Can't Boot

On Fri, 8 Jul 2016 01:54:00 -0000 (UTC), Boris
wrote:

VanguardLH wrote in :

Boris wrote:

I've (wife) got a Toshiba laptop, originally running Win8, then auto-
upgraded to Win8.1, then auto-upgraded to Win10 about a month ago. I
have a recovery USB drive for this machine.

Yesterday, the machine wouldn't boot. If I press the power button, I
can see the power light come on, I hear the fan come on, and the hard
drive spin up, After about three seconds, the fan stops, but I can
still hear the hard drive spinning. The power light is still on, but
nothing on the screen. If I then force a power off by holding the
power button down for about five seconds, the machine beeps, and
turns off completely.

I removed the hard drive, and can access it just fine as an external
drive when connected to another computer. All files are there.

Does the laptop have a video output, like a VGA port? If so, connect
it to an external monitor. You may have to hit an Fn key combo to get
the hardware to switch from internal to external monitor (the manual
should explain how).

Is the problem the screen remains blank although you suspect Windows
has actually loaded? Do you hear any beeps when you cold boot the
laptop?

Well, I just connected the machine to my TV via an HDMI, Of course I
can't see the list of external outputs, and I need to select Second
Screen Only. It's at the bottom of the list, which I can't see, but I
used the touchpad to blindly scroll all the way right and then down, but
no luck when I then clicked. BTW, I can't see the mouse arrow either,

I can't see a way of testing the LCD monitor without seeing anyting on
screen to be sure that I've selected the proper output.

Out of warranty repair costs are high, per the Toshiba Repair Site:

Minor Repair: $375.00*
Replacement of either the hard drive, touchpad,
keyboard, CD or DVD driver, or memory (RAM).

Major Repair: $550.00*
Replacement or repair of either the LCD
or motherboard.

I may have to scrap this machine.

I've fixed a few dozen laptops over the past 5-6 years that had symptoms
like yours. If you're lucky, you can shine a flashlight on your LCD screen
and see the normal boot-up display and Windows logon-screen. If so, the
problem is the display, or more specifically, the inverter or the cold
cathode fluorescent lamp (ccfl). The inverter is probably $10-15 on Ebay and
usually easy to replace, by laptop standards, so I always start there.
Youtube has videos for many models.

"Boris" wrote in message
09.88...
I've (wife) got a Toshiba laptop, originally running Win8, then auto-
upgraded to Win8.1, then auto-upgraded to Win10 about a month ago. I
have
a recovery USB drive for this machine.

Yesterday, the machine wouldn't boot. If I press the power button, I
can
see the power light come on, I hear the fan come on, and the hard
drive
spin up, After about three seconds, the fan stops, but I can still
hear
the hard drive spinning. The power light is still on, but nothing on
the
screen. If I then force a power off by holding the power button down
for
about five seconds, the machine beeps, and turns off completely.

I removed the hard drive, and can access it just fine as an external
drive
when connected to another computer. All files are there.

So, any idea what could cause this? The hard drive spins, and is
readable
as an external drive, but won't boot up. Perhaps it never reached the
boot
up stage?

Could the UEFI be corrupt? If so, I believe I can format a USB flash
drive
as FAT32, but how would I get the ailing machine to boot from USB,
since I
can't get in to change the boot order?

TIA

You could try this:

http://ccm.net/forum/affich-24155-la...en-switched-on

Have seen this solution posted a few times and it has worked for some
people.

"Boris" wrote in message
09.88...
I've (wife) got a Toshiba laptop, originally running Win8, then auto-
upgraded to Win8.1, then auto-upgraded to Win10 about a month ago.


Just out of interest.

Try removing the charger cable and boot on battery power?

Fingers crossed.

mac

"Boris" wrote in message
09.88...
"dadiOH" wrote in :


"Boris" wrote in message
09.88...
I've (wife) got a Toshiba laptop, originally running Win8, then auto-
upgraded to Win8.1, then auto-upgraded to Win10 about a month ago. I
have a recovery USB drive for this machine.

