Earlier this week, we reported that Legion Go owners’ devices were being rendered “completely unusable” – otherwise known as bricked – after downloading the recent N3CN42WW BIOS update, released on June 17. It was still freely available to download at the time, so users on social media were quick to warn others to avoid it. In response, Lenovo has reverted to a previous driver.

BIOS update drivers for the Legion Go 8APU1 (the first-gen 2023 model) on the Lenovo support website have been rolled back to version N3CN40WW, now listed as the ‘Recommended’ version. The N3CN42WW version has been scrubbed completely from the site, though there has been no announcement to explain why and officially address the bricking issue.

Fans are hoping for an official statement from Lenovo

The official driver reverted to version N3CN40WW on August 5. This version was used by a Legion Go owner who managed to get their device working again by using a CH341A programmer, but not everyone has been so lucky – or has the technical know-how to repair their handheld. One user who sent their out-of-warranty bricked device to Lenovo was quoted €237 to repair it.

Affected Legion Go owners are now seeking some kind of compensation, but there has been no official communication from Lenovo. In the meantime, users over on Reddit have been trying to make as much noise as possible, reaching out to popular tech reviewers to cover the incident.

“Lenovo must know something is up and we’re not happy about it,” writes a senior moderator on a busy Reddit thread, referring to the fact that the problematic N3CN42WW driver was quietly removed without any comment. More and more users have been expressing their dissatisfaction with how the situation has been handled so far. “Lenovo should repair impacted devices even without warranty as they provide a faulty BIOS update,” says one user, whose Legion Go was bricked due to the BIOS update.

It’s not a great look right now for Lenovo, and we eagerly await any communication from Lenovo. There have been multiple Legion Go handhelds since the original’s launch, the most recent being the Legion Go 2. Either way, Lenovo has already promised to support the original model until late 2029, so we can only hope for an official update soon.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.