Advice wanted re my laptop 😭

[Sue]

OK, I have been extremely stupid.

This is a long and sorry saga, so unless you are into schadenfreude,  or know about laptops and might actually be able to help, you probably need to stop reading here.

I got a new laptop last May, with a 2 year guarantee from John Lewis (that was my first mistake, but the laptop met all my requirements at a very good price).

I hate OneDrive, and I  had been using Carbonite for backing up files. 

When I got the new laptop, the files from my old laptop which had been backed up on Carbonite were downloaded onto it.

For tedious reasons originally related to problems with my old laptop, files and folders were duplicated all over the place. Sorting this out wasn't top of my priorities.

In an attempt to at least keep new files,  and files edited since I bought the laptop, in one place and completely separate from all the old duplicated  files, I saved them all into folders  on the SSD.

However, I didn't restart the Carbonite backup, because my intention was to sort out all the duplicate files first.

About a fortnight ago, I bought an external hard drive. My intention was to copy everything on the new laptop onto it before I started deleting any of the duplicate files.

I hadn't done that yet because I had to finish doing my accounts and then do my online tax return. So the copying was next on my To Do list.

The inevitable happened. Out of the blue, my laptop went into complete meltdown. I was editing a spreadsheet and went into settings to turn the brightness up. I checked the brightness was ok on the spreadsheet, came out of settings, and suddenly everything went black.

I did all the obvious things, then googled other possible fixes, including specific to my laptop model, but nothing worked.

On starting the laptop, the Lenovo logo came up, the little white circle turned round, the red light for face recognition flashed, then zilch.  But clearly it wasn't a problem with the physical screen, as it displayed the logo.

It wouldn't start in safe mode either.

I thought I might either have accidentally changed some setting, or else it might be connected with a recent update 

I couldn't try some of the tests suggested, eg removing RAM, because anything involving physically unscrewing my laptop would invalidate the guarantee 

I am a member of Which Tech, so I contacted them. Obviously their hands were rather tied as they couldn't connect remotely to the laptop as there was no display.

They said I couldn't have clicked on some other setting by mistake, as the display section only related to the display.

They said they thought it was probably an issue with either the operating system or the mother board, or a component of them. They said it should be possible to identify the fault without losing my data.

Given the involvement of John Lewis, I said I thought this was unlikely, as they had once told me to do an unnecessary factory reset on my old laptop and told me this wouldn't lose my data, which I had queried at the time,  and had to pay me compensation.

So at this point I phoned John Lewis, to be told a repair would take "up to 28 working days" and no they wouldn't supply a replacement laptop during that time.

I decided to take the laptop to John Lewis rather than have it collected, so their tech people could look at it first.

So then the JL tech person said I must have clicked on  Bitlocker by mistake and locked myself out out of the laptop.

I thought this was highly unlikely. Anyway, pursuing this line of thought did not help, and she was still unable to get into it by putting in the Bitlocker code.

So then we had the data saving conversation. She said the company the laptop would go to was approved by Lenovo. She said they would do a factory reset first regardless. I said could they not try to identify the fault first. She said no. I said could I not request that they did. She said no.

She said I could pay £150 for data retrieval, which could be done first. She said it would require removing the hard drive. She said if anybody else did this it would invalidate the guarantee.

So. I have brought the laptop home to think things over. But I'm not willing to pay £150,  because the important files I can reconstruct by other means, and I have hard copies of most of them, it's just a time consuming pain.

I have contacted Carbonite to see if they have any way of backing up the non backed up data even though I can't get into the laptop.

If you have managed to reach the end of this post, congratulations 🤣 and do you have any bright ideas?

I have typed all this on my mobile. It has taken a very very long time 🤣

Edited January 22 by Sue

[vladi]

You are seeing the Lenovo logo because that  is generated by the system's firmware, known as the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) This is part of the Power-On Self-Test (POST) process, which checks basic hardware functionality.

If the system fails to proceed past the logo screen, it could indicate that the BIOS/UEFI cannot locate or access the bootable operating system. This is often due to:

 If the drive has failed then  the BIOS won't find the necessary files to load the OS.

 Even if the SSD is operational, bootloader corruption could cause the same issue.

 Misconfigured boot order or settings in the BIOS/UEFI might prevent booting.

  Diagnosing SSD Failure:

To confirm whether the SSD is the problem:

Enter the BIOS/UEFI settings (usually by pressing a key like F2, DEL, or ESC during startup).

Check if the SSD is detected in the storage or boot section.

Run any available diagnostics tools in the BIOS.

If the SSD isn't recognized, it's likely failed or has a loose connection.

Alternatively, you can boot the system using a live USB or external OS to verify SSD accessibility.