Yesterday, the machine wouldn't boot. If I press the power button, I
can see the power light come on, I hear the fan come on, and the hard
drive spin up, After about three seconds, the fan stops, but I can
still hear the hard drive spinning. The power light is still on, but
nothing on the screen. If I then force a power off by holding the
power button down for about five seconds, the machine beeps, and
turns off completely.

I removed the hard drive, and can access it just fine as an external
drive when connected to another computer. All files are there.

So, any idea what could cause this? The hard drive spins, and is
readable as an external drive, but won't boot up. Perhaps it never
reached the boot
up stage?

Could the UEFI be corrupt? If so, I believe I can format a USB flash
drive
as FAT32, but how would I get the ailing machine to boot from USB,
since I can't get in to change the boot order?

The mobo could be bad. If so, it is probably a bad capacitor. Or, it
could just be bad. My new computer will arrive next week; it replaces
the one that did much the same as yours, mobo was shot.

Can you enter BIOS?




Wish I could, but Not in Windows 10.

Windows 10 or any other OS has nothing to do with being able to enter the
BIOS. If your computer won't respond to whatever key - usually F2- is used
during POST to enter the BIOS, your motherboard is shot.

dadiOH wrote:

Windows 10 or any other OS has nothing to do with being able to enter the
BIOS.

If the O/S is suspended, rather than shutdown (and Win10's "fast
startup" is a form of suspended) then when powered on the machine will
not give you the chance to enter the BIOS/UEFI.

"Andy Burns" wrote in message
...
dadiOH wrote:

Windows 10 or any other OS has nothing to do with being able to enter the
BIOS.

If the O/S is suspended, rather than shutdown (and Win10's "fast startup"
is a form of suspended) then when powered on the machine will not give you
the chance to enter the BIOS/UEFI.

Ugh, a catch 22.

On 7/8/2016 3:47 AM, Smirnoff wrote:
You could try this:

http://ccm.net/forum/affich-24155-la...en-switched-on

Have seen this solution posted a few times and it has worked for some
people.
Quote from above link
" hold the start button on ur laptop for 20-30 seconds,,"

I understand about turning off the power, removing the battery, and
counting to 20 to bleed the power from the capacitors, and to clear all
memory locations.

I have been doing this type of lobotomy on computers for 30 years.


Why are they recomending holding the start button?

Boris wrote:

VanguardLH wrote in :

Boris wrote:

I've (wife) got a Toshiba laptop, originally running Win8, then auto-
upgraded to Win8.1, then auto-upgraded to Win10 about a month ago. I
have a recovery USB drive for this machine.

Yesterday, the machine wouldn't boot. If I press the power button, I
can see the power light come on, I hear the fan come on, and the hard
drive spin up, After about three seconds, the fan stops, but I can
still hear the hard drive spinning. The power light is still on, but
nothing on the screen. If I then force a power off by holding the
power button down for about five seconds, the machine beeps, and
turns off completely.

I removed the hard drive, and can access it just fine as an external
drive when connected to another computer. All files are there.

Does the laptop have a video output, like a VGA port? If so, connect
it to an external monitor. You may have to hit an Fn key combo to get
the hardware to switch from internal to external monitor (the manual
should explain how).

It has an HDMI port, and that is my next step later this evening. Gotta
run out for a while. Will report back.

Is the problem the screen remains blank although you suspect Windows
has actually loaded?

I am beginning go suspect that.

Do you hear any beeps when you cold boot the
laptop?


No beeps, but then none of my Win10 machines make a sound when the
Windows splash screen appears, like the 'old' Windows did.

Not talking about beeps issued by the OS to the internal speaker. I'm
talking about beep codes issued by the mobo's BIOS/UEFI during the boot
process *before* the OS loads. A single beep indicates the video BIOS
loaded. That has to load before the system BIOS/UEFI so you can
actually see a screen showing you the POST information and which keys to
hit for what actions, like pressing a key to enter BIOS/UEFI or to
select from which device to boot.

