I'm having a major issue with my Lenovo ThinkPad T420; it just won't boot from any media. I've tried booting from both a Linux and a Windows internal SSD, along with various bootable USBs, but the only thing that will boot is Ventoy. I can successfully boot ISOs from it and even installed Linux on the internal SSD, but when I attempt to boot from that fresh installation, it simply returns to the boot menu without any error messages, just a brief black screen. All drives show up correctly in both the BIOS and the boot menu. I've reset the BIOS to factory settings and tinkered with numerous options, but nothing has worked. The bizarre part is that I took the laptop apart recently for thermal paste, so I'm wondering if I might have inadvertently damaged something inside. What diagnostics can I run? I've scoured Google for answers but found nothing helpful. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
1 Answer
It sounds like you might be facing a quirky BIOS issue. Since it's a Lenovo, the BIOS is typically updated through a Windows app, so you could be in a bit of a predicament. If you have access to a ROM chip writer, that could potentially allow you to flash a new BIOS directly.
Just to add, the laptop was functioning fine with Linux on a different SSD before I transferred it to a newer machine. After cleaning dust and applying new thermal paste, I tried to boot with a new SSD and USBs, and suddenly everything's messed up. I might try booting from a Windows live USB to see if I can update the BIOS, but I’m not sure if it will even boot. This is really frustrating!