Hi /wsr/ I purchased a ThinkPad T400 today from a local seller.

they switched it while you weren't looking. just take it back.

>>230511
I was looking at the laptop all the time in case something like that happened.

They just wiped all their data off the drive.

All you have to do is reinstall the operating system. I have the same computer and trust me, they did you favor. In fact, I'm using it right now.

Get a copy of LinuxLite and use that. It runs great on these machines.

>>230522
I got it from a local reseller, and before I purchased it, the laptop booted a copy of Windows. It is using that same drive now. I've also tried booting from many of my Linux/Windows installation discs, and none of them have any effect on the black screen problem. Also, plugging the laptop into a VGA monitor still does nothing.

>>230523
Then just take it back and show them.

I mean it's a Lenovo, it's not super expensive or high quality. They'll either fix it or refund your money if it's that messed up that a boot disk won't fix it.

>>230524
I need it fixed ASAP, and the next event the person's attending is in six weeks. I'm going to try changing the RAM

>>230522
At least read the OP:
>>230502
>no BIOS screen

>>230502
T400 has discrete graphics from the RROD era. Chances are your GPU has fallen off. Take it back right now, while you still can.

Well bud if your screen is refusing to display randomly even whenever you're using a boot disk, then there's something very wrong hardware wise (assuming the boot disks you wrote were configured properly).

Typically if you wipe all the data off of a drive (including BIOS) a boot disk is programmed such that it would still be at least read into the computer and display a splash screen for the new distro / OS. If you're not even getting that, then something is seriously messed up. ESPECIALLY if there was an OS previously installed on it that you didn't get rid of yet it suddenly isn't there.

>>230527
I did read the OP. You will get no BIOS screen if the data is completely wiped off the drive with a tool like DBAN. In fact, that's exactly what it does, and that's why the tool is recommended for securing data before selling computers.

>>230533
>>230533
>You will get no BIOS screen if the data is completely wiped off the drive
Apologies, I assumed you were being careless and weren't just a complete retard who knows nothing about computers.

I'd post you a picture of a computer with a BIOS screen and NO HARD DRIVE AT ALL, but I'd be wasting both our time, so let's not and say we have.

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>>230537
>just a complete retard who knows nothing about computers.

You act like wiping BIOS is impossible. You realize that trojans / malware can be written on it, so your safest bet is to remove it before you sell it to someone, right? There are tools that both wipe the hard drive and simultaneously uninstall BIOS. It takes virtually no time at all.

BIOS software is stored on a non-volatile ROM chip on the motherboard or on a flash memory chip. It doesn't need to be removed in order to rewrite it. The ROM is read only, but the BIOS program itself is written in a component that's rewritable.

>>230537

You're either autistic or 12 years old.

Seriously though, can we not derail the thread into a soapbox for your "I'm so much smarter than everyone else and am so impatient for their ignorance" speech and focus on OP's problem? I'm kind of curious what happened.

Also I don't think you understood >>230522 anon's point. You can wipe BIOS and it will give you a black screen.

>>230550
And then how do you un-wipe it again?

The BIOS is not on the hard disk, you can't wipe the BIOS by wiping the hard disk, and if only the hard disk is wiped, you'd expect to see the POST and be able to open the BIOS menu.

You're not making any sense. Why would someone sell a computer then intentionally brick it before handing it over?

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>>230547
>You realize that trojans / malware can be written on it, so your safest bet is to remove it before you sell it to someone, right? There are tools that both wipe the hard drive and simultaneously uninstall BIOS. It takes virtually no time at all.
Holy shit I gave you the benefit of the doubt again.

HOW DO YOU PROPOSE THE NEW SAFE BIOS GETS WRITTEN ON A COMPUTER THAT NOW HAS NO BIOS AND WON'T BOOT?

