Lenovo Legion 5 15ACH6H dead after windows updates - Sadly, laptops are dying after windows updates 

I have never. Never seen anyone perform a successful bios repair before. I hope everyone understands the value of what this man just showed all of us. Thank you sir.

Once again, my fear of BIOS updating has been reaffirmed. This should never be an issue. It would be almost effortless for manufacturers to include a backup BIOS on these laptops (especially when they cost over $1000 ffs). But they don't want to, probably because it's yet another point of possible failure so that they can force customers to buy new laptops more often.

I suppose the "elephant in the room" here comes down to asking WTF Microsoft is doing messing about in the bios?

A real worrying trend with Microsoft's updates lately is that they've been screwing with things they never used to screw with. For example, the other day while watching youtube videos... my screen went black, then repeatedly turned off and on again, and the browser froze. I was perplexed, worried I'd suddenly been infected with a virus or something. No. Windows had, without my permission, downloaded and installed an update while I was using the machine... which had arbitrarily replaced my graphics card drivers with generic ones.

This is very common. When Windows first started shipping Lenovo Firmware Updates we had a flood of bricked IdeaPads and ThinkPads in the workshop in our small computer store. I did a small experiment back then, dumping the BIOS eeprom of a ThinkPad E15 then trying the Windows firmware update on the same machine again and again (reflashing the BIOS to its original state every time). It failed 6 out of 10 times.

Sorin you are one of those "good people" too. Helping all of us by sharing your knowledge. Thank you for all that you do.

How generous of Microsoft. They give Repair shops opportunity to earn more! :D

Surprises me that to this day, laptops don't offer a bios rollback option, motherboard makers have been offering that feature for over 20 years.

Never had this issue with lots of BIOS updates in the last 20 years, but it's always the biggest fear when watching the progress bar crawling slowly to the right. Impressive work and quite exciting to watch! And on top a happy ending, so I can finally go to sleep now without any nightmares :-)

You're a genius! I've lost count of the number of laptops I've seen binned because of dodgy BIOS updates. Even Lenovo simply swap out the motherboard on ThinkPads for simple repairable defects. We need more people like you who can fix things!!!

One thing I learned to avoid is Windows optional updates. I installed some on an Acer One tablet-with-keyboard and it wiped out things like sound. Eventually my many Google searches found software that reloaded the missing components, but now I only run necessary updates.

You are happy, customer is happy and community is happy and cannot ask for more with this case. A lot of learning lessons with this case.

Hi sorin I found this table online: 45w -120 ohms 65w - 280 ohms 90w - 550 ohms 135w - 1 k 170w - 1.9k they say any charger above 170w has a 4.5-5 kOhms in case of lenovo the resistor the id pin connects to ground.

I am astonished at this process. While I don't have the skills to diagnose and repair BIOS chips, I understand enough to appreciate the approach taken by this person -- it is indeed very impressive.

I have the near identical laptop with the RTX3060 and my best advice is to use the Lenovo Legion Vantage software to do all BIOS updates. WIndows updates are good for most things but if you check the Lenovo Vantage software often for updates and perform them through the manufacturers software, you won't have this problem.

I recommend you, to reheat left side of that bios ic again, to release that tension, that is created when you press down and solder right side. Good work and thanks for sharing.

Thank you for making and releasing these videos, extremely helpful!

After subscribing to you a few years back and seeing you use your exceptionally useful LiPo powered Screwdriver, I first decided to order One through Amazon. I was so impressed on how much I'd been missing, wasting so much time taking small screws out manually and putting them back! It didn't take long for me to order another 4 Boxed Sets of Precision Cordless screwdrivers, which I put away immediately, only getting a new one out when absolutely necessary! You basically inspired me sir! I thank you so very much for the hours saved unscrewing and screwing!

Amazing...both how you fixed that laptop..and how Microsoft managed to erase the BIOS ..which is a personal attack to the customer. 😀

I just went through this on my little Zenbook. Went for it myself, even with a week left of my warranty, didn't want to deal with shipping, diagnostic fee, etc.... Was able to reflash the BIOS with my CH341A (black) board, good to go!

very experienced engineer.. thank you sir.. i learned so many things today.. more likely on computer troubleshooting..

Not just Lenovo.. I had same problem with my Asus. Win10 gave a bios update and it was dead. Had to ask a professional to get Bios repair done. I could have done it but didn't wanted to wait for 30 days for AliExpress bios repair tool to come. Still it's a 50-50 chance if I attempt it. Hence spent €150 for it.

