Lenovo W530 ThinkPad W Series :: Stuck Or Won't Boot When WD External Drive Plugged In?
Feb 7, 2010
The problems still exist after I do a fresh restore with Lenovo DVDs. Also ran the Lenovo Update & Driver utility.
1. My W530 wont boot or start if I have a External drives plugged in. It stucked at "ThinkPad" screen. I have to unplug the external drive and press/old power button to shut it down. Same thing happened when the laptop is docked.
=> Contacted the technical support today. They told me I have to unplug and plug it back in everytime. I told him that there is a reason I got the dock station so I don't have to unplug and plug my external drive every time.
2. I have no problems booting if thumbs drive plugged in. But it keep "Auto run" everytime I turn on the machine.
I can't get past BIOS when my W530 is connected to an external hard drive, in my case a WD My Book Essential 3TB (USB 3.0).
Here are some previous threads I've found: -W520 hangs on boot when a WD SES USB drive is connected -W520 won't boot with SES device connected to USB -W530 stuck or won't boot when WD external drive plugged in.
I would be satisfied if I could disable USB Legacy Support in BIOS and move on, but I can't find that option anywhere on my W530.
Here's what I've tried so far: -Updated BIOS to the latest version (1.11) and updated WD My Book firmware. -Changed the port (tried both USB 2.0 and 3.0, powered and unpowered) that the drive is connected to. -Removed everything except my MSATA drive in boot priority. I can't enter BIOS settings when the WD drive is connected so I can't actually exclude it from the boot priority, but I've tried to enable Boot Order Lock. -Disabled USB options in BIOS (USB UEFI BIOS Support, Always on USB, etc.).Switched between Quick and Diagnostic boot. With Quick it's stuck at the Thinkpad splash screen, with Diagnostic I just get a black screen. -Tried with both GPT and MBR partitions styles for the external drive. -Changed between UEFI and Legacy.Tried it with my friend's Thinkpad T520, wouldn't boot either with the drive connected...
Other information:
My Thinkpad is docked to a Thinkpad Mini Dock Plus Series 3 with USB 3.0 (170W). I haven't bothered to try it undocked, but judging from the other posts it's not likely to fix the issue.
Surprisingly I don't have this issue with my older WD My Book Essential Edition 2.0 1TB (USB 2.0) external hard drive. I don't think it would work to simply remove the drive from boot priority. I've removed my other external hard drive but I can still hear it spinning up during boot (when the Thinkpad splash screen shows up), which suggest that it's still being identified during boot. Is there really no workaround other than "get a different enclosure" or "unplug it when powering on"? Are there any >3TB external hard drives, preferably USB 3.0, that are known to work?
I run the W530 with a dual boot setup with Windows 7 and a Ubuntu distro, with the Windows as the default one.
Every time I try to boot and there happen to be a memory stick or a drive connected to the computer, it freezes on boot at the Windows logo. If I unplug the memory stick, everything is fine and it boots up normally.
Ive purchased a Thinkpad 12,7 mm SATA HDD Bay Adapter III and a Samsung 840 EVO, 500GB, SSD. Now when I swapped the DVD drive with the new SSD the same freeze happens ever time I try to boot. Ive tried to connect the new SSD to the computer and formatted it beforehand. But it keeps freezing.
Im not sure if this relates to my dual boot setup or what.
I have a training environment using W530 laptops that are enclosed in an area in front of the desks. It is not pratical to get to the computer as it is hidden away and therefore I need to be able to use the dvi cabled external monitor for bios setup, boot order, etc.
Right now the boot options are hidden from the external monitor until windows loads. Then the external monitor becomes active. Any way to bypass the laptop monitor altogether?
I've had the W530 for two years and there is an issue when turning on the laptop. I haven't contact Lenovo's warranty yet.
When I press the power button, frequently it shows the Thinkpad white logo against black background and won't load. Windows at all. It just stuck there.
I have already restore the system but the problem is still there.
Oddly, when it does work (which is rare), the "to interrupt normal startup, press enter" appears. Everytime it works, that phrase would appears.
The only components I have connected to this laptop are ethernet cable for internet, USB hub, and external drive hooked up through PC slot on the side.
Laptop Spec: Windows 7 Professional with latest update Intel Core i7 3720QM 2.6HGHZ Bios 2.7
For the past couple of weeks I haven't been able to use my lenovo s230u twist. I can turn it on, I can get to the "lenovo, to interrupt norml startup press enter." But then the screen goes black. Then I get to the windows boot manager, where i get some options. [URL] ....
I just got a new Lenovo W540. I installed a new Samsung EVO SSD inside to replace the stock mechanical hard drive. I'm now trying to boot from a flash drive to clean install Windows. I've done this so many times before on other laptops and desktops without a problem. For some reason now it will not boot from the flash drive. It shows it as available in the BIOS but it looks like it reads it for just a second and then goes right back to the screen that allows me to choose which drive I want to put to.The same flash drive works fine in other computers to boot to.I did check to make sure the USB drive was not excluded in the BIOS and it is not.
