So first to my EPM readers this one is not for you unless you have one of these tablets and its not turning on.

How to update graphics drivers. Updating graphics drivers entails a slightly different process than that described above, since in many cases, you must download the driver update from the manufacturer of your graphics card – not the company that built your laptop or desktop computer or supplied the operating system. The Verge Rating, 3.8 out of 5 3.8 Monica Chin on March 11, 2020 Lenovo Yoga C740 review: par for the course Exactly what a budget ultrabook should be Full Review.

Recently our family received this tablet from Emily's dad. He is a old-school mainframe guy which is pretty cool for me. Anyway he wasn't using it and figured we might want it. When we received the tablet it initially was working but it had all of his information on it so we decided to do a reset to reload the Operating System. Little did we know at the time but that was a mistake.

Shortly after the rest the machine decided it was not going to boot into windows. I could see the touch screen was working but it was just a black screen and when you touched it you could see the mouse trials. I made multiple attempts to reload the operating system but honestly this thing is weird, it only has one micro-USB and one micro-HDMI. Eventually I realized this was not something I could do.

Emily called up Geek Squad, which was hilarious since they were baffled because it has no keyboard. They told her something to the affect that tablets don't have operating systems and they run Android, obviously anyone who has seen a surface pro knows that's completely false. Needless to say Emily now listens when I say that Geek Squad is worthless for PC repair.

Next Emily called Lenovo which told her that she needed a USB drive that they could send that would reload the operating system, Awesome! So a week goes by and we get the USB drive. I try to run it a few times but every time it gets stuck because the tablet BIOS is version 01WT17WW and the one the USB drive wants to load is 01WT12WW. I resisted digging into the USB drive for a while but eventually I decided to pop it into my desktop and do some recon.

I found a file called platform.ini and noticed a section that talked about the BIOS check.

I had to do this while she was asleep otherwise she probably would have not let but I decided to try out making a few changes to the file. Eventually I found that I could bypass the BIOS check error by changing one of the flags (CheckByBios=1).

With the flag now changed I put the drive back on the tablet and attempted to reload the operating system. This time when it went to the BIOS check it skipped the error message and went strait into flashing the BIOS back to the older version (01WT12WW.) After that it took maybe another 20 minutes but we appear to have a working Windows 8.1 tablet!

So if anyone else out there runs into this problem I hope this helps.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

For a mainstream consumer laptop, I found Lenovo's Yoga 7i 15 to be a delight. First of all, Intel's new 11th-generation processors make a big difference in terms of graphics power and connectivity, but the Dark Moss color is a nice touch.

However, I went into this review asking one big question: why? The Yoga 7i 15 weighs in at 4.19 pounds. That's pretty standard for a 15-inch laptop encased in aluminum, but these types of PCs tend to also have 45W processors and dedicated graphics. Once we start looking at 15-inch PCs that have integrated graphics, they start targeting the thin and light market.

The Yoga 7i 15 does neither. It's not thin and light, nor does it have dedicated graphics. With Intel's Iris Xe graphics, there's a lot more power under the hood than something like this used to have, and it's quite an enjoyable PC.

Specs

CPU	Intel Core i7-1165G7, 2.8GHz, four cores, eight threads
GPU	Intel Iris Xe
Display	15.6” FHD (1920x1080), IPS Touch, 100% sRGB, HDR400 Dolby Vision, 500 nits
Body	14.03x9.27x0.7-0.75in (356.46x235.65x17.97-19.25mm), 4.19lbs (1.9kg)
Storage	512GB PCIe NVMe
RAM	12GB LPDDR4
Ports	(2) USB 3.2 Gen 2, Type-A (2) Thunderbolt 4, Type-C (Power, DP 1.4, Data, Always on) (1) 3.5mm Headphone/Mic Combo Audio Jack
Connectivity	Intel Wi-Fi 6 802.11 AX (2 x 2) + Bluetooth 5.0
Audio	2 x 2W user-facing Dolby Atmos Speaker System
Keyboard	6-row, multimedia Fn keys, LED backlight Precision Touchpad
Battery	71Wh
Material	Aluminum
Color	Dark Moss
OS	Windows 10 Home
Price	$1,049.99

This model seems to only be available from Best Buy. Lenovo's website has a different configuration, and seems to not currently be offering a customizable model.

Day one

Design

The Lenovo Yoga 7i 15 comes in both Slate Grey and Dark Moss, and Lenovo sent me the Dark Moss model. I have to say, I kind of love it. If you follow my reviews, then you've seen me criticize the design of Lenovo's consumer Yoga laptops as dull. The Slate Grey color, while traditional and fine for some, it's just boring in a world where Lenovo's competitors are doing more exciting things.

The Dark Moss color is a shade of green that's tinted more on the yellow end of the spectrum than the blue end. It's not bright and vibrant; it's more subtle than that while still having a deep color. When I saw that it was a shade of green, this is admittedly different from what I was expecting. In fact, you might want to see it in person before you buy it, although I like it a lot.

In the top-left corner, the Yoga logo is a mirrored greenish-yellow, giving it a nice touch. It's the first time I've seen the logo come in something other than silver, if my memory serves me. The Lenovo logo on the bottom right is Dark Moss in a silver frame.

Note that I'm going to say similar things about the Yoga 9i 14, since Lenovo seems to finally be trying different things with its consumer laptops.

The lid of the aluminum laptop is stamped with 'Yoga 7 Series', something that you'd expect to see from a Yoga laptop ever since Lenovo introduced its reverse notch design. Speaking of the aluminum build, this does weigh in at over four pounds, so it's not a necessarily light device. It is, however, a fairly inexpensive device considering what you get.

Part of that value is Thunderbolt 4, one of the value propositions behind Intel's 11th-generation processors. With Thunderbolt 4, you can get 40Gbps data transfer speeds off of a single port, or you can use one to power dual 4K monitors or one 8K monitor. If Iris Xe graphics aren't enough for you, you can use it to connect an external GPU. With two Thunderbolt 4 ports, you can connect dual 4K displays to your laptop and still have a port leftover for charging.

Sound familiar? It should, because Thunderbolt 3 had the same capabilities. There's one key difference now, and it's an important one. With Thunderbolt 4, that's the minimum spec. With Thunderbolt 3, the minimum spec allowed OEMs to use two lanes instead of four, chopping the bandwidth in half. That meant 20Gbps speeds, one 4K display, and so on. The even bigger problem was that if you bought a PC with Thunderbolt 3, there was no easy way to tell if it was a minimum spec port or a full port. Now, there's no question of what a Thunderbolt 4 port can do.

On the other side, you'll find two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, delivering 10Gbps data transfer speeds. It's nice to see current-generation ports on the USB Type-A side of things too, because I just reviewed an HP EliteBook x360 1040 that still had USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports.

Overall, I do like the design, particularly the Dark Moss color that comes with the aluminum build. It's a bit heavy considering what it offers, but I appreciate it considering that it only costs just over a thousand dollars and comes with a pretty big battery.

Display and audio

The Lenovo Yoga 7i 15 has, you guessed it, a 15.6-inch display. It only comes with an option for Full HD resolution, so there's no 4K option like we've seen from the 7-series in the past. This always

Install Windows 8 Lenovo Yoga 11