Lenovo Thinkpad Black Screen of death

Chan-man

Honorable
Jan 27, 2014
1
0
10,510
I have a computer a customer brought in with Windows 7 Pro installed. It does have a refurb COA tag also. Anyway when you start it the splash screen appears and then it goes to a black screen and wont boot. I don't have any recovery media and this is a business computer. I created a bootable disk from an Win 7 Pro ISO I had downloaded somewhere but when I press "Repair My Computer" It displays "This version of system recovery options is not compatible with the version of windows you are trying to repair" Try using a recovery disk that is compatible with this version of windows." I've never come across this issue Before. I heard it could be a UEFI Issue bus i'm not sure. Need help please. The laptop is an Lenovo ThinkPad X220 Tablet. It also has an SSD but I'm not sure if it factors into this issue. I had this issue up on technibble heres the link.
Link

I've tried the usual ctrl + alt + delete method and it isnt working. Please read the other forum Before replying to this one i really need this solved quick. If anybody wants to call or text me * Mod edit for personal info, do not post private details like phone numbers or email in a post *
 
Solution
Hi,

First do try the built in factory image and see if that will run.
- From a complete shut down, power it on and start tapping on F11 repeatedly until you reach the ThinkPad Recovery menu.
- Select Restore Factory Defaults and just follow the onscreen instruction until you reach that Start button.

If that doesn't work your only option I guess is to order a new set of Recovery disc from Lenovo. Here's the link for their support numbers.
https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/supportphonelist
Hi,

First do try the built in factory image and see if that will run.
- From a complete shut down, power it on and start tapping on F11 repeatedly until you reach the ThinkPad Recovery menu.
- Select Restore Factory Defaults and just follow the onscreen instruction until you reach that Start button.

If that doesn't work your only option I guess is to order a new set of Recovery disc from Lenovo. Here's the link for their support numbers.
https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/supportphonelist
 
Solution
How do you know the version installed on the laptop is Pro? Just because the COA sticker is Pro does not mean that is what was installed. X220 does not use UEFI usually, I don't think I've run across one of those systems not on the legacy BIOS. This is from Lenovo's website for the X220 "All of today's preloads are based on MBR which means legacy boot."

Try using a different Windows 7 version to run a repair.

You may need to copy the files out of the system and do a clean setup.