I've recently got an ultrabay adapter and wanted to know if I could run two separate OSs, one from each hard disc.
Effectively, I would like to have one version of windows on the internal HDD for general day to day stuff and one as a programming environment and be able to select which to boot from at start up.
I know I could just use a VM, but some of this stuff (Siemens PCS7) can put quite a strain on the system and I'd rather not have that overhead.
Windows 8 came with this machine, and I have had performance issues for a month now. I have just soldered on till yesterday when I kept getting different blue screens and needing to restart...now it won't restart, and so I did the press enter to get to the troubleshooting area of the hard drive....selected the quick reset option, which failed, so I came back and selected the complete reset and it gets to about 65% and stops says there was an error and requiring a restart...this happened twice...now when it restart, it is trying to do a reset again...without me asking it to.
Is this normal? Normally I physically break a computer, and never get to the point where a reset is needed...so I am truly at a loss here.
It is a W530 and has 16GB of RAM. All I run/ran on it photoshop and Lightroom, Firefox, audacity, Roxio, Avast for virus protection, an online backup service, and a program called star stacker.
Is there the ability to disable the touchpad on the W530? I don't see it as an option in the function keys. I am using a mouse and it's a bit annoying brushing my hand against it and having it mess something up.
I am looking to update my laptop used for photography. The ideal replacement looks to be the ThinkPad W530 with a dock and display screen. As the W530’s will be used away from home it and monitor will need to be calibrated.
I have been told I can only do this if the graphics card, NVIDIA Quadro K2000M, supports has more than one LUT to both laptop and stand alone monitors be calibrated.
I have had the W530 for several months now and it randomly powers off. This can occur when connected to the AC Adaptor, when running on battery, or when using the AC Adaptor without battery. Lenovo first replaced a fan, but that didn't solve. Now they are attempting to replace the system board.
I installed some Corsair Ram in slot 1 and 2 underneath the keyboard and after reinstalling the keyboard Ive noticed theres a gap at the top of the keyboard where it slots into the computer the whole way across specifically in the middle where theres alot of flex. The plastic which has the power and volume buttons seems to move around when pressed. This seems to be letting in dust and would especially allow a spill to enter the machine. This doesn't seem normal for a well built machine and have I installed the keyboard wrong?
I have a W530 (2436 CTO) ThinkPad purchased 11/10/13. It will not power up.While in use the screen went black, then the unit tried to reboot. Just as Windows began to initiate, the screen went black again. It immediatly tried to restart about three times in quick succession, about 3 seconds long each time. It was powered with the AC adapter at the time with the battery in place. I have tried all combinations with or without the battery or AC. In either mode, the power button lights up for approximately 1-2 seconds, then goes black. I have tried holding in the power button for 30 seconds. Nothing, other than about a 2 second light, then dead.
I have never received any power warning messages, low battery warning or the like. The only unusual behavior I've ever had is about half a dozen times I've had to do a hard power down. But not recently.I have tried the removing and replacing the SSD. I have removed and switched the two memory boards to test for a bad board or bad connector. None of these have solved the problem. I’m guessing the SSD failed, or perhaps a bad BIOS chip. I can easily replace the SSD, but 9 months of moderate use seems like a short lifespan for even an SSD. I can't update the BIOS (if that's the issue) because I can't get the unit powered up.
I purchased the W530 with the 120GB SSD option. Windows 7 takes up more space than I had expected, and now I'm looking to increase the amount of memory on my laptop.
Will buying the hard drive bay adapter from Lenovo and another HDD do the trick?
I recently acquired a new Thinkpad W530 with Windows 7 Pro.
I want to immediately replace the 500gb main drive with a larger one. I plan to do this by imaging the system partition of the current drive to an external USB hdd, and then then writing the image to the larger one after it's installed in the W530.
My question: Can I then just store the original drive away as is, to use for recovery (should the need arise), in lieu of creating recovery media now?
It seems pretty clear the answer should be "yes," but since I've always used XP up until now I'm wondering if there are any kinds of Win 7-specific watchouts (maybe licensing-rleated?) that would keep things from being as simple as popping the original drive back in the main hdd slot to get things back to exactly where they are today?
All, I am having a major problem with VMWare and the W530 "Num Lock". When I move the cursor into the VMWare window a message comes on say "NUM LOCK: ON" when I move it out of the VMWare window I see message "NUM LOCK: OFF". I do not have any key on the keyboard to disable Num Lock. There are utilities I can run in the SUSE VMWare image to capture the key binding and remap, but I do not have anyway of turning Num Lock on or off to capture the key binding.
Similar to a post about the T530 I used to record streaming audio (internet radio, youtube, playback etc.) with Snagit on my old computer, now on new W530 I cannot find "line out, mono out, wave out," devices to record from, only "microphone".
