Lenovo has finally addressed black screen and bricking issues on the original Legion Go after a recent BIOS update. The nasty bug became much talked about in online Legion Go and handheld communities a few weeks ago, but an official Lenovo rep has only just acknowledged the issue, which arrived with the N3CN42WW BIOS update. The rep says refunds should be available.

It didn’t take long for Lenovo to quietly delist the problematic BIOS update, but the damage had already been done – at least for those without the technical know-how to resolve it themselves. One user reported a €237.16 charge for an out-of-warranty repair, but Lenovo now says even models with expired warranties “should be repaired free of charge,” if local laws allow.

Affected Legion Go owners should be able to get a free repair

According to posts from a Lenovo representative on its official forums, the company has been able to replicate the bricking issues, and suspects it is “related to a specific component” used in a certain batch/batches of models. As such, “it is clear it is not user error,” and should be handled under warranty. However, even without warranty, you will likely be covered, but “please check local laws,” says the rep. It’s the first time Lenovo has directly addressed the issue, outside of de-listing the BIOS patch download.

Hi all,

Just to update you on current status. The issue with BIOS N3CN42WW was replicated in L2.5 lab in Europe on three devices (from three tested). At the same time other teams were able to update to said BIOS without any issue.

As such the issue is most likely related to specific component used on mainboards in certain batch or batches, or the issue needs to have specific circumstances to manifest. The issue is still being investigated, but the affected BIOS N3CN42WW was in meantime withdrawn from Lenovo’s support page.

Best Regards,
Daniel_Legion

The buggy N3CN42WW BIOS update, originally released on June 17, was for the original 2023 model (code-named Legion Go 8APU1) and remained free to download on Lenovo’s support website for some time before it was finally taken down. The current recommended version has been rolled back to N3CN40WW, which is reportedly safe to download.

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Jack Goodall

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