My notebook freezes at about 2-3 seconds into the boot process
I’m hoping you can help me figure out / repair a problem with my Toshiba Satellite A85-S107 notebook. As best as I can describe, here are the specifics:
1. Freezes at about 2-3 seconds into the boot process. Power comes on, fan kicks in, then nothing. Nothing on screen. Have to power down and try again. Sometimes takes 8-10 tries, and then it still sometimes freezes (screen is on, but no keyboard/mouse response) 5-10 minutes into Windows XP.
2. After going into hibernation, it generally freezes, as above.
3. Here’s where it gets strange – if I press firmly, just to the left of the power button, it will boot properly. The second I let up on the pressure, it freezes. If I hold the pressure until Windows is completely up and running, it is usually OK… until I go into hibernation.
4. I’ve deleted all my files and reloaded it w/ the factory disk several times, and I still get the same problem. It first happened when the system was about 3 months old, but I couldn’t do anything about it since I was in Iraq. Now that I have the system back, its just over a year old, so it’s out of warranty. I’ve taken it apart, as per the instructions on one of your pages, and its very clean on the inside – no dust or dirt buildup at all.
I’m really stumped at this point. I’m definitely not a real tech savvy guy, so I’m tempted to take in to a service center, but don’t want to pay several hundred dollars for a lot of diagnostics if it’s just a relatively simple hardware issue.
Can you help?
When a notebook freezes as you described above, the first thing is to test the memory module. With a failed memory module the notebook will behave exactly as you mentioned in the paragraph 1. To test the memory module you can download and run Memtest 86+ utility.
When you use hibernation, all current information from the memory is written on the harddrive into a hibernation file, it’s like a snapshot of active memory. So, next time you turn on the notebook, it boots back to where you were when you hibernated it. As you see, if you experience any problem during hibernation, it might be related to the memory or to the harddrive. I think that in your case most likely it’s the memory failure. But as a precaution, I would test the hard drive too. You can use Hitachi drive fitness test.
Now regarding the paragraph 3. Here’s my guess. I think that if the problem is related to memory failure, it’s not necessary that the memory module itself is bad. It also could be a bad memory slot on the motherboard. By default, Toshiba installs the memory module in the slot located under the keyboard. When you press on the spot left of the power button, you actually apply pressure on the motherboard, it flexes and the memory slot makes a better contact with the motherboard. As a result, the computer boots properly. In other words, try to move the memory module from the slot located under the keyboard to the slot that you can access from the bottom of the notebook. If both memory slots are occupied, try to remove the memory modules one by one and run the notebook after each removed module. It’s just a guess but it might help. I’ve seen some computers with a failed memory slot and they worked fine with the memory module installed into the second slot.
January 18th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Hi there,
I want to ask about booting up problems. I have a Toshiba Equium A60 692 and it fails to boot after the POST test. The Toshiba logo comes up then everything goes dead.
I want to know is the Processor dead or is there something else wrong. Would the Toshiba logo have come up if the processor was dead? The processor is a Pentium 4 2.8ghz. Any info is welcome.
Cheers!
January 9th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Hi Laptop guy,
Thanks very much for your opinion.
Im sending it back to Dell, to look in to and sort out the problem.I will keep posted about the details as and when they come in as it might help someone else with similar symptoms.Thanks again for your help with the replies.
Best Regards,
Alok
January 9th, 2007 at 12:10 am
Alok,
It’s hard to troubleshoot a laptop over the Internet. There could be hundreds different things causing the problem. I’ve tried to provide some basic troubleshooting steps but obviously they didn’t help a lot. At the next step I would probably start minimizing the system by removing all extra devices such as DVD drive, wireless card, modem, etc… until you have only three main parts left: motherboard, processor (with the cooling module) and memory. If the system still freezes, one of the three main parts is bad and I cannot say which one. It’s necessary to install known good parts and test again after each installed part. I think it might be necessary to take your laptop to a repair shop for more detailed diagnostics.
January 8th, 2007 at 12:43 am
Hello Laptop guy,
can you help me find out whats the problem with this thing i purchased by spending so much of money!!
Im back again…my problems seem never ending
Please see my posts 21,23 and 26 bcos this is what follows after tht..After i installed the new bios my laptop seemed to work perfectly fine untill one fine day out of nothing…it cant boot!! i thought it must be a virus or something and tried to boot it from the bootable disc..but no it doesnt boot…the behaviour tht happens while booting from HDD or from bootable disc is the same, i mention it below:
As soon as i power up the laptop, some of the leds for power and all start blinking..the BIOS loading page appears, and after tht nothing!! the power led keeps glowing, i tried it with the power cable plugged in as well as without it, the behaviour is the same..
