Well it seems my laptop has give up the ghost. The HD started making funny crunching noises and now it wont even post. Now I know a bit about desktops but nothing about laptops so Im wondering if the HD completley died would it still get to bios? Im thinking yes but just wanted to be sure before I scrapped it. Also before it died I was getting lots of CMOS errors when resuming windows, I dont think there was a problem with the CMOS battery but if it is a low/dead battery would it stop the lappy booting? Im thinking no, the CMOS battery is just there to keep the BIOS memory. But again I know nowt about lappys and would just like to check before scrapping it. Is there any other obvious things I should check before I condem it? Cheers. Pete.
Just sounds like a hard disk error to me mate, i have a fairly dated laptop, but use all the time on the desk and it has inherent hard disk errors. The failure you described eg crunching and slight squeks is definately a mechanical hard disk error. If you want to check it out without going to much expense, and see whether replacing the hard drive would be useful, try and get yourself a linux distribution and run it from usb key or CD. And as regards to the cmos battery it should only be at 3v, if your bios is messing you around try unplugging/removing the bios battery for 3 minutes and replacing , then booting up. Good luck , btw wats the model of laptop and manufacture date
Cheers for the reply. The HD was deffo on its way out but if it did finaly die should I be able to get to the bios? Just when I power the machine up, the power lights come on but I get nothing on screen. Does that sound like a bad HD could do that? I thought I waould still get to a bios screen. Its a toshiba Sat Pro M30. I have no idea of the manufacture date but would say within the last 2 years as its quite decent spec. Thakns again.
I have a toshiba sat pro a10 celeron 2.4 512mb wifi I have had to replace the hdd twice. Try removing the hard disk and rebooting. Might be a bios problem, i know from experience that toshiba make it hard to access the bios battery. Try this: 1. Remove HDD 2. Unplug power cable 3. Remove Main battery 4. Hold power button for 5 seconds 5. Put main battery back in 6. Plug into mains and turn on If this does not reset the bios then you will have to take the laptop apart (very fun might i add) and disconnect/reconnect cmos battery.
Right Ive tried all that and still nothing. To be honest I think its something a bit more serious that th HD or CMOS battery. I know the HD was on its way out but I reckon this is either something loose in the lappy or a dead board. I say this because it did this exact same thing about a month back. It just stopped working for a day, I went back the next dy booted it and everything was fine. Very strange. Ill get the CMOS battery out and test it anyways. I had it to bits yesterday and actualy supprised I got it back together with no screws leftover, nightmare. Cheers for the help anyways.
You could be the proud owner of a toshiba doorstop lmao. Yeh my laptop will Blue screen sometimes , and reboot and not boot into windows at all. I leave it alone for an hour and it works fine for a couple of days.
Yeah, last toshiba Im buying. Never had any probs with any of my vaios. Ive been offered £150 for it as it is so might just take that and put it towards another machine.
You might wanna consider sending it to a laptop repair specialist first (e.g. Laptop Repair) - to see if they can fix it for a reasonable price? IMO... there's no point in selling it if the problem can be fixed relatively cheaply... especially if the laptop is worth more than you've been offered (and it sounds like it should be - given that you've said it's "quite decent spec")
Yeah I was actualy on that site earlier considering this. Ive stripped it this afternoon to see if it was anything obvious but couldnt see anything. Im prety sure its something mainboard related, plus the HDs on it way out so Im thinking getting it fixed is gonna cost a fair bit. With the problems Ive allready had with it Im thinking it may be best to just let it go for £150. It is reasonable spec. P4M 1.5, 768 PC 2700, GF FX GO5200. But I only payed £200 for it anyways so not loosing out that bad. Think Ill sleep on it.
