The BIOS option turns ThinkPad into weight.

Changing the management options for Thunderbolt ports in the BIOS setup of some Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks may cause devices to stop booting. When you reboot after saving the setting, only a black screen appears, regardless of which operating system is installed.

These settings are called "Thunderbolt BIOS Assist" or "BIOS Support for Thunderbolt", depending on your laptop model. According to the device manuals, they serve as firmware to activate the interface, not just the operating system. So, for example, with ThinkPads with Windows 10 current, it is not necessary to turn on the option because this operating system controls the interface itself.

The problem is described in two threads of the Lenovo Support Forum. Also on Reddit, several affected users report the problem. The first entries date from June 2018, when an employee of the manufacturer also confirmed the error.

Since then, no announcement has been announced by Lenovo. Notebookcheck recently reported the phenomenon.

Cahiers concerned

The forum posts have an impact on the ThinkPad P1, ThinkPad P72, ThinkPad P52, ThinkPad P52 and ThinkPad X1 Yoga 2018. With the exception of Yoga Convertible, these are the most expensive devices in the P series, so mobile workstations, including Quadro GPUs.

For all the models mentioned, which only appeared on the market in 2018, only a few users say they are affected. A user also explains that simply by disabling the Thunderbolt port in the BIOS setup, his laptop is "makeup", so it does not boot.

Repair at the manufacturer

Since Lenovo does not have stand-alone support, some users have ventured into crafting. However, removing the battery backup for the BIOS configuration settings did not help.

Until now, it can be badumed that only the manufacturer can repair the error. In similar incidents in the past, laptop manufacturers have exchanged memory modules or the motherboard as a whole. Affected customers should contact their reseller or Lenovo support. And vulnerable Lenovo ThinkPad owners who had not been affected before should not change the Thunderbolt settings in the BIOS setup.

(Never)

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