Calling all Potshotpolka's and Spiffy's at convenience :D

[duhoh]

Ok, so I'm working on my uncle's laptop ATM. Right now I don't have the model with me, just need to pick it up when I have a reasonable solution to follow through on. It's a Toshiba running Windows 7 Home Premium, or at least it WAS.

 

So automatic updates were installing as such (normal day to day operations for him) and he set it to shut down. During the shut down process, it's configuring the updates, right? Well during that process, his daughter gets fed up with how long it's taking to shut down since she wants to use it ASAP, and holds the power button down. Problem now, is that the thing refuses to POST at all. Can't even access the BIOS.

 

From a complete power down to hitting the power button, it shows the splash screen with its logo, and whatever F key to access the BIOS. I hit the key, and it does the exact same thing when I'm don't press the key, which is after the splash screen, all it shows is a blank black screen with a flickering underscore at the very top. No activity afterwards, just sits there.

 

Now I wanna try using my own laptop parts such as swapping out my RAM for his stuff to see if it's possibly a RAM malfunction and/or swapping out my HDD (since my SSD is on its way). I've pulled out the individual SO-DIMMs to see if either one could be an issue (but then I want to test both on my laptop when I get the chance since it's a working machine) but that changed nothing. I'm kind of leaning towards RAM being the culprit though.

 

I've also found out that similar models made around the same time had soldering issues w/ the mobo and the power connectors and such (beyond what I want to mess with ATM), and some people have simply said that they bought a new battery and it was fine. With the battery though, I've pulled it out and booted straight from AC and nothing changes AFAIK.

 

Now, seeing as it won't POST at all, I'm wondering if updating the BIOS (if it's possibly corrupted) is even possible. The warranty period has been over for quite some time FYI. Now, does this seem like a hopeless thing or what?

 

Any thoughts or suggestions outside of what I've already done would be greatly appreciated, and don't worry about dumbing down any instructions, as I am A+ certified myself. Meanwhile, I'll be looking up more info on this dumb thing for a bit. Oh and you can probably find me on vent if that's more convenient for you. Either way, please don't go too far out of your way to help, we're all busy people.

 

Thanks!

[hackerz]

Last time I had that issue with someones computer I took out the battery, removed the main power supply, held the power button down for 30 seconds, put the power supply back in, turn the laptop on, then put the battery back in and it worked like a charm. Hope it helps out.

 

hackerz

[Daze]

If it won't power on self test, I'd lean towards motherboard failure..

[Spiffy]

Basically what hackerz said. You will most likely need to open the puppy up and remove the BIOS/CMOS Battery. If you can get the model I'm sure we could find a guide to make it easier.

[duhoh]

sweet. i'll have to get back on yall in a bit. i won't be messing with that laptop until my ssd comes in, which should be later this week.

 

thanks fellas

[PotshotPolka]

Remove/Reinsert the CMOS battery. If it isn't working still, and it's not under warranty and he's not willing to spend the $100-200 to ship it off for replacement, then another option is oven-soldering, which is imo full-spectrum retarded, but what the hell, otherwise it's a paperweight.

[Dirk]

Yeah, try resetting the CMOS but it sounds to me like attempting to boot with a different OS or the windows disc is worth a shot. I have had similar things happen when the system hung on an update (it should never take 12 hours to update). Running it off the disc worked fine to undo the damage. You could also try installing something like Ubuntu on a flash drive and trying to boot to that. If it boots with any other OS its most likely not hardware failure.

[Dirk]

Just to be safe, you did make sure there are no discs in the optical drive right? Had someone think a PC was bricked recently when a game disc left in the drive was being picked up by the bios. Yeah that will cause this problem every time.

[duhoh]

dirk if it won't even POST, it's none of the things you've described. the BIOS is inaccessible. can't even make it boot from USB using a live image of windows/linux.

[Dirk]

From what you said it simply did not respond to your inputs and went to a dead end screen. It may not have POSTed but it may have. The problems I described prevented me from accessing the BIOS at all. However, the fact that it did not boot off the flash drive means the first option is mostly rules out. But, yes, the game disk in the drive did keep the BIOS from responding, I assume you have ruled that out though.