Linux doesn't kill your laptop.

I always update my BIOS separately via the Lenovo website and keep it always up to date. But Regarding my Windows updates, I usually wait and update only once a week for safety reasons. I used to check for new optional and essential Windows 11 updates every time I used the computer and had after the update problems launching some of my programs including games on Steam. Even reinstalling drivers and games altogether didn't help so I had to perform a clean reinstallation of Windows 11 and since then it works again flawlessly. The main message I have is to never update immediately after the update release and always wait a few days just to be on the safe side.

Great episode (I have the same Laptop) million dollar idea- Put the bios chip in a plug, and have a socket on the motherboard.

The simplest way is to check the manufacturer support site of your model of laptop and allways have installed latest bios to prevent auto installation via Windows Update mechanism. I do if for a Dell and Lenovo aswell.

Sadly Windows Update will attempt to update your BIOS if it finds one in its database. It happens mostly to new laptops and new desktop PC motherboards and usually this update is named "-your computer manufacturer's name- firmware". Now it does not install automatically anymore and you can usually find it in the "optional updates" section. In Windows 11 at least.

I'm Sure Lenovo are more prone to these bios related problems. Wonder if in the recent patches a change to the TPM or maybe a read of the Encrypted data to confirm the ID of System and something occurred at that point causing the this odd Black screen of death and no power, I would hope that BIOS updates are not applied thorough updates. Great vid Sorin and thanks for putting it up 👍

I recently broke my laptop under warranty because of a bios update, not from Microsoft, but from Lenovo's website. My laptop is also a Lenovo, an Lenovo Ideapad Slim 5i Pro 16. I actually want to have the motherboard replaced but it would cost me half the worth of the laptop Considering having it reflashed at a technician. Looking at your video, this gives me confidence to have my laptop bios simply rewritten.

This is precisely why Windows Update should not mess with BIOS and UEFI updates. It is for a reason there are so many warnings when updating the BIOS manually. Windows doing that every weekend would be chaotic.

I always prefer genuine charger so I know that isn't this issue because we never know what ID trickery they are doing knowing that any given charging chip might halt until there's enough power available. I also hate bios faults because the way modern ones are keyed to the board and flashing one off another same model won't work. I might if I had some software that could edit the file for the model I have. I don't like bugging people on forums to do it for me.

Lenovo has a feature in their Thinkpads known as a “self-healing BIOS”; it creates another copy of the bios in case it gets corrupted and is unbootable.

Wow, what a great video to watch. Very informative and it's great to see more videos on here in regards to computer repairs etc. 🙏👍

I think I had someone also brick their laptop throught vantage bios updates, windows been pushing them for most brands through updates too. Not every bios has "disable capsule updates"

Thank you for your tutorial! This also shows why I don't use M$W since I bought my Lenovo U430. Linux full time user since 2010.

I ran into the same issue with an HP laptop and followed the same procedure you performed and it fixed it. I eventually found the root cause of the issue. There "was" an EFI partition on the original SSD that was necessary to be present to finish the final stages of the BIOS flashing. I had previously wiped the SSD of the laptop so this reserved partition was no longer on it. I had an identical laptop and performed the same BIOS update and the exact same thing happened. I then installed the HP UFEI diagnostic tools on the first laptop's SSD, and put that drive in the 2nd laptop. When booting, a screen popped up during POST and it finished the flashing process, and the 2nd laptop was now fixed without having to physically remove the BIOS serial EEPROM. I wonder if this is the same issue with the Lenovo?

I guess might customer made windows or lenovo system update without AC adaptor plugged into power. and many thanks to Sorin for sharing knowledges and helpful. all the best

Actually, I remember seeing MSWin installs trashing computers as far back as MSWin 95. When the multimedia software company I worked at got our first W95 beta disk, we installed it on a Packard Bell we had for demos. The machine NEVER worked properly again, even after re-loading the factory image. We had to scrap it.

This is not a Microsoft issue nor a BIOS would come from a Window's update. That's the manufacturers. Some how you may had the driver update app installed on your machine that may have bricked it. I have a Legion 5 I use daily in Music Production that goes threw weekly Window's updates and it only installs security patches and system updates. It's got nothing to do with the BIOS. I had my Legion 5 for 3 years still on the same firmware version from 2020. I work in the I.T Field as a Field Tech and Linux Sysadmin and i never came across a any BIOS update via a Window's update. It comes straight from the Dell site. I work on everything from Windows, MacOS, UNIX Solaris to RHEL Linux system's.

