Some Lenovo Legion laptops reportedly fail to boot after Windows BIOS update

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Some unlucky Lenovo laptop owners (particularly those with Legion) have apparently run into serious trouble after they installed a BIOS update which was pushed via Lenovo’s Vantage app. The BIOS update, which is available on both Windows 10 and Windows 11, causes some nasty boot failures, according to various reports.

It is worth noting that only some Lenovo Legion models are affected, and that includes the Legion 5 and 7 lineup. The BIOS update version GKCN53WW causes random Blue Screen of Death Errors with a pretty vague stop code “DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE”.

We’ve noticed various reports of issues on Reddit and Lenovo’s own support forums or social media platforms like Twitter and Telegram, with complaints of boot failure – lower framerates or being stuck at a black screen after installing the BIOS update version GKCN53WW.

How to uninstall Lenovo Legion BIOS update GKCN53WW on Windows 10 & 11

This BIOS update sounds like a nasty mess, but since we’re talking about Windows, there is an apparent workaround.

As described on several of the above threads and confirmed by us, removing and reinstalling the previous BIOS could resolve the problem. However, this may or may not work for everyone, so if you do give this workaround a whirl, you’re doing it at your own risk.

To go back to the previous BIOS update, simply download and run the stable BIOS version (GKCN50WW).

If you’re unable to downgrade BIOS directly from the setup, make sure the device allows flashing of BIOS to a previous version. To do this, enter the Lenovo BIOS Setup Utility from the boot menu and look for an option related to rollback or flashing of BIOS, and set it to “Yes”.

Press F10 to save the configuration settings and exit, and perform the BIOS downgrade again. While downgrading the BIOS, do not shut down the device in the middle of the process as it can cause serious damage to the system.

Another option might be to wait for Lenovo to acknowledge the mess and hopefully issue an emergency fix. This is assuming you can deal with the described problem or you have a backup device.