Last resort, need some help.

tooch926

tooch926

New Member
Hey guys, I'm obviously new here. I have a little problem. I have a Toshiba Satellite A45-S120 Notebook. I've had it for a couple years now. I come home the other day and the machine had restarted itself. It puts me in the screen that you see right after a cold boot. Where it wants you to "Start windows normally", "Safe Mode", "Safe Mode w/ command prompt"....etc...I'm sure you guys know what I'm talking about. But never the less.....The machine will run all day, just sitting there after a cold boot. If you select to run windows in any fashion, the machine re-boots and goes right back to that menu. I've tried to narrow it down with some simple troubleshooting, but I think that I'm stumped. I'm very familiar with PC's. I've never seen anything like this...Any one have any ideas??

Thanks,

Mike.
 
That can happen on a desktop as well as a portable unit unfortunately. On a desktop lately with a Socket A board this same problem was seen when the bios chipset was letting go. Finally reducing the memory timings from the 200mhz=400mhz fsb down to the 166mhz=333mhz fsb setting saw the system run normal while temps climbed. At the top 400mhz fsb Windows would either lock or see a sudden restart right when the scroll bar was finishing.

Does your model have a flashable bios is the next question? If you have never update the bios the NVRam could be losing programming information. The update could see this corrected if you have a bios that allows this. Some of the compacts are kind of limited there. A new battery for the board if it uses the common CR2032 Lithium type after a few years is another good idea. You can get a pair of those for a few bucks where they sell wrist watches and calculators. These are the hardware concerns. Do you have a recovery disk for the version of Windows you are running? You could simply have a glitch in the loading process.
 
Flashable BIOS, doubtful. I just did a complete format on this machine not too long ago, maybe a few weeks. And I did update the BIOS driver. Now what you mentioned about temperature makes a little sense because that machine was running for quite a while. The last time I had this apart, I was going to change the batteries but I didn't. I've never really had any go bad on any of the other machines I've had, so I thought of it as no biggie. Now a glitch in windows launch, would that automatically shut down the whole machine?

Mike....

PS Thanks for the reply!!!
 
Well I've heard some rave about batteries lasting 5yrs. and that nonsense to see one go in 1 1/2yrs. if not sooner. With a weak battery things are going to start goofing up fast especially when they start going fast due to the voltage drop there. You could try clearing the cmos at the moment to see if that makes a difference until you put a new one in. If all runs well for a few days and then it starts again you know one thing to look at there. A failing chipset on a portable is the last thing you want to see. If a fresh battery didn't correct this even along with a repair install if running XP that could well be another thing to looking into. The other idea is the main power for the unit. Are you running with the battery in the case or just off of an ac converter?
 
Well, I tried it a few different ways. I tried battery/ without AC power, and I tried AC power without the battery. I'll start by resetting the CMOS and see where that takes me. When this happened, I thought of 2 things....Chipset or some sort of power supply attribute...I'm assuming if it's a bad chipset, that I'll just have to part the machine out and get a new one.
 
That's the main problem with portables since you are confined there often. Yet you could look into having the chipset replaced or order it to replace it yourself if it isn't soldered to the board. You could look into that option if the bios is the cause there. I'm trying to decide whether to do that with the Socket A board now sitting idle here due to the cpu itself still being a good one. But I'll most likely toss the board after updating another Socket A system currently running the XP3000+ if that fails.

The price was low for ordering a replacement chipset on the board at $25 plus S+H. Sending it in to have that replaced and gone through with the diagnostics is better. If you find that the power ac/battery is ruled out and need a new chipset sending the unit in to have it replaced along with which bios version you want is the best way to go to save it even as a backup unit if you decide to go with a new one.
 
The chipset isn't soldered to the board. It's almost like a molex plug, and it's screwed in. Where would you suggest that I get a new chipset?
 
Are you sure that's just the heat sink? A look underneath will usually tell there. The only real way especially a compact unit and not a desktop would be to contact Toshiba direct for this information. For a desktop like an Asus model board you can ship the board direct to them to have them go through with a fine toothed comb when replacing the chipset there. With a removable type like you may have there you would order direct from them. If you can email the support staff directly they would have the address to ship it out to as well as the toll free phone numbers for daytime contact. For an older Asus model board the price was $25- for a new chip. On yours you have to get the pricing by return email from tech support or by phone. An authorised dealer should have some of this information available as well for servicing.
 
I'm pretty sure it's not a heat sink. Almost positive. I'll call Toshiba tommorrow and find out. I tried to find an internal diagram of the machine online, but had some trouble doing that. I really appreciate all your help! Hopefully I can put in my 2 cents on the site to help someone out myself.

Mike.
 
That's another problem with compacts where you won't find very much information on individual components. Laptops are more or less made to self contained until they crap out. A custom built on the other hand is one where you hand pick each component for what you want. Manufacturers there know better to have information ready for that type of customer. A laptop is made to be factory serviced only and it's rather rare to anything layed out in detail since the customer isn't the one assembling it. Hopefully they'll have a tip to offer that will cancel the need to ship it to them.
 
So I just got off the phone with them. They wouldn't release anything to me. So I d/l'd a DFT and put an image of it on a CD. That didnt' do anything. So now I'm just gonna do a complete reinstall. Or try at least.
 
Well, I got the machine up and running. It wasn't a chipset after all. There were definately some missing files....Thanks for all the help!
 
Glad to see it was Windows related and not a hardware fault. This would be good time to see if you can at least grab a bios update. Once you have all your softwares installed defrag the hard drive. With a large amount of data moving fast to and from a drive the fragmentation is usually high right after a fresh installation of everything. That will help keep you running smooth there.
 
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