Satellite L305 won't boot until I press "Enter" repeatedly

My wife is going on a mission trip to Africa, and acquired a used Satellite L305-S5907 to donate to a needy student there. I used the original Toshiba recovery discs to reformat and reinstall Vista to original factory state, and have run all the endless Windows updates, including SP1 and 2. Everything seems to work fine except for one weird quirk. When I start or restart the computer, it powers up, but won't start to boot unless I repeatedly press Enter (or F2 or F12), and then go through the Boot screen or Setup screen. The computer was doing this before I restored it, but since it had belonged to a high school girl I hoped that a clean reinstall would fix things. The only thing that occurs to me is to update the BIOS, but drilling down through the levels of Toshiba's website, I get as far as a link to BIOS 2.20, but that page won't even load, let alone download the installer. I've searched for another way into Toshiba's download site, but can't find one, and I don't want to risk a third party BIOS fix.
She's leaving for Kenya next weekend, and wants to donate a conputer that's working smoothly, so any help will be much appreciated. Thanks.

sdl701 wrote:
I used the original Toshiba recovery discs to reformat and reinstall Vista to original factory state... then go through the Boot screen or Setup screen. The computer was doing this before I restored it
I dumped Vista operating system a long time ago and installed Win 7. I’ve used different OS system since Win 98; I thought Vista was not prime time. Have you tried to fix with Windows STARTUP REPAIR if you haven’t found a solution yet?
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/startup-repair-frequently-asked-questions

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Dropped in another HDD from an other laptop, but it won't boot. That drive is beleived OK but no way to be 100.00% on that.
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Edit: The Bios recognizes the hardware - the HDD as primary and the CDROM as secondary.

Will the drive read any other CDs?
Can the disks be read on a different computer?
Have you tried gently cleaning the disks under lukewarm running water and patting them dry with a clean soft cloth?
Are the disks scratched, smudged, or otherwise disfigured?
If you don't post your COMPLETE model number it's very difficult to assist you. Please try to post in complete sentences with punctuation, capitals, and correct spelling. Toshiba does NOT provide any direct support in these forums. All support is User to User in their spare time.

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Hi,
I've got a bit of an issue here.. I have a Satellite m300.. a white one..
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cheers,
Min

Quote
Originally posted by syar2003
If running a LCD display with DVI connection , try to hook it up with
an analog VGA cable.
Can also be that the motherboard fails to initialize the vga AGP card.
Turn off all power incl. AC .
Disconnect all devices from motherboard : AGP/memory/drives/floppy/USB/PCI cards etc. take out the 20pin & 4pin PSU connectors and reset the motherboards
cmos .
Assemble PSU connectors ,only one DIMM module and graphics card and turn it on and se if you get a post .
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Could it have a bad AGP port?
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Also noticed one of my fans connected to one of the two other fan pins on the motherboard isn't working.
What a nightmare.

Re: Satellite C850 won't boot anymore - broken HDD

Hello Folks,
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Would it even work like that?
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If the HDD died, in needs to be replaced.
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I think this understandable.
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Hi
I assume youve got an white, blinking cursor in the left upper corner.
Is this correct?
Such symptoms appear in case the system cannot find a bootable device (HDD) or in case of memory (RAM module) problems.
First of all you said that you dont have UEFI / CSM boot mode in the BIOS settings.
So Im asking you what boot mode settings do appear in BIOS exactly?
Did you search for these settings in the right area?
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In most cases there you will find secure boot option but the Satellite C660 does not support such option because its too old.
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Satellite L305-S5933
I reinstalled Windows XP
I don't understand. How can you do that if the hard disk is unavailable?
I was able to see the unbootable partitions after booting Linux
I would boot to the recovery console.
Download Windows XP Recovery Console
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Run fixmbr to repair the master boot record and run fixboot to repair the boot record on the active partition.
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G4 PowerBook won't boot unless I press Option key - powers off after 20secs

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When booting up, my PowerBook only gets as far as the initial black screen and audio chime. After approx. 20 seconds the hard disk/super-drive dies with a high-pitched squeak, just before it was supposed to show the grey screen and then the Apple logo.
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I'm pretty sure it's not an issue with the OS.
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(I've already done all the above suggestions using Single user mode etc.)
Now a similar issue reported here:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=501768
suggests using fdisk to make the boot disk 'active'.
+A common mantra provided here to newbies for setting up for installation is:+
+Make the partition Primary+
+Make the partition ID=AF (signifies an HFS partition)+
+Make the partition Active+
+There is a built-in Unix utility in MacOSX that can be used to set your partition "Active". It is called Fdisk+
However, when I use Fdisk my disk reports a negative size:
fdisk: 1> p
Disk: /dev/rdisk3 geometry: -5415437/4/63 [-1364690128 sectors]
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Toshiba Satellite P200 - won't boot up. I'm scared of losing my files!

