Toshiba Laptop wont boot up - help needed :)

phog

Okay, here the problem, my Toshiba A100 laptop wont boot up. It was working fine yesterday morning, tried switiching it on again last nite - no joy.

Make: Toshiba Satelite A100
OS: Windows XP
Detail of Problem - On power up, the start-up screens continously cycles between the Toshiba screen and the Windows XP Screen, at the Toshiba screen I get the F2 Systems Utilities Menu and F12 Boot Menu, I can enter these but cant see a "Safe Start" option.
Additional Info: I have a very dodgy battery, it last about 10mins without the pwoer lead being connected but I tried starting without the battery being connected and have the same problem.

What could be the problem and what can I do?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Pablod

you didn't drop it by any chance over the last day or so?
or spill a liquid on it?

majiktripp

The minute the Toshiba screen with the F2 and F12 options disappears, repeatidly press the F8 button. This should give you the Windows XP boot options. From the list use the arrow keys to go down to the "Las Know Good Configuration". Press enter once thats highlighted and see does it allow you to boot windows normally.
If this fails, restart the laptop and repeat the proceedure to get to the Boot Options Menu. Once there, select Safe Mode with Networking and see if it can boot into safe mode.
Let us know how you get on with this.

phog

Pablod wrote: »

you didn't drop it by any chance over the last day or so?
or spill a liquid on it?

No and No.

majiktripp wrote: »

The minute the Toshiba screen with the F2 and F12 options disappears, repeatidly press the F8 button. This should give you the Windows XP boot options. From the list use the arrow keys to go down to the "Las Know Good Configuration". Press enter once thats highlighted and see does it allow you to boot windows normally.
If this fails, restart the laptop and repeat the proceedure to get to the Boot Options Menu. Once there, select Safe Mode with Networking and see if it can boot into safe mode.
Let us know how you get on with this.

Ok, got to F8,

Selected the "Last Known good config"
after a few seconds, the Win XP screen appeared then some MS Dos (?) type lettering appeared for a micro second then back to Toshiba start screen, retried, F8, same results as just described.

What next, if anything?

Edited to add - after trying F8 and Last known good config" again, I got a screen with Windows XP Media Centre Edition, selected that and then the pc started what looked like a check, got a load of - something like the following:
Multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)windows\system32\drivers\pcmacia - - the last piece (Bolded) can have fltmgr.sys or MountMgr.sys or loads more, this screen last a few seconds then reverts to the Toshiba screen.

The_Conductor

Sounds like either a corruption of the system files for the operating system (which you would address by a system re-install, or possibly a repartition, reformat and reinstall- if necessary). If its continually falling over at the same point in the boot sequence- this is indicative of a software rather than a hardware issue.

phog

smccarrick wrote: »

Sounds like either a corruption of the system files for the operating system (which you would address by a system re-install, or possibly a repartition, reformat and reinstall- if necessary). If its continually falling over at the same point in the boot sequence- this is indicative of a software rather than a hardware issue.

Thanks, for a layman, is there anything I can do or is it off to the repair man?

Alanstrainor

Moved from laptops

The_Conductor

Dig out the restore disk that came with the laptop and run it? It shouldn't overwrite data files (any personal data you have on the computer) unless you elect to reformat or reparatition the drive during the install process.

phog

Thanks for the replies, I shipped it off to a repair guy today in Limerick, hopefully I wont lose any of my files or pics, most of which I have backed up, thankfully.

Capt'n Midnight

smccarrick wrote: »

Dig out the restore disk that came with the laptop and run it? It shouldn't overwrite data files (any personal data you have on the computer) unless you elect to reformat or reparatition the drive during the install process.

Toshiba VISTA restore DVD's will remove overwrite existing partitions
so you would need to backup your data first

The_Conductor

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Toshiba VISTA restore DVD's will remove overwrite existing partitions
so you would need to backup your data first

Doh! I assumed it was similar to an Acer or Dell restore disk......
OP- glad you've the bulk of your info backed up- you're ahead of the posse in many respects.

ryanch09

try going into the setup screen (F2) and resetting everything to default settings. worked for me on a toshiba satellite not the same model though