Outstanding repair job. This repair is unfortunately beyond the scope of casual tinkerers, and I wonder if Microsoft has legal liability for essentially bricking an end user's device like this? Regardless, good to know a fine laptop like this can be restored by a knowledgeable individual.

Similar issue here with an Thinkad e15 gen2: It stopped charging and died when the battery drained all its charge. Never charged again. Luckily Lenovo replaced my mtherboard on warranty. They said it was related to an update required that I did not install on time, and that caused an component damage. It works great now, with its new Motherboard, but I'm not too confident on how much time it will last as it could happen again. Today 12-jul-23 a new firmware update appeared, and I installed it with no issues. Hope it lasts as it is a great computer, I love it (when it works)

I have the same problem. Have to mail ya my laptop so you can do your magic. You are awesome and we need more people like you out there.

Fascinating video thank you! I recently had an issue with a Lenovo Desktop BIOS and XMP RAM and was curious about how you would even going about fixing a BIOS chip.

What the hell is Windows doing messing with the BIOS in the first place?!

Wow. I was not aware that bios updates were being performed via Windows update. I'll be paying more attention to Windows update content from now on.

Never ever let Microsoft update your BIOS. Uncheck those updateboxes und do a manual BIOS/UEFI update through your laptops own software (Lenovo Vantage/Legion Toolkit/Lenovo System Update in this case). This is like the airport would do software updates of the flight systems on an aircraft.

Bios updates forced upon you from within OS from 3rd party bloatware or Windows themselves should be a literal crime - no generic user has any understanding of a BIOS and what the risk is to update it, and like this user did, may turn it off during the update. Or worse, ie. Corruption or just general crap. Should only ever be done from within the bios flashing utility itself, or bios flashback usb... with learned knowledge of the process.. Its also more criminal tbh that in 2023 bios updating is still such a disastrous procedure. Im sure bios flashback means you can always recover, but if you dont have a bios flashback motherboard? And no backup 2nd bios? Youre done

i was waiting for you to test the universal charger again after you reprogram the bios

As someone who has experienced this for years firsthand, I can tell you exactly why it happened. Some manufacturers place a 1-wire charging identifier chip in series to the center pin for the charger output. Eventually from fatigue, the ID chip on the charger brick itself and dies and will not allow you to charge the device, or turn it on. This is their attempt at brand blocking 3rd party chargers. That is the only reason the chip exists. Lenovo does this, as well as DELL and a couple of others. Dell is infamous for this problem. I cannot tell you how many replacement chargers I’ve had to send out because of that. Because of the 1 wire design of the chip, it’s literally taking the entire current being drawn by the device. They don’t last that way.

As a dev I can't say I'm unfamiliar with spending an hour troubleshooting the wrong thing.

That was really incredible. Thanks for sharing the video!

I had about 15 HP Elite laptops that I found thrown out in the garbage, I managed to piece together 8 of them into nice units, but the BIOS had a password lock. I managed to desolder each BIOS chip and manually flash them to a password free version, and they all worked fine! It took me a while to realize that I couldn't actually flash them with an external clamp because they had some sort of tamper proof circuit... but removing the chip worked fine for flashing!

I'm curious if there is a way to prevent windows from flashing bios, like disabling firmware device in the device manager or something. Because this is unacceptable, BIOS is not meant to be updated at will, if it works - it works. If it is buggy - whole different story.

You are a very good technician. Absolutely impressive.

Well, with all due respect, I was expecting this... And you can't deny I told you so... Remember that live session where you attempted Cristian's laptop repair with multiple issues? My opinion was that you can't actually use your bench PSU on laptops with charger ID pin (HP, Dell, Lenovo), but you rejected my theory, explaining you have a "special" adapter cable, with all the necessary stuff to emulate the ID pin... Well, it seems I was right after all... For the special Lenovo case, there is a lot of literature on the internet, about how this ID pin is implemented on their original chargers. Search on Google for "Lenovo ID pin resistor" and you'll find out how can you trick any PSU to be recognised as a genuine Lenovo charger. Therefore, the solution I use is to put a specific resistor between that third ID pin and ground: the specific value of that resistor determines the wattage of the power brick you need. Cheers!

it's rare seeing a youtube channel with over 300k+ subscriber not having checkmark on it

great video! calm vibe. Can we avoid the issue of non original charger detection by buying a laptop that uses usb-c for power input? or will they also reject "non official" chargers?

