X250 bios upgrade issues (5 beeps of death) and hopeful solution [ Edited ]

[subrosa]

I just got my X250 in today and was going through the normal update paces when I realized I wanted to update the BIOS. I'm a computer guy, I've updated a million BIOSes in my day, so no worries.

I was at 1.05 and wanted to get up to the newest 1.06 prior to working on Linux.

The 1.06 installer seemed to work, but upon the end of the installer it instantlyshutdown the laptop. On boot up I got a sequence of 5 beeps, which is usually the "board is dead". I decided to put in for a return...but I was able to bail it out of this state.

Looks like the 1.06 can hang the entire system. I had to let the internal battery run dry and then put both batteries back into the system. It fired right back up and I was able to run the installer again, this time with a succesful reboot and not the hang.

I'm running diags right now, but everything looks good.  Obviously this is not something I wouldn't want to have happen to anyone else. Just play it safe with the 1.06 update, and know that it can go wonky.

I cancelled the return/refund, but I'm keeping my eye on it.

[redburn]

Hello,

I have exactly the same issue here. How long did you wait until the internal battery went flat?

Did you had a method to empty it faster?

Thanks in advance.

Regards.

[jazzlife]

Wow!!!~ My laptop is Alive!!!

Thank you~~!!!^^

[hillenit]

How long did it take the internal battery to be empty?

Same problem here, new x250 just arrived today

cheers,
Tom

[subrosa]

Took about 4-5hrs as not much was happening to consume power.

Looking at the documentation now, there is a magical reset switch that can be found in the hardware maintenance guide, I believe this will be a similar fix.

Overall, still happy with my X250, but kinda annoying to have the BIOs updates explode on you out of the box.

[hillenit]

thx, waiting worked for me as well, now 2nd time BIOS update completed without any problems...

chgeers,
Tom

[Mj88svi]

Hi,

Could you kindly point out where in the hardware manual you saw the magical reset switch? Couldn't find it.

Thanks,
Chris

[bananaman]

http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/pd100610

[subrosa]

Thanks Bananaman! Please keep in mind that I haven't used this method, I've just burned through the batteries. 4-5hrs sounds about right.

I hope they fixed it and no one will need to worry about it!

[Amy_Lenovo]

I am investigating customer reports of X250 laptops not booting up after upgrading to BIOS v1.06. 

I am glad to hear you were able to restore service to your laptops either by removing the main battery and letting the internal battery run out, or using the battery reset switch.

I had some questions about what happened after these X250s successfully powered on. Do they show BIOS 1.05 or 1.06? Were there any additional problems you noticed after the BIOS update?

Thank you,