Laptop won't boot up (tries but then cuts out)

tincat

Hi all,

I hope someone can suggest something before an expensive repair job...

I have a toshiba satellite pro, which is 3 years old. I didn't use it for about a year, as it developed a virus (from downloading stuff). I bought a replacement while it was being repaired (cost £120) and am still using the replacement.

Recently I started using the toshiba again, mainly for my kids to play computer games and stuff.

Then I got a wireless router, and was able to use the usb adapter to get internet on the toshiba again (it doesn't have wifi). I tried to download a kids game (I never learn....), and at the same time the computer started running windows updates. I had to go out, so I left it running.

When I came back the computer was off. I switched on, and it started the welcome screen, then went to the toshiba screen, and then switched off and went blank. Five seconds later it boots up, gets through the 2 screens then switches off again. This happened for about 2 hours, until the battery ran dead.

I let the battery run out completely and then today tried to boot it again, with the same results.

I've done and will continue to do some google searches, but not being very technical am a bit confused about the 'bios' and motherboard battery needing replacing, so if anyone can give me step by step pointers I'd be grateful.

My kids are pestering me to use my current laptop, so have to hold them at bay...

tincat

sorry - I should say that it is running windows xp pro.

I did try F8 at start-up and tried booting it in 'safe mode' as well as 'the last successful start up'.

Neither option worked, and it still kept switching off.

niceguyrichy

what "two screens" did it get to??
the Windows loading screen?? cos if it did, and it posts and tries to boot fine every time, the first thing to try is to reset the CMOS (<you can always try re-installing windows of course first), so what exact model Toshiba is it?

tincat

Thanks for reading niceguy

When you first power up it has the 'In touch with tomorrow, Toshiba'.#

It briefly goes black, then up comes the 'Microsoft Windows XP Prof' logo, then it switches off.

Those are the 2 welcome screens I was thinking of, but they are more like logo screens.

The laptop doesn't have any make number on the front or top, It just says 'Satellite Pro'. However, underneath it has various numbers and stickers with registry information and stuff, and I think the make number is SPA40.

I hope that's clear.

thanks

Lorian

Do you have the WinXP CD to boot and be able to do a repair?

tincat

I will have it somewhere, but may take a few hours to locate. I still have unpacked boxes from our move which I've stacked on top of eachother...

If I use the disk, doesn't it wipe a lot / all of your info on the computer? Or is that just displaying my ignorance?

It wouldn't be the end of the world, but when I bought this laptop as a replacement, I copied all my work files from the toshiba onto this, so it is acting as a back up of sorts.

BritBrat

Download a Knoppix CD image burn it to CD and put in the laptop drive, try and make the laptop boot from CD if you can.

That way if it's a hardware issue it will not boot to the CD but if it does it should be a software issue, apart from maybe the "C" drive is faulty but you can navigate to the hard drive from the disk and maybe do repairs to test.

http://www.knoppix.org/

Also take a look at these instructions:

Computer First Aid Using Knoppix