When i boot from bootable disc, i get a message, windows is checking hardware settings or something like tht and then nothing happens…the power led keeps glowing and i do not get anything
strange is i can run the dell hardware diagnostic test cd by booting tht cd from the drive..i tried with another windows bootable cd and it just doesnt work..
Also, the dell hardware diagnostic tests..do not return any errors!
Can you please help me?? my problems with this laptop just seem never ending
December 25th, 2006 at 12:03 am
Hi LapTop Freak,
I updated my Laptop BIOS version, the manufacturer DELL had just released a new BIOS version and i updated to it.For past 4 days the laptop is working fine without giving any problems.
I want to thank you for all the help.
Its really appreciating to carry out a non profit venture like this one to help out people.People like me…end users face a prob..google..and come to forums like these..ask for help…and people like u help out without..we move on…and u continue to help others..it really is amazing..and i would really like to thank you for this great help and attitude.
Thanks again.
Wish you sucess and good luck.
-Alok
December 20th, 2006 at 7:42 pm
Steelrage,
To boot any laptop with video you need three main parts: system board (with video card), processor and memory. If one of the above mentioned parts is bad you will not get any video. The memory fails much more often than the processor or motherboard, and I would test the memory module first. Check if the module is seated properly, reseat it just in case. Find a test memory module and see if it makes any difference.
December 20th, 2006 at 7:35 pm
Alok,
First of all, in the post 21 you mentioned that the laptop is only 1 month old. Isn’t it still under warranty? If it is, I would send it back to Dell for repair. If you open up the laptop case yourself, you might lose the warranty.
It’s very hard to troubleshoot an intermittent problem and right now I cannot say what exactly is wrong with your laptop. First, I would find out what version of BIOS is installed on the laptop. Check the manufacturer’s website if there is a newer BIOS version available for your model, upgrade the BIOS if needed. After that test the laptop.
You have a new laptop and I don’t think that the fan is clogged with dust and the laptop basically overheats but check the heatsink anyway.
If I understand right the fan starts spinning very fast as soon as you turn on the laptop even before Windows starts loading, correct? If yes, then it doesn’t sound as a software issue. Remove the hard drive and test the laptop again, see if the fan still spins faster than usual. Remove other devices (like wireless card, DVD drive, modem, USB devices, PC card, etc…) and test the laptop again. If you removed all devices you can access and the laptop still have intermittent issues with the fan speed, then you might have a problem with the motherboard.
By the way, what if you unplug the main power and start the laptop just on the battery? The problem is still there? May be the AC adapter is bad and the power provided by the AC adapter is not correct? The voltage might be too high or too low. It’s just a guess, but still worth trying.
December 20th, 2006 at 6:49 pm
With reference to my previous post (post no 21)
I understand that this site is run on no profit basis and taking lot of efforts and its totally understable about some time before replying to queries but my bad being impatient with my problem i did some actions on the problem laptop before some reply on my query.
I had two partioned drives on the laptop c: and d: , I Formatted both the drives and reinstalled the Windows XP Sp2 OS. Now the boot up problem seems to have ceased to occur.The laptop doesnt get hanged during boot or at any other time.But i have noticied one particular problem,
sometimes when i start the laptop, the fan makes a lot of unusual noise of rotating very fast and the booting takes a very long time…it becomes very slow.But if i power down and restart the laptop again, the noise of the fan ceases and also the boot is fast(as normal case). It is also that the problem of the noise of fan and slow boot does not occur at every boot, it occurs only sometimes.
To detect if it is some hardware related problem, I ran the hardware diagnostics cd provided along with the dell, and it reports the memory, hard disk, fan and in fact all hardware devices tests to be passed.
It should not be software related as i have just reinstalled my OS.But if hardware the diagnostic doesnt report any failures too.
Can someone please please help me out and ascertain what the problem is?And how can i try to fix it?
December 19th, 2006 at 9:05 am
hey need some help here.. has anyone encountered a problem whereby they turn on the power button.. then they hear the hard disk spin a while, the cpu fan spins also then.. after that it just dies… nothing on screen.. no booting into bios or etc..
i’ve tride switching the ram slots but ntohign seems to work.. by the way i’m using an Acer aspire 1680.. and its passed its warranty period..
