Besides there are several accounts of this on the comments of that video with similar Lenovo models. Sorin's viewership base in majority comprises of laptop repair technicians and he's quite respected in the community(Like Louis Rossmann).
Many years ago I remember reading about Toshiba laptops doing the same thing --- silently updating BIOS in the background and failing, resulting in a brick --- although that was the manufacturer crapware doing it, not Windows itself.
Personally, I never update BIOS unless there is a very good reason to, like a fix for detecting RAM or similar.
Luckily the laptop was still in warranty and I got it "fixed" after 6 weeks,
In Shenzhen, you can get your laptop's BIOS reflashed while-you-wait/watch. I was there a few years ago with a friend who needed his laptop fixed. Of course it wasn't a warranty repair, but the difference in MTTR (and cost --- about $20USD, and negotiable if you really want to) is a stark contrast.
Source for this? I've seen it available on various enthusiast desktop motherboards, but I haven't seen it on laptops. I haven't even seen it on the pricier thinkpad line.
Expand the "Installation Instructions" part, and you'll see "Updating the BIOS from BIOS Boot Menu (independent of operating system)"
I don't know if Dell supports it across all their laptops, but it has on the ones I've owned.
Other Lenovo laptops have a recovery mode (Fn+R) where some bootstrapping firmware would flash a BIOS from USB, they neglected to include that feature in the (presumably lower cost) Flex lineup.
Some folks out of support went as far as desoldering the EPROM with the BIOS and hooking it up to a flash programmer, to get the laptop unbricked.
I realize they have a lot of different models and probably a limited test matrix, but it's still unforgivable to push a forced update that bricks the device to this level (and until that happened I didn't even know OEMs can push BIOS updates over Windows Update, probably because most of my machines are custom builds).
Why would that be hard? They're the manufacturer; all they have to do is keep a handful of every model they've made, stick them in a room connected to network and power, and have Jenkins run a job on them that flashes the firmware and reboots. I know I'm oversimplifying, but I don't think I'm oversimplifying by that much, and it shouldn't be hard for the manufacturer to keep test units of their own hardware on hand.
I bought a motherboard and a new AMD Zen 3 CPU together recently. The motherboard wouldn't POST because the BIOS was too old to and didn't have Zen 3 support.
The only way to get it to work was to flash a new BIOS using the out-of-band update tool that works with just the PSU and USB stick attached.
Without that you would need a spare CPU knocking about...
And I use my re-write of geteltorio to flash it on a USB drive: https://github.com/hspak/geteltorito-zig
I've done this multiple times now without issues, but your milage by vary!
It had been sitting in a cupboard for a good year or two and when powered on it produced no video output, or BIOS/POST screen. The backlight for the screen didn't even come on.
While it wasn't particularly easy to troubleshoot. I eventually managed to flash an uncorrupted version of the BIOS over USB and it's been working fine since.
It does not work on the Flex model line-up though (I presume because they didn't include the bootstrapper firmware or some h/w component).
Citation: I bricked my own Lenovo applying the IME "critical" update.
Even a ThinkPad?
As for docking stations - AFAIK today a docking station means a cube attached to any laptop with a USB-C cable. Lenovo probably expects you to use this: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/accessories-and-software/dock...
I guess some models still have lower resolution screens, but I didn't look at then when I was evaluating the various options.
Well this really sounds nonsensical. I wouldn't believe if someone else told me but I feel like I can believe an HNer on such a subject. Thank you for letting us know. I would otherwise not imagine this can exist and wouldn't check when choosing a laptop. Now I wonder if my laptop supports higher resolutions on HDMI.
> Carrying a docking station around defeats the portability of the laptop IMO
You are not supposed to carry them, they are meant to be put on your table and stay there, already connected to external monitors, power supply and other devices, waiting for you to bring the laptop and connect it to just the dock.
Nevertheless small and lightweight "traveler docks" also exist.
Apple is not the champion you think it is.
Also they made their phone have random errors and slowness if you replaced the camera module with no error message so that you would blame the tech shop you got it repaired at for "breaking it".
The dichotomy isn’t Apple vs PC anymore. It’s walled garden vs freedom. If you’re going to choose a walled garden, Apple sure is the nicest. If you want to own your hardware you need to start supporting the smaller players.
I even got Linux running on an decade old 12in PowerBook G4.
There is even a browser made for PowerPC, although the name escapes me.
Unless it’s a hardware flaw and then they will usually ignore it until it looks like they may be legally compelled not to.
GPU failures, display flex cable issues, insufficient heat dissipation, the fact that the 16” MBP GPU pulls 100% power when connected to an external display, the fucking butterfly keyboard.
Don’t get me wrong I like my MacBook as much as the next guy, but if there is a hardware problem in a MacBook you’ll be lucky if they even acknowledge it.
And it's not just the computer itself but the whole ecosystem that gets the boot periodically. Last year I built a Linux-based 24 track digital studio on the cheap by buying Firewire soundcards that no longer worked on the latest Macs. Great hardware that otherwise still worked perfectly.
Waste is a legitimate concern and Apple has very convenient trade-in and recycling programs to address that.
There were dozens of reports of the same problem from other owners of that model, yet they refused to acknowledge the issue was theirs or offer any self-serve option (I remember most laptops nowadays can re-flash the BIOS from an attached USB with specific format and layout, but I presume they saved a couple of cents by removing that feature from the Flex models). Luckily the laptop was still in warranty and I got it "fixed" after 6 weeks, but will never purchase another Lenovo product again.