The lesson is "why you should never update your PC just to update it". Or your cell phone for that matter. I never update until I have to update to fix something or allow something to work. I have burned hours fixing "updates" to my devices. Great video, and great lessons to check the basics (power supplies).

Great video and repairing the Bios Chip was fascinating to watch

Never ever use adaptors on these laptops. We always recommend using the original adaptor that came with the device. Make sure you ask the sending customer to send their AC adaptor to properly test it.

Not only laptop, but All In One also. I recovered a V530-24ICB that died after an update, seemingly done by windows update. AIO didn't POST and loop screamed 3 shorts - 1 longs beeps. Had to desolder and reprog the 128 Mbits chip with a binary dump found on badcaps (If I recall correctly) then resolder. The system restarted like a charm. Also did a HP mini not long ago, same kind of issue (but no beep whatsoever), bios chip reprog rez'ed the box.

The problem with your charger was that it doesn't have the lenovo chip inside to talk to the laptop or not be adjusted to maintain 16 amps?

This exact same issue happened with my ASUS, I wish i could find someone local that is as good as you are

Congratulations! Very well done and very smart! I need someone like that in Rio de Janeiro to fix my laptop!

Not too proud to show a mistake in your videos shows you are a professional. I am subscribed for showing the strange power supply problem in the start.

Microsoft lost me after Windows 8.1, I've been unable to trust anything that came after. I still use 8.1 and Linux on newer systems. Thanks for a great video.

My 3-year-old Lenovo PC did a Windows 10 update a few weeks ago. It said it was rebooting, then it never came on again. A new replacement Lenovo PC that I bought 2 days later did exactly the same on the first day I had it! The vendor swapped it with no questions asked, but did say that mine was the 11th one with the same fault over the same weekend.

Day 4 without my work laptop, thanks to windows update. I never updated in my old machines. I just thought it would keep my work machine safer...but here I am, no work at all together.

I can`t believe that after all your work, you didn`t replace the thermal past. I looked old a dry.

This is also on lenevo and other manufacturers . Asus pushes bios update through windows too.

Lesson to be learned: Check if it laptop charging port uses the ID terminal first if you have 0 amp consumption, especially if it has weird connectors

Usually to update bios , it is a why should you but I'm surprised, there is a driver update for windows 10 for bios etc! Crazy!

thank you so much for always uploading video sir. i'm your number 1 follower here in the philippines

More power for this man this is very saved me anytime

I have a desktop. Up until I stumbled upon this vid, I thought it was impossible that a Windows update can mess with the bios. It appeared to me as if updating Windows broke something into my bios. I've been having problems with booting into Windows and only upon resetting bios did I manage to get it back running. Keep in mind that the order of the boot items is the same. But at times the problem keeps coming back and I have to constantly reset the bios in order to fix it.

Does anyone has a link or buying source for the 90 degree charging adapter seen at 2:33. My desk is kinda short horizontally and its fixxed to the wall which makes the thick wire bend alot.

Hey same thing happened to me on the X1 Extreme. Lenovo send someone to pick it up and dropped off a new one within 48 hours. Better buy warranty for such an expensive machine. I disabled the auto updates on all machines and do it manually as needed.

I've never seen such a problem. Thank you for enlarging my horizon.

The first thing I do when I install Windows for someone is that I disable hardware updates through windows updates as it can cause trouble. This is one example and the second is when windows update automatically replaces newest drivers with older ones. As it happened to users of AMD graphics cards. In some instances it could break the system if it occurred during already commenced update of the same driver.

Dont ever turn off! it was rolling back the BIOS or still updating and you bricked it, time for a new mobo or new EPROM

Issue should start with the customer description. Take the descr and read it backwards. The first issue is a software issue. The customer saw a black screen and then panicked. Plan this.....but do not change anything yet....... to undo what the customer did and the unit should start normal. Or, let the video update complete and the screen should appear.... I would check the Compatibility list for the new version of Windows against the specs. Maybe there is a know issue the seller is aware of for that version of notebook. (other people would have had the same issue) The First thing ....THE VERY FIRST THING YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE BEFORE CRACKING THE CASE was to run the WINDOWS DIAGNOSTIC to see if there is a hardware failure. The power issue might be caused by a bad plug or a bad port. the case might be cracked. if its a bad Bios chip, the customer would have had a problem or something before updating the system. when a computer starts you should see a Cache light flicker before the screen turns on. all of these things would have appeared on the diagnostic except a bad cord. lastly, If all else failed, I would try switching the the Hard-drive as a last resort with a drive that has the older version of windows (software) to see if it will respond.