December 18th, 2006 at 9:17 pm
I recently, about a month ago bought a new Dell Latitude 820 laptop, and its giving me a problem since past 2/3 days. it doesnt boot up and even if it does it gets hanged
.
once i press the power key, sometimes its starts with some indicator lights blinking but dies right away and nothing happens further..If i press power up again it repeats the same process a few times again, sometimes it hangs up while loading the windows XP OS.
Also sometimes if it boots fine, it gets hanged after boot is complete, sometimes it hangs in midst of everything.the display is there but cannot move the mouse, keyboard doesnt work.
Is this a software related problem, some virus or trojan
or this is a hardware related problem??
Can you please tell me how should i do try to fix the problem?
December 5th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
I have a Acer Laptop, model: travelmate 4152 NLCi…
whenever i am trying to install windows Xp, my system shuts down automatically, this had never happened before as i have formatted the system many times.
As soon as the menu of windows XP comes for installing fresh windows XP, repair windows XP…etc.., my laptop just turns off, then i have to restart the system, boot the XP cd again…but the same thing happens–laptop shuts down.
One more important thing is that this is not only happening while installing windows, i tried to install UBUNTU 6.06 ( linux ), same thing happened.., system shuts down while installing.
Is there any hardware failure ( hard disk problem ) or some sort of virus attack.???
Also tell me that how many times a laptop harddisk can be formatted? is there any limitation for formatting??
November 30th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
Don,
I cannot say what is wrong just from the description you provided without testing the laptop. Check if there is a BIOS update for your model.
November 30th, 2006 at 11:07 pm
JagV12,
If the laptop was purchased in the United States then I think at this time Toshiba will fix this issue at no charge even if the laptop passed the warranty period. Call the customer service and ask about it.
Here’s what you can try yourself. Lift up the keyboard, here’s a guide for taking apart a Satellite Pro 6100 laptop and gently press on the video card to make sure it’s seated properly. Overtime the video card might pop up from the connector on the motherboard and cause a lot of different problems like boot failure, bad video, lock ups, etc…
Another very common issue with this model is a bad connection between the power board and the system board, but in this case the laptop usually fails to boot at all and power LED flashes orange. In this case we usually replace both boards.
November 30th, 2006 at 4:55 pm
My Dell Inspiron 500M freezes during booting when either my HP 2575 AIO or my WD external HD is turned on. I do not get any error messages. It just stops booting and may be on a blank screen or on a graphic. I have to power off and reboot after turning off the offending peripheral.Dell refuses to tell me how to fix this problem. Since it is only a pest, I wait till boot is completely before turning on either peripheral bugt would like to get it fixed. Do you know any solution?
Thanks. Don Barker
November 26th, 2006 at 8:52 am
I have a Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100 with an intermittant boot problem. When booting (with A/C adapter connected), When it fails, I get the toshiba splash screen, and then about 0.5 seconds of hard disk activity, then it freezes. The power and A/C LEDs remain on, the HDD LED sometimes stays on and sometimes stays off. If I am in safe boot mode, I get 5-20 lines (varies) of logging on screen before it freezes. The failure happens on 90% of retarts, and 80% of cold boots.
The behaviour is the same even with a new HDD and clean install of XP, also tried booting Linux with same results. I have upgraded to the latest BIOS version with no improvement.
The weird thing is that the system boots 100% OK when booted from CD, or USB floppy or when running from battery with A/C disconnected. Once it is booted, the system runs happily (for weeks) without crashing.
Any ideas?
November 9th, 2006 at 7:05 pm
Pinball Addict,
Nope, the laptop should be able to run even without the battery installed.
November 9th, 2006 at 10:26 am
I’ve checked the voltage coming in at the connector on the pcb and it’s correct. I’ve tested the on button back to the board and it’s OK.
It would seem that the battery is knackered, I can’t measure any voltage across it. Does this type of laptop need a battery to operate? If not, would it suggest this laptop needs to retired?
Regards
PA
November 8th, 2006 at 7:17 pm
Pinball Addict,
I don’t really have a straight answer to your question. It looks like the power switch button in this model is located on a separate board (you can access the board if you remove the keyboard bezel) and this board connects to the motherboard via a flat cable. You mentioned that you have two lights on the front but the laptop will not start. It could be a bad power switch board but as you understand that’s just a guess. It’s impossible to say what is wrong basing only on your description.
If you can find a multimeter, test the AC adapter and make sure it outputs correct voltage.
November 8th, 2006 at 11:16 am
Dear Laptop Freak,
I have a Toshiba Satellite 1400 that suddenly died. I have 2 lights on the front, the power in and battery charge. Press the on button does nothing, no flicker, no fans, no HDD light. I’ve opened up and made sure all connecters are seated correctly, i’ve tried removing the HDD, I’ve tried swapping the memory. Still nothing.
