas.

Lenovo is clearly in the wrong to force us to use Windows 8 but if you keep your Ideapad as I ended up doing at least you can make the best of it.

The same issue...  And I'm very disappointed with Lenovo's reaction.

 

In Russian, the brand name Lenovo sounds similar with word "khrenovo", which means "sucks". Prooflink (press "Listen" in Russian).

Is this issue only with the s405?

I got my s400 FreeDOS working very fine on Win 7 32bit and 64Bit. I installed a Samsung 830 Series HDD and did nothing but install wIn 7 normally. So its maybe a BIOS Problem?

I could do a BIOS extraction for you if that is possible on this machine, does anybody know how to?

My bios:

6DCN20WW (v 1.08) Bios Version

6DEC20WW (v 1.08) Ec Version

By the way, i installed 8GB Ram and it works fine despite Lenovo Manual that says 4 gb is max

I got same brigntness issue with my Taiwanese version S400 but solved recently. The thing is Lenovo already know this issue but they don't like to realease the fixed bios. I called Lenovo China CS center and they replied that the new bios can only be updated at service center but not user. So I went there and got fixed with only 15 mins. The reason they don't provide bios online is they are afraid of any other issue happened during updating(I think it's BS). Anyway, hope this can help you guys with this issue.

Hello
Please help me and create corrected bios backup with universal bios backup tool and send me to e-mail or download to file sharing
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/9856-Universal-BIOS-Backup-Toolkit

 

Lenovo is very poor service support, in next time i not buy products this vendor

Problem solved
I flash bios for model S300 (s300=s400 platform) and problem fixed

So I just updated to Windows 8.1 and the brightness problem is still a problem. Lenovo even went ahead and updated their drivers to 8.1 yet they can't even fix the brightness issue?

 

Well it looks like there was a bios update which I already had flashed before, but that only fixes the Windows 7 issue. Guess I may have to revert back to Windows 8 or something. 

 

Update: I figured out what the problem was. I installed the latest Lenovo AMD drivers for windows 8.1 and that was what caused the brightness control to stop working. I reinstalled the Windows 8 one and its working again.