I have two Dell Inspiron laptops that died within 3 days of eachother, and no windows recovery tools would work - not even a fresh install with the latest ISO direct from MS. The culprit was a Windows update. I had just about given up when I found my old USB stick which I made the I got them - booted from that and it all worked again. I disabled Windows Update straight away. I'd prefer to go with Security And "Feature" Updates than have updates that kill my systems....

Yes sir . Been there before . Handy to have a chip reader / programmer handy these days if you want your machines to work every day . Its sad but reality . So simple to have an original bios backed up on every machine at the factory . The people need to put pressure on motherboard manufacturers to include a copy on board

1) Always use an original PS 2) Always and ONLY use a manufacturer BIOS, never a Windows supplied BIOS

Awesome piece of detective work sir, and repairing it too. A little misleading to say it's the Windows update though, when it was actually the BIOS update that caused the problem, not (for once!) Microsoft. Nonetheless, impressive work. And for the record, I have never updated a BIOS once on any PC or laptop, just ain't worth the risk. Even with the shadow BIOS that some PCs now have in case of problems. If it works, don't fix it !!!

Customer provided a lot of valuable details. With all respect BIOS chip should have been checked ad programmed first instead of doing 1 hour of troubleshooting.

unsoldering the bios chip and using a chip flasher to reflash it is suprisingly a smart idea too be honest, i always thought "if someone's bios is bricked, couldnt they take out the bios chip and reflassh it?" sadly it doesnt appear there are many people that know how to do those types of things.

I learned something new in this video: you can put a lot of solder flux on a joint being soldered without ruining the solder joint. I thought flux was conductive but apparently it's not, it just cleans and strengthens the solder bond.

A gaming laptop is about like a racing Volkswagen. Just because you can cram horsepower into a small package doesn't necessarily mean that you should. You can miniaturize parts, but you can't miniaturize the watts. It'll make all the heat, but have no provision to get rid of it. Gaming is for big machines. Laptops are for portable productivity.

to my knowledge there is no windows updates which include BIOS upgrades. The customer may have done a windows update and then decided to update Bios as well, but not in the context/program of windows updates.

Always separate BIOS and chips firmware updates from everything else. So reboot, do BIOS update, reboot, do another chips firmware update, reboot, etc. You can do multiple windows update before or after this but again, reboot before running firmware update.

This makes me never want to update my laptop again. I had to spend like $200 just to send my laptop to the company for a fix. I still don't know if it will be fixed or now, hopefully I haven't spent $200 for nothing. If it gets fixed I will kill any processes for any windows update again

This work is so very impressive. What a guy! I find these videos extremely soothing and relaxing to watch, but if I had to do this I would have been a nervous wreck... 😂😂

I would absolutely love to attend an in-person class where we learn to troubleshoot motherboards to figure out if they are indeed bad or not. I've had a ton of calls lately where when you connect power there is no indication of charging and laptop appears completely dead

Windows 7 was the last version I liked. I've switched to iMAC since I'm recording sound now. It still needs an occasional reboot, But I quit Windows when 8 came out.

windows updates should not interfere with the manufacturer bios... and there ought to be a safety password to protect against unwanted bios writes

Way to disable bios/UEFI/firmware updates in recent windows: 1/ launch sysdm.cpl 2/ Hardware tab 3/ Device install settings 4/ select "No" and OK 5/ Done, Windows will never download any hardware-related updates. I don't see the point of updating an UEFI or firmware as long as it's not to fix a very annoying issue.

You`re the Superman Sir! #respect !! Kindly share the tools that you`re using to unscrew the laptop

I am suspecting the customer force switched the laptop off during BIOS update thinking there was something going wrong.

Had this EXACT thing happen with both Legion desktops... a windows update bricked the motherboard. Could not do a rollback or Windows repair. Went back to Lenovo, they actually had to swap the motherboard. Then it happened again. They were able to roll back and repair... then it happened a third time and we got two replacement machines entirely.