Any suggestions?
October 27th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
The Hard drive light is always green. Someone on another website told me to download a program called speed fan and check my hard drives SMART characteristics. I have no idea what that means but after they saw my results they told me that the hard drive was ok and it wasnt the problem that it might be a Mobo problem.
October 27th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
Ryan,
May be you have a bad hard drive? When the laptop freezes up on Toshiba screen, the hard drive LED is off or it’s solid green? What if you remove the hard drive, does it still freeze up on the Toshiba screen?
October 26th, 2006 at 11:05 pm
Im having a similar problem with my Toshiba Satellite A65-S126. I turn it on and it will freeze at the Toshiba screen. It will sit there for like 15 minutes until it either starts windows or gives me the option to boot up from the hdd, cd etc… Im also having a problem with the USB that I think is related. None of my USB devices seem to work when I plug them in and the pop up bubble that says “USB device not recognized” pops up all the time even if I have nothing in the USB slots.
October 2nd, 2006 at 9:04 pm
Andris,
It could be a failing hard drive. Can you a better description of the noise? Can you check if it’s coming from the hard dive area? If so, I would back up all important file as soon as possible because the hard drive can fail any time.
Test the hard drive with Hitachi DFT test, the link is in the post.
October 2nd, 2006 at 8:31 pm
hi I have a Dell Inspiron notebook and it recently just started moving slowly and makes this noise before it freezes up completely. So then i just hold the power button down till it shuts off. I’m freaked out coz I have midterms this friday and i don’t know what to do besides running dell diagnostic tools.
What could be the problem?
September 30th, 2006 at 11:03 am
Happy,
I think it could be a failed hard drive or a corrupted Windows OS. If you don’t really care about your personal data on the hard drive, you can try re-imaging the drive using a recovery DVD you got from Toshiba. Insert the recovery DVD into the DVD drive, restart the laptop, press F12 as soon as Toshiba logo appears on the screen and choose boot from CD/DVD drive. Follow the instructions. You can backup your data if you install the hard drive into an external USB enclosure and connect it to another working computer.
September 28th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
Dear Laptop Freak,
Also, I forgot to mention that I tried to do a system repair for Windows XP. After looking up the instructions on how to do so, I was supposed to get a message that said:
Before I do that, I have to find a good friend to burn the image for me.
Microsoft Windows(R) Recovery Console
The Recovery Console provides system repair and recovery functionality.
Type EXIT to quit the Recovery Console and restart the computer.
1: C:\WINDOWS
Which Windows Installation would you like to log onto
(To cancel, press ENTER)?
Well, I did not get option 1. Does this confirm that I do have a failed HD?
Thanks,
Happy
September 26th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
Happy,
Test the hard drive. Download Hitachi Drive Fitness test and burn it on a CD. It’s an .iso image, you can burn it using Nero, Roxio, Alcohol, or any other burning software. After that boot the laptop from the CD and run the test. I think you might have a failed hard drive.
September 26th, 2006 at 7:26 pm
Hi,
My laptop has been acting weird. I came home today to see the screen all black. It was on all day and when I tried moving the mouse or pressing the keys, it wouldn’t respond. So, I went ahead and did it the foolish way by pressing the power button.
When I turned it on, it stayed as a black screen with a blinking underscore symbol for almost an hour. I got fed up and went to the store to buy some compressed air and cleaned the dust out.
It worked fine, and so I left it like that for 15 minutes. When I came back, a blue screen popped up and said something like, “If this is your first time seeing this screen…,” etc. And it did something called “DUMP”.
I have no idea what to do. I can’t even turn it on to do diagnostic tests on it.
Thanks in advance,
Happy
September 4th, 2006 at 3:32 pm
Yep, just remove the memory module from the slot located under the keyboard and put it in the slot on the bottom. You shouldn’t have any problem if the default slot is empty. It doesn’t really matter witch slot is occupied. I’m not sure if it’s going to help, but at least you can try it without taking the laptop to a repair shop.
BTW, test the laptop (turn it on and run for a while) when the top cover is removed. May be you experience some kind of grounding issue (laptop works when you press on the top cover) and it will work fine without the top cover.
September 4th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
Thanks for the advice. I ran both memtest and the hitachi diagnostic multiple times, and the memory and hard drive did fine. So, I think that my best bet is to do what you recommend on the bad memory module.
Is it just a matter of taking the original 256 MB off of the original slot and put them in the expansion slot? Will having the default / factory memory slot empty cause any problems?
thanks again for your help.