Ok, I have been repairing and custom building computers since I was 13 I am now 21, and this
is just the strangest thing I have ever seen. I have a Toshiba Satellite P35-S6053 that I
received from a friend, he claimed that the only problem was that it wouldn't charge. I fixed
that problem real quick, he had it hooked up to a 12v 60W charger, this beast requires 19v
120w. So now I have the computer powering on, apparently when the computer stopped working
for him he was in the middle of a Windows XP upgrade, the disk was even still in the drive
when I got it. But the upgrade kept failing. I have tons of windows, Linux, and even osx86
disk's laying around, and this is where I started noticing problems. Ill just put them all in
list form.
1. Wont boot from a CD unless I remove the HDD(Boot priority is set wrong)
2. Wont let me enter bios setup(its like the F2 key doesn't work, I even tried a external
keyboard)
3. I CAN press F12 to enter boot list(but then it wont let me select anything, its like the
arrow keys then stop working)
4. I removed the HDD, booted windows setup, and reconnected the hdd as soon as it said "press
any key to boot from CD/DVD" I was able to navigate through the windows setup until I was
ready to install and it said "press enter to continue" it wouldn't let me press enter. BUT if
I press F3 to quit the setup I tells me to wait 30 Seconds OR press enter to restart now, and
at that point I can press enter to abort the install.
5. I placed the HDD into another computer, installed windows on it from there, put the HDD
back into the computer, and when I go to boot windows I get to the screen where it says
"Windows is loading files" and it has the grey loading bar. But it only makes it about 75%
and the computer restarts.
I am at a complete loss, I have never experienced anything like this before, I have tried
re-flashing the bios, and replacing the ram(didn't think the ram thing would work but I was
worth a shot). At this point I have no clue what to do. The next thing I'm going to try is to
boot from a ubuntu live CD, but even if I can get it to boot it still really wont fix my
problem.
I have a Windows 7 desktop and a macbookPro at my disposal to aid in me fixing this. (well
technically the macbookPro is a Acer aspire 5920 that I have natively running leopard 10.5.8,
but its just as good as the real deal.) And as soon as I can fix the DC jack on my old
gateway notebook I will have that too. I mention this because maybe there is some swapping of
parts I can do, or maybe a network boot. ( note I have never done a network boot in my life,
but if someone could walk me through it maybe it could work.)
Please there has got to be someone out there who could help me with this, This laptop is a
beast and I would love to get it working again.
Alright!!! I fixed it. After disassembling the computer i found the CMOS battery and De-soldered it and soldered it back on after about 10 minutes. That completely reset the bios, all of the problems still existed except with the bios reset to factory default i was able to boot a CD. I went to boot a Linux live CD and got a error message reading "CD/DVD boot enabled please release shift key to continue". After seeing that i connected a usb Keyboard, still no luck. Then it just hit me...I removed the laptops keyboard, and now all if fine. The shift key is not stuck, as a matter of fact the KB looks almost new, but there is a weird bend in the ribbon cable and i believe it was shorting out.
is just the strangest thing I have ever seen. I have a Toshiba Satellite P35-S6053 that I
received from a friend, he claimed that the only problem was that it wouldn't charge. I fixed
that problem real quick, he had it hooked up to a 12v 60W charger, this beast requires 19v
120w. So now I have the computer powering on, apparently when the computer stopped working
for him he was in the middle of a Windows XP upgrade, the disk was even still in the drive
when I got it. But the upgrade kept failing. I have tons of windows, Linux, and even osx86
disk's laying around, and this is where I started noticing problems. Ill just put them all in
list form.
1. Wont boot from a CD unless I remove the HDD(Boot priority is set wrong)
2. Wont let me enter bios setup(its like the F2 key doesn't work, I even tried a external
keyboard)
3. I CAN press F12 to enter boot list(but then it wont let me select anything, its like the
arrow keys then stop working)
4. I removed the HDD, booted windows setup, and reconnected the hdd as soon as it said "press
any key to boot from CD/DVD" I was able to navigate through the windows setup until I was
ready to install and it said "press enter to continue" it wouldn't let me press enter. BUT if
I press F3 to quit the setup I tells me to wait 30 Seconds OR press enter to restart now, and
at that point I can press enter to abort the install.
5. I placed the HDD into another computer, installed windows on it from there, put the HDD
back into the computer, and when I go to boot windows I get to the screen where it says
"Windows is loading files" and it has the grey loading bar. But it only makes it about 75%
and the computer restarts.
I am at a complete loss, I have never experienced anything like this before, I have tried
re-flashing the bios, and replacing the ram(didn't think the ram thing would work but I was
worth a shot). At this point I have no clue what to do. The next thing I'm going to try is to
boot from a ubuntu live CD, but even if I can get it to boot it still really wont fix my
problem.
I have a Windows 7 desktop and a macbookPro at my disposal to aid in me fixing this. (well
technically the macbookPro is a Acer aspire 5920 that I have natively running leopard 10.5.8,
but its just as good as the real deal.) And as soon as I can fix the DC jack on my old
gateway notebook I will have that too. I mention this because maybe there is some swapping of
parts I can do, or maybe a network boot. ( note I have never done a network boot in my life,
but if someone could walk me through it maybe it could work.)
Please there has got to be someone out there who could help me with this, This laptop is a
beast and I would love to get it working again.
Alright!!! I fixed it. After disassembling the computer i found the CMOS battery and De-soldered it and soldered it back on after about 10 minutes. That completely reset the bios, all of the problems still existed except with the bios reset to factory default i was able to boot a CD. I went to boot a Linux live CD and got a error message reading "CD/DVD boot enabled please release shift key to continue". After seeing that i connected a usb Keyboard, still no luck. Then it just hit me...I removed the laptops keyboard, and now all if fine. The shift key is not stuck, as a matter of fact the KB looks almost new, but there is a weird bend in the ribbon cable and i believe it was shorting out.
