X220 - Cannot Access BIOS

Hey everyone. I just received my new X220 and planned on doing a fresh W7 install via USB. I made a bootable USB with the correct files on it, and nothing would happen on boot. Tried USB in my desktop, boots to windows install (so the drive works fine).

Tapping, slamming or holding F1, F12, F8, F10 or the Thinkvantage button fails to bring up a bios (or uefi) for any kind of troubleshooting. In fact, all but the ThinkVantage button bring up the Windows Boot Manager where I can then choose safe mode, last known good configuration, start windows normally, etc..

How the HELL do I get this thing to boot from USB? In fact, how can I even get into the bios?! I have tried all 3 ports.

 

F1 always works for me. Press F1 at the Lenovo Splash screen that first appears.

If you have a work laptop, someone may have set a password to prevent BIOS access.

 

restart windows.
as soon as you see thinkpad on the screen
push F1

Nevermind

 

Thanks for the fast reply Gom. F1 as I mentioned earlier only brings up the windows boot manager.

 

F1 for BIOS, F12 for boot devices.

 

I remember experiencing this problem a couple of times.

I don't know what I had done to fix the problem. But after trying pretty much everything (removing battery, remove ac power, left it off for a few minutes, etc), I was able to get into BIOS and disable Lenovo boot up splash screen.

My X220 has been working fine since then. Never failed to access BIOS if I wanted to.

 

Now that you mention it, I haven't yet done a power cycle. I'll try that now.

 

no dice. left it off for a good 15 minutes - unplugged, battery out. f1 still doesn't work.

 

Try pressing several F keys (including ESC) at the same time during splash screen.

Otherwise, the only thing that I can think of is booting up without HDD. Error message with option to access BIOS might show up if no boot device can't be found. (Just a wild guess)

 

I had the same problem with the unit that I returned 2 weeks back;
the hardware maintenance manual does say F1 to go into BIOS;
http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/0a60739.pdf

I think I hit F11 or F12 right before POST ends, and that brought up a screen to show me which media to boot from;
it also has another tab, and pressing Tab (or was it right arrow key) brought me to the BIOS settings.

Sorry can't help further - replacement hasn't arrived.

 

Did you ever get this sorted?

 

what are the proper steps for a power cycle?

 

I am having a very similar problem. When I first got the laptop, the thinkvantage (blue) button brought up a nice menu.

I made the recovery disks, then used them to to recover to a different hard drive. Now when I press the blue button it says "Starting the recovery process", and starts some minimal windows utility for restoring or fixing windows.
I put the original disk back in, but that didn't change anything....

I can't get to the bios, or boot device selection.

I'm doing another recovery to see if that helps...

Roy

 

I updated to Bios 1.17 (not sure if this changed anything.) I am able to get to the BIOS through F1, and boot menu through f12, but the blue button still just takes me to the recover image, which is pretty useless.....