[Sue]

17 hours ago, vladi said:

You are seeing the Lenovo logo because that  is generated by the system's firmware, known as the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) This is part of the Power-On Self-Test (POST) process, which checks basic hardware functionality.

If the system fails to proceed past the logo screen, it could indicate that the BIOS/UEFI cannot locate or access the bootable operating system. This is often due to:

 If the drive has failed then  the BIOS won't find the necessary files to load the OS.

 Even if the SSD is operational, bootloader corruption could cause the same issue.

 Misconfigured boot order or settings in the BIOS/UEFI might prevent booting.

  Diagnosing SSD Failure:

To confirm whether the SSD is the problem:

Enter the BIOS/UEFI settings (usually by pressing a key like F2, DEL, or ESC during startup).

Check if the SSD is detected in the storage or boot section.

Run any available diagnostics tools in the BIOS.

If the SSD isn't recognized, it's likely failed or has a loose connection.

Alternatively, you can boot the system using a live USB or external OS to verify SSD accessibility.

Thanks Vladi, I will look into this.

[Sue]

However I don't understand how I could check if the SSD is detected without being able to see anything on the screen?

Or how I could run any diagnostic tools without being able to see anything on the screen?

[vladi]

On most Lenovos, one needs to press the F1 key repeatedly ( say at half second intervals) immediately the Lenovo logo appears.  

If the above does not let you in try  press the Enter key at the Lenovo logo. There may be a press Enter to Interrupt message on the screen. This may cause the Startup Interrupt Menu to appear. Pressing F1 at the Startup Interrupt Menu will cause the computer to enter BIOS.

Once you get in then you can see if the SSD is detected in the storage or boot section.

Run any available diagnostics tools in the BIOS.

If the SSD isn't recognized, it's likely failed or has a loose connection.
Check for boot errors, If it says "No Boot Device Found" or something similar, then it means it cannot find the operating system on the SSD which probably means the is a major SSD issue

The BIOS is a hyper-sensitive area so I suggest being careful about not changing any settings. To be safe, it is best to exit the bios by not saving any changes if you are in any doubt

[Sue]

57 minutes ago, vladi said:

On most Lenovos, one needs to press the F1 key repeatedly ( say at half second intervals) immediately the Lenovo logo appears.  

If the above does not let you in try  press the Enter key at the Lenovo logo. There may be a press Enter to Interrupt message on the screen. This may cause the Startup Interrupt Menu to appear. Pressing F1 at the Startup Interrupt Menu will cause the computer to enter BIOS.

Once you get in then you can see if the SSD is detected in the storage or boot section.

Run any available diagnostics tools in the BIOS.

If the SSD isn't recognized, it's likely failed or has a loose connection.
Check for boot errors, If it says "No Boot Device Found" or something similar, then it means it cannot find the operating system on the SSD which probably means the is a major SSD issue

The BIOS is a hyper-sensitive area so I suggest being careful about not changing any settings. To be safe, it is best to exit the bios by not saving any changes if you are in any doubt

Thanks Vladi, I will try this.

I was very unimpressed by the John Lewis tech attempts, but unfortunately not surprised.

However whatever I do, the outcome  is likely to be that whatever is wrong it will need repairing, and as the laptop is under guarantee I don't want to do anything which could invalidate the guarantee, as something else could go wrong once this is fixed (it's a two year guarantee).

The thing that most annoys me about the way they go about things is just starting off with a factory reset. It's not just losing the data, it's having to reinstall everything that was on there, and reset all the settings etc 🤬

It just seems a lazy way forward to me. 

At least I have only lost recent data, all my historic data is backed up on Carbonite, albeit mostly duplicated. Carbonite say they have no way of accessing my laptop under the circumstances.

Stable doors and bolting horses, but I am presently  putting all the stuff from my old Dell  laptop onto the external hard drive, just as a precaution in case I somehow lose the Carbonite backup.

The Dell still works, just mostly very very slowly, but randomly  speeds up 🤣

[vladi]

How did you get on with trying to get into the BIOS?

[Sue]

17 hours ago, vladi said:

How did you get on with trying to get into the BIOS?

Haven't tried yet, sorry, wasn't feeling on top form, going to look at it tomorrow morning (Saturday).

AKA this afternoon (Saturday) , having got up late.

Edited January 25 by Sue

[Sue]

Sadly neither the F1 nor the enter key worked.

Still a black screen.

I tried both several times.

And the red facial recognition light which used to flash at the top of the screen doesn't come on any more either (it was previously, even with the black screen).

I think I've probably reached the end of the road with what I can try  without physically going inside the laptop?

Thanks so much for your help though, it's much appreciated.

[jazzer]

Suggest you have a chat to someone professionally for some help and see what they say, before you give up.

