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Why Thinkpad x201 failed to Boot up?
Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 9:39 pm
by rollerband
I have problem booting up my Thinkpad. My last action was upgraded the BIOS which highly likely where the problem from.
Below is what I have tried, with re-ordering of boot sequence:-
Removed Hard disk and boot up.
Tried puppy linux and boot from SD Card
Swapping RAM with DIMM Slots
Use single RAM on each Slot
Tried Tails and boot from SD Card.
Thinkpad Blue button ThinkVantage don't help, either.
But I have also googled, tried some other remedies, and yet problem persist.
I switched the boot to diagnostic mode, below is what I have. System repeat this message and coulnd't boot any further. It simply keep restarting. Below is the message and 2 links from Lenovo:
CPU = 1 Processors Detected, Cores per Processor = 2
Intel (R) Core(TM) i5 CPU M 460 @ 2.53GHz
637K System RAM Passed
1911M Extended RAM Passed
256 KB L2 Cache per Processor Core
System BIOS Shadowed
Video BIOS Shadowed
USE 2.0: Generic-Multi-Card
Mouse initialized
To interrupt normal startup, press the blue ThinkVantage button
Initializing Intel(R) Boot Agent Ge v1.3.51
PXE 2.1 Build 089 (WfM 2.0)
Press Ctrl+S to enter the Setup Menu..
Pls help.
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/diagnos ... D=HT036439
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/product ... MIGR-71432
Re: Why Thinkpad x201 failed to Boot up?
Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 11:30 pm
by rkawakami
Welcome to thinkpads.com! (wish it were under better circumstances)
1) What operating system is installed on the hard drive?
2) How did you perform the BIOS update; by bootable CD from within/under Windows?
3) Please confirm that you still get this error message/non-boot when attempting to boot from a CD (i.e, live Linux CD, bootable diagnostic, etc.) after pressing the F12 key at power-up and selecting the optical drive.
4) Try toggling the SATA Controller Mode Option in BIOS (Config/Serial ATA (SATA)); if it's set to AHCI, change it to Compatibility and v.v.
That you are still able to get into the BIOS and change to the diagnostic mode says to me that the BIOS update probably went okay. The BIOS update may have changed the disk controller mode but this is just a guess.
Re: Why Thinkpad x201 failed to Boot up?
Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 12:07 am
by rollerband
rkawakami wrote:Welcome to thinkpads.com! (wish it were under better circumstances)
1) What operating system is installed on the hard drive?
2) How did you perform the BIOS update; by bootable CD from within/under Windows?
3) Please confirm that you still get this error message/non-boot when attempting to boot from a CD (i.e, live Linux CD, bootable diagnostic, etc.) after pressing the F12 key at power-up and selecting the optical drive.
4) Try toggling the SATA Controller Mode Option in BIOS (Config/Serial ATA (SATA)); if it's set to AHCI, change it to Compatibility and v.v.
That you are still able to get into the BIOS and change to the diagnostic mode says to me that the BIOS update probably went okay. The BIOS update may have changed the disk controller mode but this is just a guess.
Thanks for your reply..
1) Using Windows 7
2) I updated the within windows. Wasn't sure if that's the correct BIOS for x201, I thought it was safe to install. Is BIOS model dependent?
3) I has the same error message by switching boot sequence of HDD and/or SD Card. My set don't have CDROM included.
4) It was set to AHCI, I toggled it to Compatibility as it is the only option.
Hoping for the better!! Thank you.
Re: Why Thinkpad x201 failed to Boot up?
Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 1:00 am
by rkawakami
BIOS is definitely model dependent. Here's the Lenovo Drivers and Software Support page on the X201:
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/researc ... MIGR-70656
Updating via the bootable CD is the preferred method but if you don't have an optical drive then doing it using the Windows utility is the other way. It's preferred to use the CD as there have been a few reports of people bricking their system when using the Windows method. What generally happens is that the BIOS update does not complete and then the system does not boot, nor can you get into BIOS anymore. Something like that requires replacement of the motherboard in order to fix the problem. From your description, it sounded more like a hard drive boot problem (i.e., a bad boot track) but if you're having the same problem with an SD card, then it's probably something else.
If the switch of the controller mode does not work, then change the setting back to AHCI.
A few more suggestions:
- Reset BIOS to defaults; Restart/Load Setup Defaults, save changes and re-boot.
- With your hard drive installed, boot to BIOS and check to see if the drive is recognized; Startup/Boot, then check the list for ATA HDD0: and see if the model number of the drive is listed. If it is, move that entry to the top of the list (position 1), save changes and re-boot.
Re: Why Thinkpad x201 failed to Boot up?
Posted: Tue May 13, 2014 3:27 am
by rollerband
rkawakami wrote:BIOS is definitely model dependent. Here's the Lenovo Drivers and Software Support page on the X201:
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/researc ... MIGR-70656
Updating via the bootable CD is the preferred method but if you don't have an optical drive then doing it using the Windows utility is the other way. It's preferred to use the CD as there have been a few reports of people bricking their system when using the Windows method. What generally happens is that the BIOS update does not complete and then the system does not boot, nor can you get into BIOS anymore. Something like that requires replacement of the motherboard in order to fix the problem. From your description, it sounded more like a hard drive boot problem (i.e., a bad boot track) but if you're having the same problem with an SD card, then it's probably something else.
If the switch of the controller mode does not work, then change the setting back to AHCI.
A few more suggestions:
- Reset BIOS to defaults; Restart/Load Setup Defaults, save changes and re-boot.
- With your hard drive installed, boot to BIOS and check to see if the drive is recognized; Startup/Boot, then check the list for ATA HDD0: and see if the model number of the drive is listed. If it is, move that entry to the top of the list (position 1), save changes and re-boot.
Reset the BIOS to default and place HDD0 to the top of the boot sequence.
But with the same problem repeating boot up from the "THINKPAD" image screen. (not diagnostic mode)
I press the Esc key repeatedly while booting up, this message appears:
Code: Select all
ERROR
0210: Stuck Key 01
Press <F1> to Setup
Days ago, I did a HDD diagnostic test. Performing a hours of scan through the main HDD. There is no error in the result.
That's where I started to try SD Card booting using linux. However, whichever the option for SC Card or HDD, it just repeat booting to that stage mentioned above.
It works perfectly before any upgrading of BIOS within windows interface, so I do not suspect of the DIMM or the System board is faulty. I couldn't see any hardware related problems here.
It just couldn't get any further when booting, otherwise, I wouldn't mind re-install my HDD and renew everything.
I want to ask is there other autonomous steps which overwrite from where it has stop? such as interrupt from the last line of the output message
Code: Select all
Initializing Intel(R) Boot Agent Ge v1.3.51
PXE 2.1 Build 089 (WfM 2.0)
Press Ctrl+S to enter the Setup Menu..
Re: Why Thinkpad x201 failed to Boot up?
Posted: Sat May 17, 2014 9:59 pm
by rollerband
Anyone help still available? Thank you.
Re: Why Thinkpad x201 failed to Boot up?
Posted: Sun May 18, 2014 4:15 am
by RealBlackStuff
Get a USB CD/DVD drive such as this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/330910031160
or buy/borrow the matching docking station:
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-Th ... a-p/400573
And ask a friend (or use another PC/laptop) to burn you the bootable BIOS CD from the above link ending with MIGR-70656.
Update the BIOS using your newly acquired CD/DVD drive.