Lenovo
Complaint 139716 Details

My Lenovo W510 has completely locked me out of using it, without even so much as the ability to boot an operating system, due a judgement error in the product design. Specifically, when the backup battery (also called the CMOS battery) dies or is temporarily disconnected, all of the system boot-up settings are erased; with the exception of the boot-up menu passwords. This exception is unusual, not present in other manufacturer's machines, and Lenovo has specifically installed what they call a "security chip" to enable this exception. The end result is that my laptop displays an error about having lost its Date & Time settings when I try to boot it. This error halts the boot process and causes the machine to redirect me to log into the boot-up menu. But I cannot log into that menu because I do not know the boot-up menu passwords. I have used that laptop for about two years without knowing that password and it worked great. As soon as that backup battery died, I lost the ability to use my laptop in any capacity.

Upon contacting Lenovo technical support, I was told I had to purchase a $950.00 main board to replace the existing main board. This is excessive: the main board is essentially the entire laptop computer, minus the LCD screen, the DVD drive, and the hard disk drive. The main board is the entire circuitry stored inside the laptop's chassis. I asked the technical support agent if there is a factory password or a default password to enter to boot-up menu, and he responded by repeating that I had to buy the $950.00 main board. I asked to speak to a manager, but I was refused. I asked to speak to a supervisor, and I was also refused.

I had spent $3,000.00 on my laptop and to replace it with an equivalent laptop would cost me just as much.