On Fri, 08 Jul 2016 07:58:18 -0400, Keith Nuttle wrote:

On 7/8/2016 3:47 AM, Smirnoff wrote:
You could try this:

http://ccm.net/forum/affich-24155-la...en-switched-on

Have seen this solution posted a few times and it has worked for some
people.
Quote from above link " hold the start button on ur laptop for 20-30
seconds,,"

I understand about turning off the power, removing the battery, and
counting to 20 to bleed the power from the capacitors, and to clear all
memory locations.

I have been doing this type of lobotomy on computers for 30 years.


Why are they recomending holding the start button?

Holding the start button is an attempt to discharge any capacitor storage
in ps. The idea is to completely shut power off to the bios chip which
should then revert to default state.
I had similar problem on a desktop, all my efforts were to no avail. A
repair shop offered a free diagnosis so I swallowed my pride and let them
have it. After three days they gave up. I replaced it with a dual
processor machine from Trend Micro for less than $200.
Hate to be negative but the original poster might have a dead machine.
The parts might fetch a few bucks, battery, hd etc.

On 07/07/2016 07:53 PM, Boris wrote:

[snip]

Nope. My understanding is that you can only enter BIOS, or Safe Mode in
a UEFI controlled machine once the OS boots, and you select Settings...

I've tried F2, F8, F12,


My UEFI machines allow you to enter setup by pressing a key (often, but
not always F2) before the OS boots.

BTW, UEFI is what they use instead of BIOS. You don't have BIOS.
However, UEFI does have a setup program which is what you want.

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"I draw my warrant from the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to
hold the slave in bondage." -- Rev. Thomas Witherspoon, Presbyterian, of
Alabama

Boris wrote:

VanguardLH wrote in :

Boris wrote:

I've (wife) got a Toshiba laptop, originally running Win8, then auto-
upgraded to Win8.1, then auto-upgraded to Win10 about a month ago. I
have a recovery USB drive for this machine.

Yesterday, the machine wouldn't boot. If I press the power button, I
can see the power light come on, I hear the fan come on, and the hard
drive spin up, After about three seconds, the fan stops, but I can
still hear the hard drive spinning. The power light is still on, but
nothing on the screen. If I then force a power off by holding the
power button down for about five seconds, the machine beeps, and
turns off completely.

I removed the hard drive, and can access it just fine as an external
drive when connected to another computer. All files are there.

Does the laptop have a video output, like a VGA port? If so, connect
it to an external monitor. You may have to hit an Fn key combo to get
the hardware to switch from internal to external monitor (the manual
should explain how).

Is the problem the screen remains blank although you suspect Windows
has actually loaded? Do you hear any beeps when you cold boot the
laptop?

Well, I just connected the machine to my TV via an HDMI, Of course I
can't see the list of external outputs, and I need to select Second
Screen Only. It's at the bottom of the list, which I can't see, but I
used the touchpad to blindly scroll all the way right and then down, but
no luck when I then clicked. BTW, I can't see the mouse arrow either,

I can't see a way of testing the LCD monitor without seeing anyting on
screen to be sure that I've selected the proper output.

Out of warranty repair costs are high, per the Toshiba Repair Site:

Minor Repair: $375.00*
Replacement of either the hard drive, touchpad,
keyboard, CD or DVD driver, or memory (RAM).

Major Repair: $550.00*
Replacement or repair of either the LCD
or motherboard.

I may have to scrap this machine.

You didn't mention your model. On an Acer laptop that I had, there was
an FN key for monitor switching. It looked like a slightly rounded
square with a couple straight lines bracketing it in. You didn't make
any selection with a mouse or screen directions. How could you see the
screen to see on what to click or to even know where to click the mouse?
As I recall, the Fn monitor key had three toggle positions: internal
monitor, external monitor (the VGA port became active), and shared
output (both the internal and external monitors). In shared mode where
both laptop and external monitors received a signal, only the lowest
common denominator for resolution could be used on both. The laptop's
monitor max resolution was always smaller than the resolution for an
external monitor so the external monitor ran at the same resolution as
the laptop's monitor. Since my external monitor had a higher resolution
(supported by the video controller in the laptop), I never used shared
mode and instead toggled to the internal or external mode for the VGA
port.