Hello. When I turn my computer on, it won't boot up. This appears on the screen:
WINDOWS BOOT MANAGER
Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:
1. Insert your windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2. Choose your language settings, and then click ‘next’.
3. Click ‘ repair your computer’.
If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer manuafacturer for assistance.
File: \windows\system32\ntkrnlpa.exe
Status: Oxc00000e9
Info: windows failed to load because the kernel is missing, or corrupt
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Two ways of reaching the data if your hard drive is still alive, Sue.
(1) Download a free CD that boots to another operating systems or to a preinstall environment and copy important files to external media. A popular bootable disc is Ubuntu. There's also KNOPPIX, Bart's, UBCD4Win, SystemRescueCd, and others.
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The program suspend occasionally,until I press "enter"

Please help! my program is simple, but it don't run stablely! :((
Occasionally,it suspend, and when I press "enter",it resume, but when run for
a few hours,it suspend again.
my program just like that:
=======================
try {
while (true) {
now = Calendar.getInstance();
year = now.get(Calendar.YEAR);
month = now.get(Calendar.MONTH) + 1;
date = now.get(Calendar.DATE);
hour = now.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY);
minute = now.get(Calendar.MINUTE);
second = now.get(Calendar.SECOND);
//run on the fifth minute every hour
if (lastHour != hour && minute == 5) {
System.out.println("Running...");
System.out.println("date time:" + year + "-" + month + "-" +
date + " " +
hour + ":" + minute + ":" + second);
/* do the routine job start */
// must ftp a file, and do something else
System.out.println("successfully!");
catch (Exception ex) {
System.out.println(ex.getMessage());
/* do the routine job end */
lastHour = hour;
// sleep for 30 seconds
try {
Thread.sleep(30000);
catch (InterruptedException ex1) {
System.out.println(ex1.getMessage());
catch (Exception ex2) {
ex2.printStackTrace();
=======================
the ouput of the program is just like that:
Running
date time:2003-10-17 16:5:12
Finish ftp. File size: 729088 bytes.
successfully!
---- suspend here, when I found the File size din't change on 17:20:22,
---- I press "enter",and the following shows
Running
date time:2003-10-17 17:5:18
Finish ftp. File size: 671744 bytes.
successfully!
==========================================
I can figure out what happened to my program , the Thread.sleep interrupted ? the ftp interrupted ?
please give me some advices,I greatly appreciate your help!!!

the program suspend occasionally,until I press my keyboard,
Please help! It have tortured me for a long time.
my program is simple, but it don't run stablely! :((
Occasionally, it suspend, and when I press my keyboard, it resume, but when run for a day,it suspend again.
my program just like that:
===============================================
// a rountine job, run every hour
// timer = new Timer();
// timer.scheduleAtFixedRate(new RemindTask(), time, 60 * 60* 1000); // 1 hour
System.out.println("Start to run,save log, date time:" + year + "-" + month + "-" + date + " " +
hour + ":" + minute + ":" + second + " Current=" + System.currentTimeMillis());
logSaver2.saveLog("date time:" + year + "-" + month + "-" + date + " " + hour + ":" + minute + ":" + second);
System.out.println("end log, start ftp, Current=" + System.currentTimeMillis());
// must ftp a file, and to dump the file into database
System.out.println("finish!");
==================================================
logSaver2.saveLog just do this:
RandomAccessFile myRAFile;
myRAFile.seek(myRAFile.length()); //move to the end of the file
myRAFile.writeBytes(s); //Start appending!
====================================================
the ouput of the program is just like that:
Start to run,save log, date time:2003-12-11 08:10:00 Current=1071101400854
end log, start ftp, Current=1071101400856
finish!
------------- it suspend,I checked the log file, it have recorded "date time:2003-12-11 09:10:10",
--------------and when I press keyboard on 09:38:40, the following shows, and it runs normally
Start to run,save log, date time:2003-12-11 09:10:10 Current=1071105200898
end log, start ftp, Current=1071107280241
finish!
======================================================
notice that when it suspend, the difference of the two "Current" values will be large,
and when it run on time, the difference of the two "Current" values will be small,
but I just do "savelog" at that time span!
and some experience:
I once used the windows ftp client to do the ftp, and the program suspend frequently(once a few hour),
and I used the enterpriseftp-1.2.3 now, the program suspend occasionally(maybe twice a day)
I cann't figure out what happened to my program.
please give me some advices,I greatly appreciate your help!!!

