I recently bought a Thinkpad X301 (2777-CTO). When booting my computer, I see the following message: "To interrupt normal startup, press the blue ThinkVantage button". Initially, when I press this ThinkVantage button on startup, I get a "Startup Interrupt Menu", pictured at http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/4773/startupinterruptmenu.png
This menu is useful since it allows me to either enter the BIOS, start Rescue and Recovery, select a device to boot from, or simply start normally. However, after choosing the Rescue and Recovery option once, this menu no longer appears. Instead, it goes straight to Rescue and Recovery from there on without giving me the choice to enter the BIOS configuration or select a boot device.
I find this new behavior problematic for a few reasons:
- The behavior of the ThinkVantage button at startup is inconsistent (a menu that should appear no longer does after running Rescue and Recovery once).
- There appears to be no straight-forward way of reverting back to the desired (original) behavior.
- The initial prompt on the power-on splash screen is now misleading. Although it still says "To interrupt normal startup, press the blue ThinkVantage button"; the way the button acts, it would probably be more accurate to say "To start Rescue and Recovery, press the blue ThinkVantage button" instead.
- This behavior breaks the "Option Keys Display" option in the BIOS setup. Although I enabled this option, which should cause the system to display which key does what (e.g., F1 for BIOS), this is not displayed.
- Running Rescue and Recovery results in a loss of functionality (instead of simply restoring the system to the initial state).
- And anytime I press the blue ThinkVantage button (as instructed) instead of F1 or F12, I end up wasting several minutes, waiting for Rescue and Recovery to finish booting before I can properly shut it down and try again.
This problem appears to have existed for a long time (since 2008; http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/241845-thinkvantage-boot-menu-boots-straight-into-rescue-recovery-after-clean-install.html ). However, the only "solution" that I have found is just a workaround: avoid pressing the ThinkVantage button (as instructed by the power-on splash screen).
The ideal solution would be to have a BIOS (or Rescue and Recovery) update which will prevent the ThinkVantage button from losing its original function after running Rescue and Recovery. I know that this is a minor bug, but this bug and another BIOS bug (in the network boot order menu, which I'll post after this one), which arose in less than a week after I received the computer, makes me question the ThinkPad's reputation for high-quality engineering.