Splintered Thread from___Drive Failure Imminent_"Last Option"

[atanere]

On of the Lenovos, the one with a bad sector it's a total mystery as to how to open it to get to it! Lenovo REALLY wants to keep people from doing anything beyond everyday use.

Laptops are all pretty similar to disassemble. The video above is excellent.
Search YouTube for: "<your laptop model> disassembly instructions"

Special tools are nice, if you have them. The Torx screwdriver bit may be needed. There are "guitar pick" looking tools (plastic) that help to separate the case bottom once you get all the screws out.... but I've seen people using a regular "playing card" to do this too (fold once or twice, if needed). Open carefully... you may encounter "ribbon cables" that can be a beast to put back if you accidentally pull it out.

Lenovo doesn't care that you get inside. There's nothing sinister here. All computers need a way inside so they can perform factory repairs too. And time is money, so I don't think they do anything to make them particularly hard to open for that reason. Many batteries are fully internal and the case must be opened to replace them, plus the CMOS battery too.

 

[atanere]

It would be interesting to know what distro's support secure boot, and which one's don't.
I leave secure/fast turned on most of the time for the distro's I use.

She is trying to use Linux Mint. It can usually work with Secure/Fast Boot. But I think there may be exceptions when it does help to disable those anyway.

Some issues may come from the method of making the bootable live USB. I've noticed that the Ventoy script has a special switch (-s) to enable support for Secure Boot. But I've not experimented using it versus not using it. I don't know about other tools, like Balena Etcher. Both of these usually make good USB's for me.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

Pay some attention to @atanere's advice there. When you actually access the bios settings in this way....then to set them to defaults, and then turn off secure boot (and fast boot if it is present) would be the way to go.
By doing that there will be no need to take the case apart.

If that does not do it......then get the case apart, find the battery

That would solve a massive headache

I found all the information @atanere posted about getting the Lenovo to boot into LM. If I hadn't I wouldn't have been able to use either Lenovo to use LM!

And with Last Option, I haven't been able to get into UEFI without the password (I'm still shocked that #4 did that!) Everything is one YouTube, I was out of energy yesterday to find out how to get to the CMOS battery. Thank you @wizardfromoz for doing it for me!

I need to let my brain rest for a bit. After that, I need to make a list of priorities. A lot of chores have been neglected to deal with these issues.

That's okay though because I have learned A LOT! Problems and annoyance with the Giant are the reasons I learned so much about that other OS.

I do have to say this though. I found A LOT of problems that were caused by "Updates" for an OS they no longer support. Uninstalling them got rid of the problem every single time. With a little research, I found out I'm not the only one who was having these problems. Windows recovery files are still on the hard drive. I can't help but suspect them, especially given that they literally hijacked computers when they force fed version 10 to the masses.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

Laptops are all pretty similar to disassemble. The video above is excellent.
Search YouTube for: "<your laptop model> disassembly instructions"

Special tools are nice, if you have them. The Torx screwdriver bit may be needed. There are "guitar pick" looking tools (plastic) that help to separate the case bottom once you get all the screws out.... but I've seen people using a regular "playing card" to do this too (fold once or twice, if needed). Open carefully... you may encounter "ribbon cables" that can be a beast to put back if you accidentally pull it out.

Lenovo doesn't care that you get inside. There's nothing sinister here. All computers need a way inside so they can perform factory repairs too. And time is money, so I don't think they do anything to make them particularly hard to open for that reason. Many batteries are fully internal and the case must be opened to replace them, plus the CMOS battery too.

@atanere
@Condobloke

I've been tinkering around with hardware for a long time. I built my previous tower.Last option has unusual looking fasteners that I've never seen before. I thought the screws had already been removed. It was difficult to try to pry it apart. I didn't want to force anything before finding out more.

Wierd looking screws. Anyone can see this.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

It would be interesting to know what distro's support secure boot, and which one's don't.
I leave secure/fast turned on most of the time for the distro's I use.

I can't get into UEFI yet.
First, I have to figure out exactly how to open up the laptop so I can get to the CMOS battery. I've been upgrading and replacing components long enough that it shouldn't be a problem.
Wizardfromoz posted a YouTube video so I can do that.

Hopefully I can get into Legacy BIOS. I might not even need to. But with Lenovo, who knows?

 

[Condobloke]

That does not look like a screw head to me.

There are how many of these ?...On the back of the laptop only ?

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

@wizardfromoz
@Condobloke
@atanere

What I would like to do is wipe the entire drive with DBan. I have it on a CD and used it lot's of times. Last Option doesn't have a CD/DVD. If I can get it onto a USB drive, it might work.
Disk utility doesn't work. Neither does GParted.

 

[Condobloke]

No. I was under the impression the installing the OEM would take care of that, erase and install

And you were correct.

I still believe that your priority would be to set the boot order so that the laptop boots to a usb stick

This of course involves accessing bios.

Accessing bios involves my question at post #246

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

That does not look like a screw head to me.

There are how many of these ?...On the back of the laptop only ?

There are 10. There is nothing anywhere else.
I just saw something I didn't notice last night. I peeled back the silicon pads again and I noticed other microscopic pin holes. They're the size as the magic button to get to the boot menu.
Microscopic in holes under silicon feet.

 

[KGIII]

Wierd looking screws. Anyone can see this.

You need something like this:

Temu | Explore the Latest Clothing, Beauty, Home, Jewelry & More

www.temu.com

I recommend every geek have at least a set like that.

 

[KGIII]

(They are the weird triangle screw heads, easily stripped but easy for a machine to screw in.)

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

I still believe that your priority would be to set the boot order so that the laptop boots to a usb stick

Pushing the "magic button" allowed me to show the boot menu on start up, but that's it.

After I get to that CMOS battery, I will have a lot more options. When I do I have to unplug and disconnect a lot of things. Not things with the laptop, things I have set up on my desk, not worth explaining!

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

You need something like this:

Temu | Explore the Latest Clothing, Beauty, Home, Jewelry & More

www.temu.com

I recommend every geek have at least a set like that.

I might actually have one. I've just been so aggravated, I haven't had time to check my kit. I have a variety of tools. At the moment, some are a little hard to get to. I also have one of those kits to pry off car door panels. There might be something in that too.

I have some of those super heavy duty units with 4 shelves, 2 feet deep, 4 feet wide. I still need more space for all of them!

These stay in the bottom drawer in my desk with a few other tools.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

@KGIII

They're not Klein tools, but I'm not a professional either.

 

[KGIII]

These stay in the bottom drawer in my desk with a few other tools.

Bottom pic, three rows up from the bottom, on the right.

Your other photo wasn't entirely clear, but that's what it looks like.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

@KGIII

My brain seems to be overloaded so it took some time for me to figure out how to pass the verification to see what's at that link. That looks exactly like what I have.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

Bottom pic, three rows up from the bottom, on the right.

Your other photo wasn't entirely clear, but that's what it looks like.

My kit

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

13 pages in a single thread...

Like I said, if nothing else, I am determined! Even more than that, I'm beyond convinced that all of you MUST enjoy helping people! There is no other explanation!

So thank you! Thank you SO MUCH!

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

I'm going to let my brain rest and drink my coffee. After that, I'm going to get started on getting at that CMOS battery.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

I recently made a donation to this site. As soon as I'm on feet again, I'm going to make it a regular thing. That's the very least I can do.

I am so grateful to you guys.