I’m having a problem with the CD/DVD drive of my laptop (Toshiba satellite L100). It has stopped reading all CDs and DVDs, and disappeared from my computer and device manager. I have figured out the problem, the drive has become loose and I have to reinsert it.
How will I be able to do that without asking for a technician’s help?
I know nothing about stuffs like this (esp opening a laptop) so please give me an easy-to-follow guide.
I’m not familiar with this particular Toshiba model but most likely you’ll have to remove one screw from the bottom of the laptop and then push the CD/DVD drive from the laptop.
Here’s an example of removing CD/DVD drive from a Toshiba Satellite A105 laptop, could be similar to your laptop. Take a look at the disassembly steps 6 and 7.
I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop. I’m trying to recover it using the recovery DVD that came with the computer. I followed the instructions on the DVD case: popped in the DVD, shut down the computer, powered up the computer while pressing F12. I see the screen with 4 options and I chose CD/DVD. The instructions says the computer should reboot from the DVD after picking this option, but I only see a black screen. The DVD is attempting to be read but nothing happens at all. I repeated the process several times, but I get the same thing. Can you help please?
You are doing everything correctly and it should work.
Try cleaning the recovery DVD disc with a soft cloth, maybe the disc is dirty. Also, try cleaning the CD/DVD drive laser with alcohol wipe, maybe the laser is not clean.
Is the laptop still bootable into Windows? Can you see the CD/DVD drive in My Computer? Does your CD/DVD drive read CDs and DVDs?
What is your reason for reimaging the hard drive?
Here’s what you can try to narrow down the problem. Try booting the laptop from another bootable disc. You can use generic Windows OS CD, live Linux CD (Knoppix for example), ultimate boot CD or any other bootable CD/DVD.
If the laptop boots from other discs but not from the Toshiba recovery disc, apparently the recovery disc is not good and has to be replaced.
If the laptop cannot boot from any bootable disc then most likely you have a problem with the CD/DVD drive.
My Portege 3505 laptop cannot go to Windows after fail in splitting partition by partition magic. I tried to boot from USB drive but it doesn’t recognize the USB. It happen the same with external Toshiba DVD Rom which connect to the laptop by a cardbus card. I tried to boot by a floppy disk, it was OK but didn’t recognize the USB or DVD ROM( I used a software of HP to boot from floppy disk and can use CDROM). Please help me to make my laptop recognize the USB or DVD ROM on DOS!!!
Not sure if you can see the USB drive or external DVD drive in DOS on this model, but you have to be able to boot from the external DVD drive.
In order to reinstall the operating system using the external DVD dive you have to follow these steps:
1. Connect the external DVD drive to the laptop through the PC card slot.
2. Open up the DVD drive and insert the recovery disc or a generic Windows XP disc.
3. Turn on the laptop and press F12 as soon as Toshiba logo appears on the screen. Select the DVD drive from the boot menu.
I don’t know why you want to see the external USB device or DVD drive in DOS, but if you are trying to recover personal data from the hard drive you can use the following methods.
1. Easy one. You can use external USB enclosure for laptop hard drives. Remove the hard drive from the laptop, install it into the enclosure, connect this enclosure to another computer via USB port. Access the hard drive through My Computer and backup the data.
2. Difficult one. Boot the laptop from Knoppix CD - live Linux CD with GUI interface. Connect an external hard drive or flash drive (has to be formatted with FAT32) to the laptop using the USB port, this device should be detected by Knoppix. Transfer all data from the laptop to the external drive. I believe before you can write to an external drive in Knoppix you have to set this drive to be writable.
I have a major problem. I have a Toshiba Satellite P15-S479 laptop. I just replaced the hard drive and when I tried to turn my computer on I get this error:
Intel UNDI, PXE-2.0 (build 082)
Copyright (c) 1997-2000 Intel Corporation
For Reatek RTL8139(x)/8130/810x PCI Fast Ethernet Controller v2.13 (020326)
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM.
I can see in the BIOS screen that it recognizes the new hard drive but all I keep getting is that message. I would really appreciate any help you can give me. It won’t allow me to do anything, I have the recovery CD but can’t get passed that screen to use it.
I think there is nothing wrong with your laptop and it displays PXE-E61 media test failure message because the hard drive is brand new and has not partition and file system. You can see the hard drive in the BIOS and this is good, it means the hard drive is detected.
In order to boot the laptop from the recovery CD you have to change the boot order in the BIOS and make sure the DVD drive is listed first. Alternatively, you can press F12 key as soon as Toshiba logo appears on the screen. After that it will display the boot menu and you can select the DVD drive. Here’s one more trick. Press “C” key when Toshiba logo is displayed, it will boot the laptop directly from the CD-Rom without displaying the boot menu.
