LENOVO SERVICE FOR B540

Question

I have seen a lot of complaints in these forums and elsewhere related to unsatisfactory warranty service from Lenovo.  I think that it is important, therefore, to let everyone know of my positive warranty service experience.  My B540 repeatedly failed to boot, displaying the infamous Error 1962 message.  After spending about an hour on the phone with a clearly understandable U.S.-based Lenovo warranty rep, I was told that Lenovo was going to have their service techs install a new motherboard and some other parts.  The parts were briefly backordered, but within 1-1/2 weeks a service tech arrived at my house, replacing the motherboard and some cables in about an hour.  The B540 has functioned with no problems since then.  It is unfortunate that the computer malfunctioned in the first place, but Lenovo did everything that I could expect from a computer manufacturer to correct the problem.  Good going, Lenovo!
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Answer 1

I learned that the 1962 error code typically means either a) a bad hard drive, or b) a corrupted boot file.  However, my hard drive (the original that came with the computer) would boot correctly some of the time, and also worked just fine when I tried it in a different computer.  I usually try to solve things myself, so I actually tried two other brand new hard drives in the B540 before I contacted Lenovo.  The problem was the same with all of the drives; sometimes they booted and sometimes I got Error 1962.  I also thought that it might be a defective data cable, but Lenovo uses a proprietary combination power and date cable, so there was no way that I could put in a new standard data cable.  I explained all of this to Lenovo when I spoke with them, and they agreed that in light of the tests I had already done, it had to be either the data cable or the motherboard.  They sent both to the service tech, and he installed both.  Thus I will never know for sure whether it was the cable or the board, but obviously it must be less costly to pay their tech to install both at the same time rather than having to return later if only one or the other is installed and the problem persists.
Lenovo did, by the way, also send a new hard drive, but I told the tech that I wanted to try using the original (supposedly bad) hard drive first.  That original hard drive is working just fine. Based on what I've read in the Lenovo forums, the Error 1962 problem has plagued several B540 owners; I have never experienced this with other computers.