Wake On Lan setup has locked the laptop

pjp wrote:

In article , brian-bellivea...
@SPAMshaw.ca says...

On 2018-02-05 1:45 AM, Andy Burns wrote:
Brian Belliveau wrote:

It's a brick.

Remove CMOS battery, if it's a laptop remove main battery too, unplug
all SATA/IDE cables, remove all memory, unplug everything USB except a
wired keyboard, then turn it on ...

Do the LEDS on the keyboard flash at power on? Does it beep?

Absolutely nothing except the one power light flashing (mocking) five
times on power button pressing.

So I suspect the blinking 5 times is some code from the BIOS. Is it and
what does that error code refer to?

Can you remove the hard disk and try it in an enclosure on another pc to
see if it's anything "different" than it should be?

Can you remove laptop's cmos battery as well as it main battery so it
"hopefully" gets reset to default startup sequence?

If none of that worked for me I think I'd be salvaging parts out of the
laptop and it would hit recycle dealer.

Be interesting if the OP hears the HDD spinup on cold power boot. It
should be discernable separate of the CPU fan. Sounds like a turbine
winding up. The OP should also hear the CPU fan spin up. If the fan
doesn't reach a minimum RPM on boot, the BIOS will think the fan is dead
or not supplying enough airflow to cool the CPU so the BIOS immediately
power downs the computer.

A trick another Toshiba user said to use is to remove the main battery,
disconnect the A/C charger, press and hold the Power button for 30
seconds, reinsert the battery, attach the A/C charger, and try powering
up again.

To test the A/C charger works, need a voltmeter to test voltage at the
computer end of the A/C charger's cord while the charger is plugged into
a live A/C outlet. Plug a lamp into the outlet and check it comes on.
Plug the charger into that outlet (which hopefully isn't switched) and
use a voltmeter at the other end to see if there's any voltage. While
many laptops will power on with a dead main battery by using the A/C
charger, I've encountered a couple (and so has Paul) where the laptop
won't power up with a dead battery although connected to A/C power.

The OP said the problematic laptop is 8 years old. The main battery
won't last that long so it's probably dead. You'd think the laptop
would power up with the main battery removed or dead using just the A/C
charger but not always. Could be, for example, the battery is used as a
huge capacitor in the power rectification and smoothing and with that
"capacitor" then the average voltage is too low to let the power circuit
bring up the laptop.

I've also seen the power port get damaged. A wobble was noticeable with
the A/C cord's connector plugged into the port. The jack was loose from
the PCB so the computer couldn't get any power from the A/C charger nor
could the main battery get charged.

Sometimes under and near the cover plate for the memory module is a
connector on the mobo from the PSU. I've seen that where there the
cover plate was rather large (shows more underneath than just the RAM
slots). Unplug that connector, plug in the A/C charger to a live
outlet, connect to the laptop, and use a voltmeter to check voltage at
this internal connector.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYRWIdQonoI

This guy found the user had damaged the PCB or ports for the UBS ports
that was preventing the laptop from powering up. Above I noted that
I've seen abuse to the power jack in the laptop that prevented the main
battery from getting charged and prevented the computer from getting
power. I've also seen users that are rather heavy-handed when plugging
in USB cables. They must think they are plugging an 2- or 3-prong
appliance's cord into a wall outlet (but even those can be damaged).
Too bad the guy didn't inspect the PCB and ports for the USB ports. He
also didn't test the new USB PCB worked.

The OP mentioned this laptop gets used by others (probably kids). "It
lacks the defense against idiots screwing with it." The power jack and
USB ports are likely targets for physical abuse (along with the power
button and screen hinge). There are industrial-grade portable computers
but they are expensive and the OP doesn't have one of those. If this
laptop is on a desk with a drawer, he should configure the laptop to not
power off or sleep when its screen is closed, put it in the drawer with
the cords running over the backside of the drawer (use a jigsaw to cut
out a recess if needed), and lock that drawer (install a cabinet lock if
it doesn't have one). Granting physical access means abuse and config
change. That's why, for example, parents that configure a router for
censoring need to put it in a lockable closet so the kids can't get at
it to make changes or simply do a reset.

On 2/5/2018 6:18 PM, Good Guy wrote:
On 06/02/2018 01:53, Brian Belliveau wrote:

Absolutely nothing except the one power light flashing (mocking) five
times on power button pressing.

Well in that case the machine is dead and so you need to buy a new one
from DELL so that it comes with a one years' warranty and you can pay a
premium to get 3 or 4 years' extension.

How much do you know about machines? If you have the necessary tools
then open the box and see what the hell is happening. Repairing a dead
donkey is not advisable unless you have a money plant at home.


He did something that seems to have borked the bios process.
How comfortable should he be doing the same thing on a new machine?
When installing win8 did that to me...twice, I got very afraid of UEFI
fragility.