Nearly 40 ThinkPad models have a problem - the Thunderbolt 3 ports in them randomly stop working. Lenovo has pushed out a fix to users, but what does it do? Does it actually solve the problem? If it doesn't, are the devices even repairable, and will Lenovo repair your device for free?
https://www.notebookcheck.net/ThinkPad-Thunderbolt-3-failure-What-s-happening-why-it-s-happening-and-how-to-fix-it.451207.0.html
flash memory is meant to store both the thunderbolt controller's as well as pd-chips firmware and the device specific configuration. neither of these chips do not have that fw built in, so corrupt/emtied memory will result in not booting chip. this flash also includes the dp/hdmi in/out configuration, as well as supported charging voltages and currents.
Well, my ethernet jack on my...7 year old torrent machine randomly stops working, but would resolve with every reset of the ethernet adapter using Windows troubleshooting, but after more than 2 years of this I still don't know what the underlying problem is.
Just went through the whole issue.
My T470s Thunderbolt stopped working after the last lenovo update in December. There the windows driver was updated, however flashing of the thunderbolt controller failed. Also subsequent trys did not work. Luckily I had still warranty and Lenovo service changed the mainboard today. Now I have driver version 17.4.80.xxx and all works fine....
Just now I saw that Lenovo is rolling back the update
pcsupport.lenovo.com/ca/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-t-series-laptops/thinkpad-t470s/solutions/HT508988
As of 24. Jan they rolled back to Version 17.4.78.21
I will definetly not touch thunderbird updates again as long as mine is working....
The service tech said today that all year long they had lots of thunderbolt issues
Had this issue, ThinkPad X1 Yoga 3rd gen in October 2019, one and a half year after I bought it, being covered under Next Business Day warranty for 3 years... Happened after bios update, downgrading and upgrading bios didn't help to solve the issue.
It have took two months and few "I'm going to sue you" threats to receive a repair (motherboard replacement).
I look forward to getting a check for $12 in five years from the class action lawsuit
Nice try to save the case however situation is not so good in the real world.
My T480 has not failed (no errors, TB3 controller still visible in device manager) but it is still in TB3 fw version 14 which is problematic according to Lenovo support page.
Lenovo Vantage gives TB driver updates (atleast one in 2020 already installed) but it has NEVER given a TB firmware update for my 1.5 year old T480.
Our company has 13 Thinkpads and we really trust the Vantage to do its job. Why doesn't it do this as it updates every other fw auromatically like bios, wwan, intel management engine, ultra dock etc?
As Notebookcheck clearly have good connections to Lenovo please check this one from them. Are they even aware that their Vantage does not update the TB firmwares?
@Airstar,
you have to make sure that the Thunderbolt 3 is fully enabled in the BIOS, including the Thunderbolt BIOS assist mode. Otherwise, the firmware update will not be offered.
Hello Benjamin
Thanks for the tip, I took a try now because today Lenovo Vantage offered the DCH driver version 1.41.789.0 to my T480 which is needed for the FW update to happen if I have understood correctly.
However it is Jan 2020 and the problem was fixed at Jul 2019? Hundreds Thinpads have failed during this time.
Ok back to my try, I was at TB FW 14 which based on the Lenovo official statement is a problem and should be updated to FW 20.
I downloaded the FW20and tried to install directly which gives me a black install window that says:
PM Driver version is OK.
The interface is checked and the BIOS supports the interface
The TBT_PWR is checked and the BIOS supports the function
The PD Controller is checked and the BIOS supports the function
A popup then appears that says to plugin power etc. I click OK. Then another popup comes up that says:
No active Thunderbolt(TM) controller found in the system or Thunderbolt(TM) software is not present in the system. Make sure you have Thunderbolt(TM) software installed. Then connect Thunderbolt(TM) device and press OK to retry or press Cancel to abort firmware update process.
I canceled and then went to BIOS at TB3 config, enabled all three parts (which give me an infotext that you only should enable them for old Windows 10 etc) and disabled the TB3 security User. (How on earth would I know that these should be enabled as I never go to BIOS anyway.)
Then again run the FW20 update, exactly the same texts as before.
What should I do, go and buy a Thunderbolt device?? :D this is really impossible for a normal user to fix. It has to come thru Vantage as every other firmware update comes.
My T480 is always at the office docked in a Ultra dock (the genuine, Lenovo side docking) but I'm not sure is that a Thunderbolt device or a simple USB-C dock?
On my T480s the firmware update procedure failed - silently - until I plugged a device (a Samsung T5 external SSD) into the TB3 port.
The instructions for updating the TB3 fw are poor & contradictory - at one point the Lenovo update pops up a msg saying not to use any TB3 device during the update; then a few steps later an Intel pop up says the opposite and that a TB device should be connected (I may have these in the wrong order but the point remains...)
Bottom line: if the FW update fails, try repeating with a device plugged into the TB3 port. Note: my T5 drive is not even a true TB3 device - is USBC only - but this was enough to make the fw update work.
hth
I regularly see an issue where USB devices (keyboards, mice, drives) plugged into the docking station don't work when docked via the thunderbolt compatible port on a t480. Installing the updates, swapping docking stations, etc doesn't help. Have logged 5 warranty jobs with Lenovo and had 5 mobos replaced.