The monitor switch key on the laptop's keyboard should not require you
to see anything on any monitor or see a mouse cursor on a screen. It
should be a toggle key with 2 or 3 selectable modes. "Toshiba laptop"
gives no one enough information to go find how the video toggle works on
your particular model.

On 07/07/2016 04:15 PM, Boris wrote:

[snip]

Could the UEFI be corrupt? If so, I believe I can format a USB flash drive
as FAT32, but how would I get the ailing machine to boot from USB, since I
can't get in to change the boot order?

TIA


Many systems have a boot menu that can be accessed by pressing a key
(usually F11 or F12), where you can select the boot device. This makes a
one-time change (unlike boot order), which may be what you want.

--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"I draw my warrant from the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to
hold the slave in bondage." -- Rev. Thomas Witherspoon, Presbyterian, of
Alabama

Wolf K wrote:

On 2016-07-07 21:54, Boris wrote:
[...]
Well, I just connected the machine to my TV via an HDMI,
[snip tale of woe]

If your TV has a PC input, use that. Use the HDMI if and only if there
is no PC input.

HTH

What is a "PC input"? You sure that isn't just a 15-pin VGA port? If
so, and since the laptop might only have an HDMI video out port, the OP
would have to use an HDMI-to-VGA adapter at the TV end. If his TV has
an HDMI port, tis easier to go from HDMI on the laptop to HDMI on the
TV. If the TV doesn't support signal auto-detect to determine which
video port is in use then the OP will have to use OSD menuing controls
on the TV to select which video input to use.

Char Jackson wrote in
news
On Fri, 8 Jul 2016 01:54:00 -0000 (UTC), Boris
wrote:

VanguardLH wrote in
:

Boris wrote:

I've (wife) got a Toshiba laptop, originally running Win8, then
auto- upgraded to Win8.1, then auto-upgraded to Win10 about a month
ago. I have a recovery USB drive for this machine.

Yesterday, the machine wouldn't boot. If I press the power button,
I can see the power light come on, I hear the fan come on, and the
hard drive spin up, After about three seconds, the fan stops, but
I can still hear the hard drive spinning. The power light is still
on, but nothing on the screen. If I then force a power off by
holding the power button down for about five seconds, the machine
beeps, and turns off completely.

I removed the hard drive, and can access it just fine as an
external drive when connected to another computer. All files are
there.

Does the laptop have a video output, like a VGA port? If so,
connect it to an external monitor. You may have to hit an Fn key
combo to get the hardware to switch from internal to external
monitor (the manual should explain how).

Is the problem the screen remains blank although you suspect Windows
has actually loaded? Do you hear any beeps when you cold boot the
laptop?

Well, I just connected the machine to my TV via an HDMI, Of course I
can't see the list of external outputs, and I need to select Second
Screen Only. It's at the bottom of the list, which I can't see, but I
used the touchpad to blindly scroll all the way right and then down,
but no luck when I then clicked. BTW, I can't see the mouse arrow
either,

I can't see a way of testing the LCD monitor without seeing anyting on
screen to be sure that I've selected the proper output.

Out of warranty repair costs are high, per the Toshiba Repair Site:

Minor Repair: $375.00*
Replacement of either the hard drive, touchpad,
keyboard, CD or DVD driver, or memory (RAM).

Major Repair: $550.00*
Replacement or repair of either the LCD
or motherboard.

I may have to scrap this machine.

I've fixed a few dozen laptops over the past 5-6 years that had
symptoms like yours. If you're lucky, you can shine a flashlight on
your LCD screen and see the normal boot-up display and Windows
logon-screen. If so, the problem is the display, or more specifically,
the inverter or the cold cathode fluorescent lamp (ccfl). The inverter
is probably $10-15 on Ebay and usually easy to replace, by laptop
standards, so I always start there. Youtube has videos for many
models.


Good thought. I just tried with the flashlight, but nothing at all.
Nothing in the middle of the screen when I allow time for what would be
a full boot up to the Windows logo, or at any of the four oorners when I
try the Fn keys.

