My ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 was running Pop!_OS normally yesterday, but now it stops at the Lenovo splash screen whenever I power it on. I have already removed and reseated the battery, SSD, RAM, and CMOS battery. The SSD is detected when connected to another computer, but when I boot from a Pop!_OS installer, the internal drive does not appear as an installation target. I have an i7-1185G7 processor and 16 GB of DDR4 RAM. What should I check next?
1 Answer
Since you have another computer, create a Ventoy USB and add a Linux live image plus a recovery tool such as Hiren’s BootCD. Try booting the laptop from that USB and check whether the SSD appears there. If possible, remove the SSD and connect it externally so you can back up or image it before making changes. Also check the firmware storage settings—on some ThinkPads, Intel VMD or RST mode can prevent Linux installers from seeing the drive. Confirm whether the machine is using the standard Lenovo firmware or a custom firmware setup.
I have a spare computer and am creating an Ubuntu boot drive now to see whether it detects the SSD. The laptop is a ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 with an i7-1185G7 and 16 GB of DDR4 RAM.