>>230569

You really need to read up on this topic and probably reread what I wrote more clearly. I'm not going to join your dick measuring "I'm the smartest retard" contest, but I'm telling you right now that wiping BIOS and the hard drive would result in exactly the circumstances that OP is talking about. Regardless of whether or not you believe it's possible or you understand how this works, I do it all the time whenever I sell computers so I don't have customers coming back to me in six months complaining that they have a rookit on their computer and it was like that when they got it. The whole takes less than 20 minutes.

>HOW DO YOU PROPOSE THE NEW SAFE BIOS GETS WRITTEN ON A COMPUTER THAT NOW HAS NO BIOS AND WON'T BOOT?

I'll leave you to figure that out since you're clearly so much more knowledgeable than I am on this topic. Why don't you use this knowledge to help OP.

And if I'm not mistaken, your proposal is that the fucking GPU (somehow) just fell out, which is asinine if you think OP would buy a computer that rattles every time he picks it up -- especially considering anon claimed it worked when he got it at the store.

You can post more anime if it'll make you feel better though.

>>230571

In the process of trying to illustrate how impossible this is, you're just proving anon's point that you don't know wtf you're talking about.

OP take it back to the store and just show them what's wrong.

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>>230577
That's only half an explanation: hitting the computer with a hammer would also make it not work, but you've not explained why a computer retailer would deliberately break a computer they sold as working, knowing full well that would only lead to it being brought back for a refund.

I'm fresh out of pictures to mock you with, so here's one of a 2010-era BGA chip falling off a motherboard.

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>>230577
You sell computers that don't do anything, only show a blank screen, and won't boot OS installers?

If the answer to that is "no", you're not wiping the BIOS, and you're confusing "wiping the BIOS" with "restoring the BIOS settings to default", or "wiping the MBR".

>>230584
>>230586


You didn't read what I wrote.

You do not understand how BIOS works, what a flash memory chip is, or how data writing works.

You do not brick the computer forever by deleting BIOS off of the flash memory chip. Literally deleting BIOS and installing a different version of it (as in, not restoring the BIOS settings to default or wiping the MBR) does not render the computer completely useless forever. It's the best way to ensure a computer does not have malware infecting BIOS.

You do not understand any of these things and beating your chest about how silly I am because I know how to delete BIOS off of a flash memory chip and reinstall it simply makes you look even more incredulous.

Also, that's definitely not a chip "falling off of a motherboard." That's a fault line in soldering most likely caused by percussion with absolutely no explanation about how this magically happens to OP's computer that worked in one minute but suddenly doesn't in the next.

>>230584
>>230571

>I don't understand how you could do that, so it must be impossible since I know everything.

>>230590
>>230590
>Literally deleting BIOS and installing a different version of it does not render the computer completely useless forever.
Either you're talking about erasing the BIOS (which would cause OP's symptoms), or your not (which would be bringing up a pointless tangent for no reason).

Simple question: do you believe OP's BIOS chip contains a BIOS?

If yes: why do you think a computer with a BIOS would not be able to display a POST screen or BIOS settings screen?

If no: why do you think a computer retailer would intentionally break a computer they're just going to have to later repair? At their own cost due to implied warranty of merchantability?

Tangentially, why do you think asking a computer to overwrite its BIOS, when it's already booted from that (possibly infected) BIOS, is going to remove a virus so sophisticated it can infect a BIOS? How do you know it hasn't infected the new BIOS you told it to write?

>>230590
>that's definitely not a chip "falling off of a motherboard."
ESL please go and stay go. Obvious hyperbole is obvious (except to you).

BGA failure of GPUs in the early lead-free days is a common and well-understood failure mode. It happened so often to the Xbox 360 it got given a snazzy name and Microsoft was forced to extend the warranty and repair them all for free. The issue wasn't limited to consoles, though: every device with a BGA GPU from ~2007-2012 was susceptible to it, because lead-free was at that time a new and poorly-understood technology.

>Hey dude I think the BIOS of the laptop fell from it can you repair it?
>lolwut

>>231029
ESL please stay go.