Computer Related > H/Drive. M/board or both? Computing Issues
Thread Author: devonite Replies: 19

 H/Drive. M/board or both? - devonite
Been given a Toshiba Satellite Lappy (Amd 64 running win 8). it will turn on, and load the Bios screen (Toshiba - leading Innovation....) then nothing at all. I've tried several things inc. clearing the Cmos memory. holding Ctr 0 to try to boot factory reset, I've tried all the "F" key commands - nothing. Checked/reseated Ram modules. even slaved the h/disc upto my own win7 machine via USB. In normal mode slave cannot be seen by windows, yet in safe-mode it can, as is designated F: - but it won't open. The disc is running, so I think it's aditt! - however. I can't open Bios settings either! - so it may be M/board fault, there again it may be both! - any thoughts please?
P.S Lappy is roughly 15mths old.
 H/Drive. M/board or both? - Zero
No longer has a "BIOS" as you remember it, it has a UEFI Unified Extensible Firmware Interface

If you can't get into it via Windows, use F2 at boot up (you may need to keep pressing it repeatedly during boot to get it activated)

And yes, sounds like the disk is naggered.
 H/Drive. M/board or both? - devonite
Cheers Z, F2 does nothing either, try fresh drive then bang it on Ebay for spares if that don't work, shame!.
 H/Drive. M/board or both? - rtj70
If you cannot get as far as BIOS or the more modern UEFI equivalent, the drive issue surely can be ignored for now.

Tell us how you got given this? Presumably because it does not work.
 H/Drive. M/board or both? - devonite
Tell us how you got given this? Presumably because it does not work. <<

Friend treat herself to it last Xmas (2013/14), asked me if I could sort it out for her, after trying everything in O/P had to tell her it had me beat, and it would have to go into the "shop".
She said she would just buy a new one, and asked me if I wanted it, and for some reason I said yes!
 H/Drive. M/board or both? - tyrednemotional
...this particular post might be relevant:

aps2.toshiba-tro.de/kb0/TSB2B03EY0002R01.htm

...and this second one even more so, as it would appear it describes a potential scenario you may well be in:

forums.computers.toshiba-europe.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=71712

There has to be an appropriate way out of it, but I'm not sure I can think of one yet :-(

(Google may be your friend).
 H/Drive. M/board or both? - smokie
Sounds to me like you're not getting to the BIOS settings, just to the splash screen (which you can often disable in BIOS). So we're not yet sure whether there is anything wrong with the disk.

I've no idea really but when you cleared the CMOS memory did it go through asking the time and date? If not it probably wasn't properly/fully cleared, in which case I'd try to locate the CMOS battery and just take it out, to force it through the screens I want to see.
 H/Drive. M/board or both? - smokie
Here's an interesting one www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-access-the-bios-on-a-windows-8-computer/ - implies to me that you can no longer get into the BIOS but that to me seems daft.

But that makes me wonder whether Windows repair disk is the way to go.
 H/Drive. M/board or both? - Zero
>> Here's an interesting one www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-access-the-bios-on-a-windows-8-computer/ - implies to me that you can no longer get
>> into the BIOS but that to me seems daft.
>
BIOS, as we know it. no longer exists in newer hardware designed for windows 8
 H/Drive. M/board or both? - tyrednemotional
....and further to my above, if "fast boot" is the issue, Googling implies that *holding down* F2 and *then* powering on (as opposed to hitting it during boot-up) should invoke BIOS.

(I can also find reference to using F12 the same way, but I suspect this may bring the alternate boot device menu up).
Last edited by: tyrednemotional on Sun 12 Apr 15 at 09:19
 H/Drive. M/board or both? - devonite
Great info! - sounds like something similar to link 1 has happened, - but cant get into it to carry out the resolution part!! - link 2 - AH! so thats how to get to bios!! - but "F" keys dont work!

Which raises the question: If (1) is the cause, it may not be H/drive failure (it is running) would you think it worthwhile trying to re-format the original drive, and loading Win 7, then seeing if that sorts it?

