> Reminds me when about ten years ago ... but upgrading the docking station firmware was possible only from Windows.
For me, it was less than 10 days ago. The battery on my Thinkpad X1 (that has 5 years onsite warranty) stopped charging. I run Debian, and had got rid of the Windows partition entirely. They demanded a battery report from Windows. It took a long time, but I was able to convince them the report from their extended battery test in the BIOS saying the battery had failed sufficed, and the battery was replaced.
The new battery lasted about 1 month, then it developed the same fault. Same story - after a day worth of arguing, they agreed to replace the battery.
That battery lasted 3 days, then developed the same fault. The story went the same way, right up until they said they fix it by replacing the battery to which I responded "I don't think that's a good idea". (By this time I had developed suspicion the USB-C chipset was somehow killing the battery.) The next step was to replace the motherboard until I filed a Windows battery report. No amount of pleading "hey, you have a report from your own BIOS saying the battery is faulty, it doesn't charge while in the BIOS when no OS is running, and it should charge while off when _nothing_ is running - what possible influence could Windows have on this" worked.
They sent a link me what they said was a "live Windows" USB recovery drive. It was a Windows program. I was able to run it Windows in an kvm instance. It wasn't "live Windows" of course - it was a "wipe SSD with a fresh install of Windows" USB. Not being keen on wiping all my work and risking a backup not working, I bought a new SSD, and let it wipe that. It took about a wasted day (I'm a contractor) to install Windows, let it upgrade itself, and then install the latest Lenovo drivers for everything (which they insisted on), then run the battery report. During the time the laptop started freezing - but it turned out unplugging the 4K USB-C Philips monitor fixed that, adding more evidence to my theory the USB-C interface was on the way out.
The motherboard is scheduled to be replaced today. I'm betting they won't bring a battery and replace the one the USB-C chipset has killed. They go to all this trouble to provide good diagnostics in the firmware, and then don't train their staff to use it. I'm sometimes gob smacked by just how much time these companies cost themselves.
For me, it was less than 10 days ago. The battery on my Thinkpad X1 (that has 5 years onsite warranty) stopped charging. I run Debian, and had got rid of the Windows partition entirely. They demanded a battery report from Windows. It took a long time, but I was able to convince them the report from their extended battery test in the BIOS saying the battery had failed sufficed, and the battery was replaced.
The new battery lasted about 1 month, then it developed the same fault. Same story - after a day worth of arguing, they agreed to replace the battery.
That battery lasted 3 days, then developed the same fault. The story went the same way, right up until they said they fix it by replacing the battery to which I responded "I don't think that's a good idea". (By this time I had developed suspicion the USB-C chipset was somehow killing the battery.) The next step was to replace the motherboard until I filed a Windows battery report. No amount of pleading "hey, you have a report from your own BIOS saying the battery is faulty, it doesn't charge while in the BIOS when no OS is running, and it should charge while off when _nothing_ is running - what possible influence could Windows have on this" worked.
They sent a link me what they said was a "live Windows" USB recovery drive. It was a Windows program. I was able to run it Windows in an kvm instance. It wasn't "live Windows" of course - it was a "wipe SSD with a fresh install of Windows" USB. Not being keen on wiping all my work and risking a backup not working, I bought a new SSD, and let it wipe that. It took about a wasted day (I'm a contractor) to install Windows, let it upgrade itself, and then install the latest Lenovo drivers for everything (which they insisted on), then run the battery report. During the time the laptop started freezing - but it turned out unplugging the 4K USB-C Philips monitor fixed that, adding more evidence to my theory the USB-C interface was on the way out.
The motherboard is scheduled to be replaced today. I'm betting they won't bring a battery and replace the one the USB-C chipset has killed. They go to all this trouble to provide good diagnostics in the firmware, and then don't train their staff to use it. I'm sometimes gob smacked by just how much time these companies cost themselves.