Thinkpad T470s frozen on boot screen, GRUB installed

plsfoldspindle&mutilate · 2026-05-11 10:30:16

This is an issue I have experienced intermittently since I installed Arch on my Thinkpad. My laptop boots fine most of the time, but several times, perhaps once a week on average, I will try to boot my laptop and it gets stuck on the Lenovo boot screen. It's completely frozen, pressing Enter, F1, F12, etc. does nothing. Rarely, it may boot if I turn it off and turn it back on, but most times it just gets bricked.

My workaround for the time being has been to remove the SSD, boot into the Arch live ISO from USB, plug the SSD into a USB port (using an SSD enclosure), chroot into the SSD, reinstall GRUB (removing GRUB from efibootmgr and then running grub-install again) and place the SSD back in the laptop. This, without fail, has resolved my problem, but only temporarily -- the issue always presents itself again and I always have to fix the issue with the same method. As you hopefully understand, it is tedious and impractical to carry around a screwdriver, an SSD enclosure and an Arch USB with me in case the issue presents itself while I'm out.

Based on how I have been able to temporarily resolve this issue, I believe the problem has to do with either 1) my GRUB configuration, 2) the UEFI on my laptop, or 3) the SSD itself. I have used fwupd to update the UEFI firmware, and I was hopeful that had fixed my issue as it didn't reoccur for over a week, but then it happened again the other day. When that happened I removed the SSD so I could access the Lenovo startup menu and switch the boot mode from "Quick" to "Diagnostic". I was hoping that I could get some insights if I booted into "Diagnostic" mode, but when I reinserted the SSD and booted, I got a frozen white cursor in the top left corner of the screen and I had to once again resolve the issue by removing the SSD and chrooting from a USB.

Another notable aspect of this problem - The computer will not boot into the live USB if the SSD is in the NVMe slot.

Another avenue I will explore is buying a new SSD. I already want a larger drive because 256GB is not enough for me. I am hopeful that this may resolve the issue, but I fear that it won't.

I'm looking for advice on ways to diagnose the source of the problem so I can fix it once and for all. Thank you.

twelveeighty · 2026-05-11 14:25:53

plsfoldspindle&mutilate wrote:

This, without fail, has resolved my problem, but only temporarily

After getting it to boot again, post your logs. The diagnostics you are looking for are most likely in those logs, not in the Lenovo "Diagnostic" boot mode.

plsfoldspindle&mutilate · 2026-05-12 02:56:16

twelveeighty wrote:

After getting it to boot again, post your logs. The diagnostics you are looking for are most likely in those logs, not in the Lenovo "Diagnostic" boot mode.

Should I post the entire output of journalctl -b, or would the kernel logs suffice?

seth · 2026-05-12 06:05:02

Does it happen when only booting the multi-user.target (2nd link below)?
Can you switch the VT (ctrl+alt+f3)?
Can you reboot by frenetically pressing ctrl+alt+del?

Holding the power button to reboot will prevent the journal from being logged, but recently there've also several reports about systemd starting the graphical.target before the GPU is fully setup (causing a simple race condition, delaying the graphical.target is usually sufficient)

Arch Linux

#1 2026-05-11 10:30:16

Thinkpad T470s frozen on boot screen, GRUB installed

#2 2026-05-11 14:25:53

Re: Thinkpad T470s frozen on boot screen, GRUB installed

#3 2026-05-12 02:56:16

Re: Thinkpad T470s frozen on boot screen, GRUB installed

#4 2026-05-12 06:05:02

Re: Thinkpad T470s frozen on boot screen, GRUB installed

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