[ltp] Haswell thinkpads bios problem

[Peter Frühberger]

T440s Bios was updated yesterday. They in deed fix the Intel Rapid
Start problem:

(Fix) Fixed an issue where the computer might fail to start up when
the Intel Rapid Start Technology optoin was set to Enabled in ThinkPad
Setup and a partition on the hard disk or SSD was modified.

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?DocID=DS035965


Best Regards
Peter

2014-02-19 10:34 GMT+01:00 Ivo Ugrina <ivo@iugrina.com>:
> On 02/18/2014 11:56 AM, Peter Frühberger wrote:
>
>> I bricked my Samsung 840 Pro after just one Suspend to RAM. I had luck
>> and entering BIOS was still possible. I since then disabled the "Intel
>> Rapid Start Option" and I am in deed using UEFI only - with the legacy
>> option completely disabled on Ubuntu 13.10 with mainline kernel.
>>
>> I am running that T440s since then without any issues. I believe the
>> "rapid start" option made the difference for me.
>>
>> Now I am a bit confused, cause I should have bricked it by now at
>> least multiple times me UEFI running. I am using Kernel 3.13 and have
>> run the 3.13-rcs before.
>>
>> Best regards
>> Peter
>
>
> I'm running Debian testing on t440p with UEFI and stock hdd (resized
> Windows_C partition to make place for debian).
>
> If I understood correctly (from lenovo support forum [1]) the BIOS/post
> problem comes from not having a special partition used with Intel Rapid
> Start Option.
>
> [1] :
> http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/HOWTO-Brick-a-W540-=
in-easy-steps/td-p/1400393/page/3
>
> "We found the BIOS bug that causes this problem.  The bug is in BIOS
> code that implements Intel Rapid Startup Technology.  The bug causes
> BIOS to read the wrong portion of SSD and treat it as a memory size.
> Because the SSD data being read in is actually random data, and not a
> memory size, by bad luck the data may cause a memory allocation that is
> too big and leads to POST hang.  The other part of the bug, is that the
> too-big memory size is stored in BIOS NVRAM so power cycle (and even
> disconnect/reconnect CMOS battery) doesn't clear it.  Unfortunately the
> only solution is to replace planar, but if you try to reuse the same SSD
> with same partitions and same data, the problem will happen again.
>
> [Short-term work-around]
>
> After replacing the system board, but before reinstalling the SSD, go
> into BIOS setup and disable Intel Rapid Start Technology.  This setting
> is in the Config -> Power menu of BIOS Setup.
>
> [Long-term solution]
>
> After replacing the system board, but before reinstalling the SSD,
> update BIOS.  We are working on BIOS update that should be made
> available by mid-Feb (this is a tentative date subject to change).
> "
>
> --
> The linux-thinkpad mailing list home page is at:
> http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-thinkpad



-- 
                   Key-ID:     0x1A995A9B
                   keyserver: pgp.mit.edu
==============================================================
Fingerprint: 4606 DA19 EC2E 9A0B 0157  C81B DA07 CF63 1A99 5A9B