Lenovo Ideapad z585, doesn't boot?

[jtpetch]

Hi, I've got quite an issue with my laptop.
So, I've had this laptop for a while, and it worked well enough, until yesterday. I had shut the lid to put it to sleep, like I always do, and came back a few hours later to find windows frozen. Like completely, no mouse movement, no indications that anything is going on, frozen. So, I turn it off by holding the power button down for a few seconds, wait a minute, and turn it back on. It does its normal boot screen (Lenovo logo, with a circle of spinny dots near the bottom), but for much longer than it normally does, and then it goes to a boot menu. Now, I've dealt with this kind of thing before (recently actually, on my main PC), and my first thought was somehow the bios screwed up. So, I go to the Lenovo website, only to find that their BIOS update/recovery is an exe. To be run on the computer, inside of Windows. What I had intended to do, was what I did to fix my main PC a bit ago: Make a USB MS-DOS boot stick, throw the BIOS update files on there, and boot from the stick (which worked). But, I don't know if that will work with an EXE, and I also don't know if this laptop will boot from it.
I had just recently re-installed a clean Windows 8.1, by the way, and I am almost certain I don't have a virus, because I have Win. Defender running (I know, I know), and this thing sees almost no action except note taking at my college and recording some gameplay through a capture card.
So, sorry for the wall of text here, but I could really use some help with this.
Thanks!

 

[jtpetch]

Ok, I've not done the Linux part yet (it seems that I screwed up the files on the CD, so I'd have to burn it again, completely unrelated issue).
I don't have anything I need to save on the laptop drive (I've saved all my notes to onedrive, and all my videos are already on youtube), so I could just format it from within Windows (on my tower PC), put it back in the laptop, reassemble it, and use the win 8.1 install CD i have to reinstall to it?
Anything particular I should format it as?

 

[Saberus]

I would format it as NTFS, it's just about universal with Windows, and your tower's using the same format, so you know it will work for the laptop.

I would use the Windows install CD only if the Lenovo recovery button doesn't work.

Also, good on you for using OneDrive, it's almost like running backups!

 

[jtpetch]

Alright, I'll do that now.
(I meant the best solution thing this time, thanks a lot for your help!)

 

[jtpetch]

Hmm... I formatted the 931 gb primary partition, but I can't seem to remove the 300mb and the 100 mb recovery partitions (which is where I fear the problem may be, as this laptop has had this problem before, but not to this extent)

 

[Saberus]

Those are used by the recovery button to hold the installation files and drivers for the laptop. Usually they can't be removed without specialized partition management programs. Any other time they are simply not accessed and are usually hidden.

 

[jtpetch]

Ah, ok. It just seems to me that they'd be the only persistent software on the laptop, but I suppose they can't be accessed.
Alrighty, I'll re-assemble the laptop, and try to install Windows.
I'll keep you posted

 

[Saberus]

Good luck!

 

[jtpetch]

Good luck!

Looking good so far, formatted easily, re-assembled easily.
Booted from the CD as it should, and its at "Getting files ready for installation 20%" as of now.

 

[jtpetch]

Seems to have worked! On the Win 8.1 start screen now! 😀
Thank you so much for your help and patience with this, Saberus!
I'dve had no idea where to even start with this otherwise.

 

[Saberus]

It kinda helps that my main machine is a z585. But helping fix issues with computers is the very reason I became a tech.

As a follow up, I'd advise doing a full chkdsk scan from the command prompt (Use all the flags: /f/r/v/x ) and also run a scan with a utility from the hard drive manufacturer to verify the drive isn't failing. You can check in Device Manager if you don't remember what brand it was when it was out of the laptop.

 

[jtpetch]

Thanks, will do.