The first warranty job, I spent a long time troubleshooting with Lenovo swapping docks, installing drivers and firmware, firmware for docking station etc. Now I don't bother, just do the minimum and reference previous jobs with the same issue. They replace the mobo and it's fixed the issue every time.
If you have an affected laptop that is still under warranty, and you use a dock, test to see that the USB ports work when docked via the USB-C thunderbolt compatible port. If they don't (and you can be bothered logging a warranty job) you may be able to get a replacement motherboard while it's still under warranty. Have 2 more jobs to log now...
That's my 2 cents worth.
I had same issue on my two X1 carbon 2017(20HQ)s.
One doesn't boot now after TB unstable. Another can boot when battery removed but TB and HDMI port dosen't work.
Lenovo should offer repair program.
I wasn't aware of this issue before and I didn't have any particular troubles with a 6-month old P52, but Vantage offered me an upgrade, so I followed (it upgraded BIOS, NVMe drivers, power management drivers, ...).
After the upgrade the laptop refused to get charged via the regular charging port (not that this wasn't USB C; charging with a 85 W USB C charger refused to work since the beginning, not even for any small amount of charging), claiming that the charger wasn't original one. It started working again for two days, then failed again and I can no longer charge it except very very very slowly when it's shut down.
So basically the firmware upgrade bricked the laptop for me.
Quote from: birbi on March 04, 2020, 23:28:05
I wasn't aware of this issue before and I didn't have any particular troubles with a 6-month old P52, but Vantage offered me an upgrade, so I followed (it upgraded BIOS, NVMe drivers, power management drivers, ...).
After the upgrade the laptop refused to get charged via the regular charging port (not that this wasn't USB C; charging with a 85 W USB C charger refused to work since the beginning, not even for any small amount of charging), claiming that the charger wasn't original one. It started working again for two days, then failed again and I can no longer charge it except very very very slowly when it's shut down.
So basically the firmware upgrade bricked the laptop for me.
...another lesson of don't fix it if it ain't broken, of which Windows Update is the worst offender--no option not to fix something that's not broken.
That is really annoying.
Indeed my Yoga X390 was some issues with Thunderbolt stability but now, after the upgrade, Thunderbolt does not work anymore with my docks. And now there is no way you can revert it back. Support offered me an older .exe to try to downgrade but it no longer works (some WIndows error saying something about lack of the SDK).
No wonder there are so many cheap T480 laptops on eBay UK. I was considering a used one for my next laptop (in place of my current T430), but given it can stop USB Type C ports from working entirely, I think I'll wait a year or two and then get an L490 or something. :(
I have tired to install the driver/firmware Lenovo offers on the website. The Thunderbolt drivers installs but the firmware upgrade fails and says "No Active Thunderbolt (TM) controller found in the system or Thunderbolt (TM) software is not present in the system". Anybody knows how to fix this issue?
The issue for me was resolved by replacing the motherboard. The cost and labor was prohibitively expensive, but I was able to significantly reduce it by purchasing an extended 1 year warranty on the laptop and using that to cover the replacement. Good luck!
I have a P1 Gen2 and TB3 purchased less than two months ago. When using the TB3, every so often, anything connected to the TB3 stops and starts usually several times. So the computer is useless for 10 seconds a few times a day. Annoying. Haven't contacted Lenovo yet.
Just got my 20R1 7th gen x1 carbon back from depot and the issue persists. Display is a HP z27
I was holding off on doing BIOS and intel management firmware update - anyone else in same situation ? I guess nothing to lose from updating at this point
Yeeesh, this has been a nightmare for the company environment that I'm in. I can't imagine it being any better for consumers at all..
250ish devices all affected by this on various levels.. So nuts.
So it's been a few months. I'll update clearly for this.
We were suggested to extend our warranties for 6 months in order to create a CritSit claim for our fleet. So we did. Essentially, Lenovo has sandbagged service by mishandling data and asking for diagnostic results that didn't apply to our machines. On top of that, they've said they would focus on one model out of the three that are affected. Along with that, apparently they only service machines for 5 years-- a number that was never discussed. So that 6 month warranty extension caused machines to hit the cap of 5 years and they said they won't service them. On top of that, we had video conference meetings that given us verbal confirmation that since we started this ticket well within our 6 month warranty extension, we would be covered in a resolution should we exceed the 6 months. Lenovo's CritSit team denounces that and says too bad so sad. You paid 13k for the warranty and we sandbagged? Awesome, we'll give you 4k back of that back-- which doesn't address any of the machines. What a slap to an enterprise customer's face after spending the last 14 years of history with a company. It really seems as if they had this plan from the very beginning of this process. None of the details prove that they wanted to competently comply and fix the machines.
Anyway, our entire fleet was affected and continues to be affected. The firmware patch wouldn't resolve issues of machines that were already degraded, and even though we started applying the patches as soon as possible, most of our machines still succumbed to these symptoms. I have 32 P52s machines in my office that are pulled and replaced with other machines, and there are still about 100 more P52s machine that are still affected as we wait for a resolution-- a "chance", not a guarantee, that they might service the P52s machines that are afflicted. It's been 3 weeks, and it seems they have ghosted us.
I'd hope that people would read this and to find out that they'll treat everyone equally badly, both enterprise and consumer. I would hope this would gain traction some place somewhere, and if necessary, I might go un-retire my authorship at a known blog to bring light to the situation.
It would be great to help people that have experienced the same - there are a bunch of people on Reddit.
It's frustrating.