[Problem] Bricked Lenovo Legion Y540 15irh BIOS

I hi, I’m new here… I’m definitely new to this struggle… I thought I posted my situation on here already but I’m not sure where… essentially I’m trying to run a crisis recovery USB and hopefully get my y540 to work again. All I know is it last had bhcn45ww… I thought I was downgrading it version 26 because the keyboard randomly stopped worked intermitintly… But then the bios back flash didn’t complete for an unknown reason.
. I last had it set to UEFI mode but prior to that, I received the device with windows 10 and legacy mode was originally set up.

My goal is to locate whatever bios firmware file I need to place on a USB drive, find out what key combination I need to use and how… Chat gpt hasn’t been successful yet. And I’m beginning to have my doubts becZuse it tells me to format my USB as MBR but I’ve seen numerous places it should be formatted as GPT instead since the board is post 2018 and last set as UEFI. … I really need a helping hand… I can provide … Well, try anyway, anything I’m asked for. Just don’t assume that I’m tech savvy lol :frowning: I’m only getting by through chat gpt and Deep seek

-alex

Edit by Fernando: Thread moved into the “BIOS Problems” and thread title shortened

Any leds blinking any logo display any signs of boot etc…
If there is a official recovery method for this model, you should gather all the info/pdfs about it and/or ask Lenovo.
Not all machines support recovery methods/or same method and it depends on how the current state of system is now/degree of corruption.
When system is beyond user recover intervention it needs a professional intervension, doing a full re-programm of the system ICs (Bios/EC etc…)
Good luck.

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Thank you for replying! I wasn’t sure if I’d receive any replies

So yes, there’s a recovery process called BIOS Crisis Recovery.

I currently do not have any Lenovo splash screen upon boot. Just a black screen that’s accompanied for the most part, with a blinking power button light which blinks I second intervals.

Upon power on, I don’t hear anything when my ear is pressed near by the touchpad… But after about approx 20 to seconds, the fan on the right does kick in at low speed and stays at that pace until I turn it off. By this point, I will hear a light hum which doesn’t change pitch, tone, intensity or volume. I’m guessing that it’s the fan. Also I can hear what I presume is the EC doing something because I’ll hear like a quick “click/pop” type sound maybe 1 or twice at most over the course of 10 to 15 minutes.

Also, I’m nearly 100% certain that when I first power it up, the back light for the keyboard will light up for about 2 or 3 seconds approx and then stop. Caps lock key doesn’t show any light, neither does numlock. Chat got says that’s to be expected.

The USB drive in currently trying out is a 4gb stick formated to FAT32/GPT and I’m put a file that I’ve extraxted from the official BIOS.exe file on the Lenovo website which is located under the BIOS/UEFI category.

On a different, working computer, I extracted a file called BIOS.fd by launching the official bios update program, I select “extract only” instead of install. Then, when I get that file which will be another .exe file,.I will then use 7zip, and click “extract here” . That will provide me with a folder and in that will have BIOS.fd.

Apparently the recovery process that I’m trying seems fairly consistent …other than experimenting with different variants for the file name label… Those variants have either come from some posts on this site, reddit, the Forums on the Lenovo site and Chat GPT. Same as well for the key combination to try. But the result from the laptop so far has remained the same. There is one new development I was told by a Lenovo rep when I called And she said to use the novo button and name the file BIOS.cap. no luck however. Chat GPT also said that .cap wouldn’t be for my board because it presumes its API based I think it said. ANI? Ami? I can confirm if needed.

I’ve seen that BIOS.fd needs to be relabeled as BHCrisis.bin. I’ve seen also BIOS.cap, BIOS.bin, and a few others. The key combos vary from Fn + r, Fn + B , Fn + Del, Fn plus S and V, and a few others.

I’ve been attempting this so far with holding the key combo, tapping the power button as I continue to hold the key combo for 30 seconds, but all that happens in the following 15 min is just as I explained above: keyboard light turns on for a few seconds, power button light blinks at 1 second intervals, fan starts low speed in under a minute or so. No beeps, no auto reset, no changes in blinking rate, no change in fan speed or hum. The USB Drive also just has a steady ready light whether the computer is on or off so long as it’s plugged in.

Ive used the UEFITool once now so far, and the .fd files I have been able to open up , when I take a picture of the information it displays, CHAT GPT verifies that it is good to use.

Is there any additional info or observations I can mention? Anything that you recognize right off the bat by chance?

Oh, also, I did purchase that ch1a (probably incorrect but I got the right programmer. Can’t remember the official title) etc USB adapter programmer thing which comes with clamps and stuff… I really REALLLLLY hope I don’t need to go there because it seems difficult.

Not an esay task for users not expereinced in system bios repair/programming, you should take it to aprofessional.
Anyway if you want to venture yourself here’s a file BHCN45WW, for programming, empty system data of course, learn to edit it.
If no display probably its beyond official bios recovery (“Crysis” is a generic one found on the web…)

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At the end of your message, you wrote " “crysis” is a generic one found on the web"

Can you elaborate a little on that? Not sure what you meant by that.

However, as to the first part of your message, I do understand the point you make… All I have at my disposal are you guys here and chat GPT lol I am asking many questions, verifying, comparing, and try to only execute suggestions I feel confident about and might (hopefully) be the lowest risk…

But my instinct is telling me unless I find someone that can confidently tell me the correct bios file name to change BIOS.fd to and what keys to hold down and when, then I’m likely stuck trying to physically program… But can’t really afford to spend however many hundreds they’d charge.

On a hopeful note, this “bios crisis recovery” procedure is supposed to be specifically useful when there is nothing but black screen, flashing power button led. I say that because of the numerous positings in the Lenovo website with ppl in my same situation.

It’s as if Lenovo forced a bios update that was faulty and abandoned support for it to push us into spending more money :roll_eyes::confused:

No i will not, search the web, i pointed you to search for an “OFFICIAL” Lenovo recovery method and getting in touch with Lenovo to confirm it IF available to your system, i never suggested the “CRYSIS” method or as being usefull/correct to your system.

You were the one that mentioned earlier…

So where did you found this confirmation for your system as recovery method…i suggest you go there.
Nothing more to add, good luck.

Oh , ok. I misunderstood then. Apologies. At any rate, yes, I did contact Lenovo directly after a week of researching and comparing user experiences. Tech support over the phone as well as Lenovo site forum section tech support replies also mentioned the bios crisis recovery method as a solution. But none of the explanations were consistent. That’s why I’m here.

The entire reason I came here was that this was mentioned for providing help on modding bios and stuff.

Anyway, thank you . Best regards.