Satellite L355D won't boot

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I do not have a CD to boot from, however my tech-savvy father tried his and the computer did not seem to be able to find the disk in order to start up.
The computer is new, so I have installed some software on it recently, but I have done nothing with the system itself or the hardware.
I'm leaving to go overseas in about 10 days and need to take the computer with me - and between now and then it's holidays, which is going to make it difficult to get the computer fixed if I have to go through a repair center. So any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

When you turn the laptop does the display flash once? If you look closely can you see a very faint picture in the background. If you can then your backlight is out and you will need to send it in for repair. You can also plug in your desktop monitor and then turn your laptop on to see if it is a backlight/display problem.

Satellite A300 won't boot from any device

I've got an A300 that won't seem to boot from any device.
When I start it I see the splash screen and can enter the BIOS or Boot select.
I've tried setting boot priority to HDD & CD, and also chosen to boot from both with the Product Recovery CD in the drive.
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Normally I would expect a prompt to press a key to boot from CD.
I have tried pressing the key anyway but this just seems to result in a default beep.
Could it be the graphics card on the system board?

Hi
> Could it be the graphics card on the system board?
I think this is no matter if the issue would be related to mobo or GPU in both cases the motherboard needs to be replaced. But if you area able to access the BIOS then the mobo could be ok.
But generally speaking it sounds like serious hardware problem and I think its time for an notebook technician.
Anyway, did you try to boot from different CDs? I mean Linux Live CD or Windows PartBE?
Please check this both disks can be downloaded for free

Satellite A200 won't boot from recovery disk

I need to reinstall the notebook but every time I boot from CD it won't.
I tried every boot disk ( xp pro, xp home, Toshiba recovery disk ) at house but none of it works.
The recovery disk boots (windows is loading) but after loading my laptop restarts.

> Try to run Recocery CD under Windows and then choose reinstall option from cd menu
Something like that is not possible using the Toshiba Recovery disk
> tried every boot disk ( xp pro, xp home, Toshiba recovery disk ) at house but none of it works.
In my opinion your CD/DVD drive can not read the inserted medias and therefore its not possible to restore the operating system.
I think the CD/DVD drive should be checked by an notebook technician and if necessary it should be replaced.

Satellite L455 won't boot up or repair

I have a Satellite L455, that worked fine as of shutting it down on Thursday evening. When I tried to start it up on Friday, it would start but only go to a black screen and show the pointer. After an hour of this, I turned it off and back on. When it came up, it gave me the message that it had shutdown improperly and that it needed to repair the startup files or to start up normally. I selected the option to Repair the files. Again, it came up to the black screen and showed only the pointer. Nothing ever came up. I turned it off again, booted up on the recovery dvd and it finally loaded that after about 30 mins. I selected the option to got to a command prompt, and it went to the X drive for the recovery drive. I could change it to the D drive also. When I tried to change to the C drive, it thought for awhile and gave me a message that could not access that drive, due to an i/o error. I have tried to repair the startup files from the recovery disk, but after saying it was working for 24 hours, nothing changed. Is it possible that the C drive is dead? Or is there another way that I can check this to make sure? I have also tried to boot up in Safe Mode, but after holding the F8 key for approximately 2 mins it would not go into Safe Mode, but again came up and tried to repair the start up files. I know the information is sketchy, but if needed I go through this all again to get the exact err msgs. Any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Good luck with it, I've been trying to get Windows 7 back up for over a week now. I tried the same as you and even with two different sets of rocovery disk. I end up with a black screen and a white cursor. I can't believe that companies are cheaping out on couple dollars to include recovery media. Now it's crashed and the recovery on the hard drive will not restore it and the disk I had to buy and burn myself don't work. If I want it to work with Windows 7 again it looks like I'm going to have to pay for something that should have been in the box to start with.
I have managed to get my computer working so that I can use it by booting Linux Mint 9 Xfce live USB. If you have a decent size USB stick you can run it live and even save you settings and changes.

Satellite P20 won't boot up

Hello -
my usually reliable if slightly old satellite will not boot up.
It switches on and then after about 30 seconds the fan comes on but the screen stays blank and no boot up.
I have tried unclicking memory and hard drive etc and also disconnecting power and holding down the power on button withou any joy.
Does anyone have any magic they can share?
Thanks in advance.

>Does anyone have any magic they can share?
There is no magic solution for such issues
You have checked already the essential parts like memory modules.
Faulty RAM can prevent the notebook from booting but even if the HDD would be faulty, the notebook should be able to power on therefore I dont think it could be an faulty HDD.
In your case it looks like motherboard (CPU or GPU) problem.
Since the P20 is really old I would not make an effort to replace or to fix these parts because new motherboard is really expensive.

Satellite L305 won't boot until I press "Enter" repeatedly

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