[Sue]

43 minutes ago, jazzer said:

Suggest you have a chat to someone professionally for some help and see what they say, before you give up.

Someone is going to have a look at it for me who thinks there is something else he can try to boot it up and at least diagnose the problem and get the recent data off  without removing any screws,  thanks.

I  had already had a long conversation with someone from Which Tech who seemed to know what he was talking about, before I took it up to John Lewis.

Edited January 25 by Sue

[Sue]

Good news!

A friend with techie knowledge was able to get into the laptop (not physically) and I've now saved the recent unbacked up data onto an external hard drive (and I won't be making that mistake again).

Remarkably, whatever he did caused the  screen to spring back to life, and I can actually now  do things on the laptop.

However it is in safe mode, and my  friend said not to take it out of safe mode or turn it off, in case I can't get back into it again.

Because I don't know what the problem was in the first place which caused the sudden  total and persistent screen blackout, I am worried that  the same thing may happen again.

I phoned Which Tech,  as they will now be able to connect to it remotely as they will be able to see the screen, but they don't have an appointment for a week.

I also phoned John Lewis again, but they still rabbited on about a factory reset always being "highly recommended" 🙄 presumably because that's what wherever they send laptops to be repaired always does first.

Is there any easy way (without potentially making things worse again) to look  into the laptop  history to identify what happened last Monday around 3pm?!

[Spartacus]

Hi Sue

you can try to restore your Laptop to a previous restore point prior to last Monday if you have recovery switched on 

To restore Windows to a previous date, you can use the System Restore feature. This feature returns your computer's system files to an earlier point in time. It can help fix recent software issues without affecting your personal files. 

Steps to restore Windows to a previous date 

Click System Restore

Click Next

Select a restore point (date just prior to last Monday 3pm ) 

Click Next again

Confirm the restore point and system restoration

Click Finish

Click Restart

Open the System Protection tab

[Sue]

2 hours ago, Spartacus said:

Hi Sue

you can try to restore your Laptop to a previous restore point prior to last Monday if you have recovery switched on 

To restore Windows to a previous date, you can use the System Restore feature. This feature returns your computer's system files to an earlier point in time. It can help fix recent software issues without affecting your personal files. 

Steps to restore Windows to a previous date 

Click System Restore

Click Next

Select a restore point (date just prior to last Monday 3pm ) 

Click Next again

Confirm the restore point and system restoration

Click Finish

Click Restart

Open the System Protection tab

Thanks Spartacus!

I'd have to come out of safe mode to do this, wouldn't I?

Where do I find System Restore, to click on it?

When you say at the end to open the System Protection tab, what then?

And where would I look to see if I have recovery switched on?

Sorry for so many questions!

I'm really grateful to the friend who got me this far, and I'm terrified of now doing something which could undo all his hard work!

[Spartacus]

You should be able to do it in safe  mode 

In the windows search bbox at the bottom of the page type control panel 

Open the Control Panel
Select Recovery
Select Open System Restore
Select the restore point to use from the list
Select Next
Select Finish
Windows will restart automatically

[Sue]

Thanks!

[Spartacus]

Did you sort it or return it to John Lewis in the end ? 

[Sue]

10 hours ago, Spartacus said:

Did you sort it or return it to John Lewis in the end ? 

I have someone from Which Tech phoning on Monday afternoon. I couldn't get an earlier appointment.

I am hoping that now there is a visible display, they will be able to get me online and then  remotely control the laptop and identify what went wrong and whether it is an ongoing fault or, if not, whether it is likely to recur.

If they can't, or if they identify a hardware fault,  I will have to grit my teeth and let John Lewis's third party "repair" company take it away and deal with it 😭

I'm very grateful for your advice, but when I saw "Windows will restart automatically" my immediate reaction was to think "but suppose it doesn't" and "suppose the screen goes black again" which I know is very negative but I'd rather someone else was there when I did it, albeit on the end of the phone!

Meanwhile, every cloud etc, as I have installed Word on my phone, which I didn't know was possible, and I have been editing and printing documents from there. 

I haven't investigated whether I can do the same with Excel, but I will see what happens on Monday.

[vladi]

Getting the message "Windows will restart automatically" suggests that the probably was that a Windows update was involved. There was one about 2 weeks ago and another 3 days ago.
At the initial stages of installing the downloaded update, the screen does go entirely blank for a short period. Could you have possibly switched it off and back again when it had such a blank screen?

Having now got the message "Windows will restart automatically", you do appear to be making progress so I suggest you switch it back on and leave it uninterrupted like that for at least one hour.

There is a good chance that if the update was in the early stages of installing the update, it will attempt to revert the install and then attempt the installation afresh. 

You have nothing to loose by letting it run for an hour.
If nothing changes after then, try and do a "Safe Mode" restart.