VanguardLH wrote in :

Boris wrote:

VanguardLH wrote in
:

Boris wrote:

I've (wife) got a Toshiba laptop, originally running Win8, then
auto- upgraded to Win8.1, then auto-upgraded to Win10 about a month
ago. I have a recovery USB drive for this machine.

Yesterday, the machine wouldn't boot. If I press the power button,
I can see the power light come on, I hear the fan come on, and the
hard drive spin up, After about three seconds, the fan stops, but
I can still hear the hard drive spinning. The power light is still
on, but nothing on the screen. If I then force a power off by
holding the power button down for about five seconds, the machine
beeps, and turns off completely.

I removed the hard drive, and can access it just fine as an
external drive when connected to another computer. All files are
there.

Does the laptop have a video output, like a VGA port? If so,
connect it to an external monitor. You may have to hit an Fn key
combo to get the hardware to switch from internal to external
monitor (the manual should explain how).

Is the problem the screen remains blank although you suspect Windows
has actually loaded? Do you hear any beeps when you cold boot the
laptop?

Well, I just connected the machine to my TV via an HDMI, Of course I
can't see the list of external outputs, and I need to select Second
Screen Only. It's at the bottom of the list, which I can't see, but
I used the touchpad to blindly scroll all the way right and then
down, but no luck when I then clicked. BTW, I can't see the mouse
arrow either,

I can't see a way of testing the LCD monitor without seeing anyting
on screen to be sure that I've selected the proper output.

Out of warranty repair costs are high, per the Toshiba Repair Site:

Minor Repair: $375.00*
Replacement of either the hard drive, touchpad,
keyboard, CD or DVD driver, or memory (RAM).

Major Repair: $550.00*
Replacement or repair of either the LCD
or motherboard.

I may have to scrap this machine.

You didn't mention your model. On an Acer laptop that I had, there
was an FN key for monitor switching. It looked like a slightly
rounded square with a couple straight lines bracketing it in. You
didn't make any selection with a mouse or screen directions. How
could you see the screen to see on what to click or to even know where
to click the mouse? As I recall, the Fn monitor key had three toggle
positions: internal monitor, external monitor (the VGA port became
active), and shared output (both the internal and external monitors).
In shared mode where both laptop and external monitors received a
signal, only the lowest common denominator for resolution could be
used on both. The laptop's monitor max resolution was always smaller
than the resolution for an external monitor so the external monitor
ran at the same resolution as the laptop's monitor. Since my external
monitor had a higher resolution (supported by the video controller in
the laptop), I never used shared mode and instead toggled to the
internal or external mode for the VGA port.

The monitor switch key on the laptop's keyboard should not require you
to see anything on any monitor or see a mouse cursor on a screen. It
should be a toggle key with 2 or 3 selectable modes. "Toshiba laptop"
gives no one enough information to go find how the video toggle works
on your particular model.

Basically, it's a Toshiba U945-S4390, i5, with 6GB RAM, 14" 1366 x 768,

Fn4 selects video output. It toggles through PC Screen only, Duplicate,
Extend, Second screen only. Even though the screen remains black, I did
cycle through these selections, knowing that IF there was output, it
should appear on the second or fourth click. No luck.

Here's more of the spec data:

http://tinyurl.com/huve8kr

Satellite U945 Detailed Product Specification1
Model Name: U945-S4390
Operating System
Windows 8 (now Windows 10)
Processor and Graphics Intel Core. i5-3317U Processor
(3MB Cache, up to 2.6GHz) with Intel Turbo Boost Technology
Mobile Intel HM77 Express Chipset
Mobile Intel HD Graphics with 64MB-1696MB dynamically allocated
shared graphics memory
Memory
Configured with 6GB DDR3 1600MHz (max 16GB)
2 main memory slots. Both slots are occupied
Storage Drive
500GB (5400 RPM) Serial ATA hard disk drive with 32GB (system use
only) solid state disk cache
Display
14.0¨ diagonal widescreen TruBriteR TFT display at 1366 x 768 native


Here's the User Manual:

http://tinyurl.com/zyuvgwj

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