Tia
 H/Drive. M/board or both? - smokie
Well as you can tell I am only just coming up to speed on UEFI but it looks to me like if a computer has UEFI (which is an extension of Windows 8) then there would be no BIOS therefore Windows 7 would not run. I#''m probably wrong though.

Having said that, it also looks like UEFI resides on the disk rather than in the computer hardware so maybe it's your UEFI which needs recovering and it would all work again.

Dunno, wait for a specialist!! :-)

EDIT: Or google e.g. www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/186875-uefi-unified-extensible-firmware-interface-install-windows-7-a.html
Last edited by: smokie on Sun 12 Apr 15 at 13:04
 H/Drive. M/board or both? - tyrednemotional
Win7 should run OK on a UEFI bios, but it is possible (likely) that the Bios would need to be tweaked.

Which rather takes you full circle.

You were trying to get into the BIOS by *holding down* F2 and powering on?

If so, then an alternative of the "Fn" button *and* the "F2" button both being held whilst powering on is recommended in some posts I can find.

If you do get into Bios, then I suspect that fast boot could be turned off from in there, rather than from in Win8.
Last edited by: tyrednemotional on Sun 12 Apr 15 at 13:13
 H/Drive. M/board or both? - rtj70
The Intel chipset on my PC (a few years old) has a UEFI 'BIOS'. Its a Gigabyte motherboard.

The interface when you boot is more graphical. You can get into a more textual BIOS style interface (still has graphics) or a more graphical 3D interface. The textual one is the more advanced because way more options in there. The UEFI is definitely on the motherboard and not loaded from disk.

I got a UEFI system back in 2013 (or was it 2012?) so I could run it as a Hackintosh as well as a Windows 7 PC.

To get straight into the UEFI interface on boot for mine it is the DEL key. It tells you on the screen. Or F12 brings up the boot options for different drives (so I can choose Windows 7 instead of the default MacOS) and setup. Since my keyboard (an Apple one) doesn't have a DEL key I use F12 but need to press the fn key at the same time.

 H/Drive. M/board or both? - rtj70
To rule out the disk, motherboard,... anything really. My approach would be to boot from a Live CD (or USB) of a Linux distribution, e.g. Ubuntu. If it runs Linux it is working without messing around with the drive, installs etc.

So can you select the DVD drive (if it has one) or a USB device as the boot drive?
 H/Drive. M/board or both? - Zero
>> To rule out the disk, motherboard,... anything really. My approach would be to boot from
>> a Live CD (or USB) of a Linux distribution, e.g. Ubuntu. If it runs Linux
>> it is working without messing around with the drive, installs etc.
>>
>> So can you select the DVD drive (if it has one) or a USB device
>> as the boot drive?

which is fine of you can get to the UEFI boot menu.........
 H/Drive. M/board or both? - rtj70
Some UEFI's have two copies (my motherboard does) so if the main UEFI BIOS fails you can use the other one, e.g. failed upgrade.

I suspect he's not hitting the right key to get into the BIOS - maybe the keyboard doesn't work :-) Or he needs to press the Function/Fn key with F2... I'd try an external keyboard.
 H/Drive. M/board or both? - devonite
Thank s for the all the help folks, I've decided to give it her back!

After re-trying your suggestions (nothing happened, every thing seems dead apart from the fans and "spash-screen"), I closed the lid rather "firmly" in annoyance, a few minutes later I had another try, (don't know why, probably don't like being beat!) and when I pressed the power button, the darn thing burst into life!!! - I gave it a quite severe shaking to see if I could hear anything rattling or to see if it shutdown,(loose connection test!) and it's been fine since!

So although "fixed" it annoys me that I am no wiser as to the cause or the actual solution of the problem should I encounter it in the future - except slam the lid first!!
 H/Drive. M/board or both? - Zero
I wonder if it had a stuck key on the keyboard. Did it beep on power up? Not even sure if UEFI have beep codes.
 H/Drive. M/board or both? - devonite
No, no beeps, just booted up!, running Malware and spybot scans at the moment to see if they find anything.
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