Boot the laptop from the recovery disc and install the operating system. It should fix the problem. I hope it helps.
My DVD Drive in my Compaq Presario V5000 laptop just crapped out, its not reading any kind of media I am putting in. I downloaded a vista lookalike but its still running on Windows XP, do you think that is the problem, or is the Drive just bunk now? LOL.
Find a bootable CD and try booting your laptop from this CD. I believe on HP (Compaq) laptop you have to press F12 on startup to get to the boot menu and then chose the CD/DVD drive. Press Enter to start booting from the CD/DVD drive.
You can use any Windows CD, live Linux CDs (Knoppix for example) or something like that. In short, any bootable CD will work fine.
If the laptop boots from the CD but you cannot access the same CD in Windows, most likely you have a software related problem. Try reinstalling Windows and it will fix your problem.
If the laptop will not boot from the CD, apparently you have a bad drive and it has to be replaced. Before you replace the drive, try reconnecting it. Just remove the drive from the laptop and insert back in place. It could be just a bad connection between the drive and the motherboard.
By the way, if your CD/DVD drive disappeared from My Computer, you can fix it using this methods.
I recently had the hard drive replaced in my TOSHIBA SATELITE 1805-S254. When I use the DVD/CD-RW drive I get several error messages. When I put a disc (audio, data, DVD) in I get “THE DISC IS CORRUPTED OR WRITTEN IN A FORMAT NOT SUPPORTED BY WINDOWS” error message. Usually I just eject the disc and reinsert it and it runs fine.
If I choose to make an audio CD or send data to the disc, I get “MISSING DRIVE” message. If I use media player to burn a disc it tells me to “CONNECT A BURNER”.
It all worked fine before I replaced the HD. I checked the recovery disc and there is no specific program to install the DVD/CD-RW software. I’m worried that since it stopped burning discs, one of these days it will stop reading them as well. Thanks for your time and help.
The hard drive was replaced and the operating system reinstalled so it’s not software related problem. The laptop still plays audio, data, DVD disks intermittently and it tells me that most likely the IDE controller on the motherboard is fine. I think the DVD/CD-RW drive itself is failing. I doubt the problem is related to the hard drive replacement, it’s just a coincidence. Here’s a Satellite 1800 disassembly guide, just in case if you need it in the future.
I recently got a PCG-R505EL laptop from a friend with floppy and CD-ROM dock but sans hard drive. He claimed the hard drive went bad so he tossed it but ended up getting a new laptop rather than fixing this one.
So I figured I’d give it a shot. I got as far as putting a new hard drive.
I made some boot disks for Windows XP and Win2000 and ordered the Sony recovery CDs for this specific laptop.
Problem:
When I tried to boot up with the new hard drive installed, the screen remains blank and then spells out “GRUB”. I guess this means my friend had Linux or something installed.
So I decided to try to install Windows. When trying to install Windows, after I get to the last of the boot floppies, the on-screen instructions tell me to insert the Windows CD. But, then it stops. The laptop won’t recognize the CD.
So then I figured it might work if I restore the original BIOS. But I don’t have a clue where to look on the restore CDs. I went to the Sony website and they do have an installer program to reinstall the PCG-R505EL’s original BIOS but the program also requires that you run it on that computer.
So, here I am.
Any suggestions you could give me would be greatly appreciated.
You are right, GRUB is a boot loader and people use it for multiboot systems. But you shouldn’t have any loader installed on your hard drive, because as you mentioned it’s a new one. Even if your friend had Linux, it’s shouldn’t affect you in any way because his hard dive gone.
Make sure that the Windows CD you are trying to use is in good condition. I would try to boot the laptop from any other bootable CD, to figure out if the CD-ROM drive works at all. If you don’t have a boot CD, you can download and use Hitachi Drive Fitness test utility. You can download a CD image file from their website and burn it on a CD. After that try to boot the laptop from the CD you just burned. If it boots fine, you also can use this utility for testing the hard drive. If it will not boot, them you might have a problem with the drive itself or a bad connection between the laptop and the dock station. I would probably try to reseat the drive just in case if there is a bad connection between the drive and the dock station.
I’m not familiar with this model and not sure if you can disable/enable the CD-ROM drive in BIOS. Enter the BIOS (SETUP) and see if you can somehow enable the CD-ROM drive. To enter the BIOS try F2 or F3 keys on start up.