On the Lenovo W530 using Windows 8 Pro I followed the follwoing steps posted elsewhere for the T530:
Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Sound > Recording ... right-click to check Show Disabled Devices, then choose Stereo Mix as Default (may also want to right-click on Stereo Mix and double-check Properties: make sure Listen level is not at zero)
After showing disabled devices on the sound > recording tab the tab still shows only one device, the "Microphone".
If it is possible how on Windows 8 or the W530 (and possibly other models) do we get the line out / mix out / mono out / whatever they call it for the sound that comes out of the computer?
I have been told by sales that the W530 will NOT support SSD's larger than 256GB. I wonder if it is sales gimmick since the SSD uses the SATA3 interface that works with standard drives > 256GB. But before I go on a limb and buy a big SSD, I need to verify if I am wrong.
Using a 480GB or 512GB SSD drive in the W530 thinkpad?
My W530 suddenly stopped communicating with my MS Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000, and nothing I try will bring it back. It does not show under Bluetooth devices, and it will not find anything when I search for devices. I know the mouse is not at issue, as it will readily pair with an Android device. Yes, the manual wireless switch is turned on. Yes, it is turned on in the Fn+F5 OSD. I've done a BIOS update. I've updated my system using Lenovo System Update. I've checked power settings both under driver properties, and in my power plans. Everything seems to be in place, it's just like the Bluetooth has vanished, but the system doesn't know it. Yes, I'm POSITIVE my system has Bluetooth... I've been using it for the past 6 months or more.
Recently, I've experienced issues with the mouse losing connection for a few moments at a time, but nothing beyond that. Then yesterday, It's completely gone, and I can't get it back.
It seems I got the same problem that customers have with the T530. After removing the bios password I have no chance to get into the BIOS.
Bios Version: 1.11 (uefi only enabled) OS: Windows 8 (x64)
I tried: - Remove all drives (mSATA SSD, ODD, HDD) - Press F1 at the Lenovo screen - Tried all options in the Windows boot menu - Pressed the Enter key at the Lenovo screen
Unfortunately there don't exist a BIOS update for the W530. So how I get into the BIOS?
I bought my W530 with Windows 7 preinstalled and an option to upgrade to Windows 8, which I did immediately before installing any programs. When I now try to upgrade to Windows 8.1 I get a message asking me to previously uninstall RapidBoot. However I cannot find RapidBoot on this machine. How can I uninstall it?
I have a feeling that I am missing something very obvious here, but I have looked everywhere and cannot find the Bluetooth services on my laptop (W530, Windows 7 Pro 64 bit, ThinkPad 1x1 11b/g/n Wireless LAN PCI Express Half Mini Card Adapter for Windows 7).
When I do FN + F5, I get the Lenovo Wireless Radio menu, but it only lists Airplane Mode (off) and 802.11 Wireless (on).
I have check BIOS security settings for I/O devices and Bluetooth is enabled. However I cannot find any references to Bluetooth under Device Manager ->Network Adaptors.
Is it possible that this laptop is not equiped with Bluetooth?
Basically I am trying to install a new Samsung SSD into a W530, however, I can not get the Bios or Windows instalation to see it (when you select what drive you want to install windows on).
I can externally attach the SSD to my other laptop and see the drive. I can create partitions, format them, etc. But none of that worked my original issue.
I have also updated to the latest BIOS version, tried turning off UEFI, no luck.
What I am missing here to get this SSD to show up?
Yesterday I bought a little 22" Vizio VW22L television to use as another monitor for my W530. I'm using this cable: [URL] to connect my computer to the TV. When I connected it at first it worked fine for about 45 minutes then I just got screen noise (short, multicolored vertical bars moving everywhere). Now whenever I try connecting it I get my computer's display on the TV for a couple minutes, then the screen noise again.
I was wondering what the issue is or could be. The cable seems to work fine. I tested it with a Magnavox television and a different Vizio TV. This TV's HDMI port also seems to work fine. I had my brother connect his Samsung Series 3 to it via HDMI and it ran perfectly well. The Lenovo update utility says all my drivers are up to date, as does Windows update.
After receiving my w530, I wiped the drive and installed a nice fresh copy of Windows 8 Enterprise (volume licence work copy).
I have installed all the latest drivers, etc. and taken note of the various documents about Windows 8 upgrade/install, but cannot make use of the integrated camera?!
The driver is listed under the device manager:
Imagine Devices -> Integrated Camera (Ricoh 1.0.0.19) - BTW I tried the beta one to see if that worked, and it made no difference to I rolled back to the proper release again.
The docs I have read said NOT to install the Communications Utility, and at this point in time there is not a Windows 8 listed compatible version of that. I did give it a try when the camera did not work, but although there were no errors, etc. it didn't work either ...
Skype/messenger/windows 8 camera seem to know it's there, but cannot make use of it (I get the placeholder image).
Under Control Panel->Hardware and Sound, there is no appropriate entry for me to toggle/configure.
I see the green light come on, but no picture. Running latest bios G5ET65WW (2.07).
