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Author Topic: Fail to boot issue  (Read 448 times)

Offline Maverick

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Fail to boot issue
« on: October 22, 2007, 06:51:55 PM »
I need some PC help. I have a Toshiba notebook computer that has a problem. It was shut down normally the last time it was used. Now when we try to boot it up it goes into a loop. It doesn't do the BSOD it just flashes the screen with a notice that there is a file missing or corrupted. Unfortunately it loops back to a start up giving the choice for safe mode, normal mode or diagnostic mode. The result is the same, a loop back the same page and an attempt to reboot.

I have tried to use the notebook CD as a boot disk with no luck. I can't get into CMOS to find out if there is a problem there or if the CD is even being checked. F8 and delete during boot operation has no effect.

Anyone have any ideas?
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Offline Hungry

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Fail to boot issue
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2007, 07:10:21 PM »
What operating system, I had a similar situation on a win 2k drive.  With win 2k on the cd is a repair function that you can get to by booting to the cd, the only drawback was that it re=writes the registry so you need to reload programs.
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Offline Maverick

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Fail to boot issue
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2007, 08:06:28 PM »
Good point I forgot to mention that. It's XP.

I can't get into any diagnostics as it won't boot up at all, even with the windows CD in the drive.
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Offline Hungry

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Fail to boot issue
« Reply #3 on: October 22, 2007, 08:28:09 PM »
Maverick

Do you have a floppy drive on that machine?  Maybe a cd would also work by going to http://www.bootdisk.com make a bootdisk if you can get to the c prompt maybe you can get some other things going as well.

just a thought good luck bub
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Offline Vulcan

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Re: Fail to boot issue
« Reply #4 on: October 22, 2007, 08:33:14 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by Maverick
I can't get into CMOS to find out if there is a problem there or if the CD is even being checked. F8 and delete during boot operation has no effect.


Thats odd, you're kinda screwed if you can't get into the CMOS as the boot priority may not include the CD drive.
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Offline Hungry

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Fail to boot issue
« Reply #5 on: October 22, 2007, 08:37:08 PM »
Good point Vulcan, thats why I was hoping that he has a floppy drive.  The A drive floppy is "usually" first boot priority.  Otherwise his only other hope may be that it will recognize a true boot cd.
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Offline Maverick

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Fail to boot issue
« Reply #6 on: October 22, 2007, 08:44:10 PM »
No floppy drive, other than the cd the only other drive is the HD. The notebook was purchased in 04 so out of warranty.

I kinda figured I'm hosed with it but it was worth a check to those with more experiance than myself.

Other than pushing F8 or delete during boot, any other ideas to get to cmos? I'm interested in cmos to make sure I can get it to boot from the CD.
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Offline Hungry

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Fail to boot issue
« Reply #7 on: October 22, 2007, 08:53:13 PM »
Is there a way to clear the CMOS on a laptop like there is on a desktop?  The other thing that I was thinking about while making hamburgers ( a little worcheshire sauce a little Montreal steak seasoning and a few dashes of Go Go Garlic) was if you have to replace the drive can you put in two drives? The new is primary, old is secondary? that way at least you might be able to recover your data if need be.

PS just for grins I still would try and make a bootdisk cd.
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Offline Maverick

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Fail to boot issue
« Reply #8 on: October 22, 2007, 09:23:40 PM »
The laptop recovery disk is a bootable disk. It won't boot from it. That's why I want to get into cmos to make sure it sets the cd drive as a bootable drive.
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Offline Vulcan

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Fail to boot issue
« Reply #9 on: October 22, 2007, 10:28:22 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by Maverick
Other than pushing F8 or delete during boot, any other ideas to get to cmos? I'm interested in cmos to make sure I can get it to boot from the CD.


Hold down a bunch of keys on boot. Some BIOS's will see this as a stuck key / keyboard failure and give you a prompt for BIOS entry.
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Offline TequilaChaser

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Fail to boot issue
« Reply #10 on: October 22, 2007, 10:47:47 PM »
some pc's use delete to enter the cmos/bios settings , while some use F2....

at power-on

hold down either DEL  or F2   and see if it opens the CMOS screen......that stuck key trick is a good one also!!!

rather wierd  really.

what if any errors are you getting when starting up.....post them here "word for word"
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Offline JB73

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Fail to boot issue
« Reply #11 on: October 23, 2007, 12:20:12 AM »
a lot of PC's also use INS or DEL and some use F10 and a few use F12.


I'd try those too
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Offline Maverick

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Fail to boot issue
« Reply #12 on: October 25, 2007, 10:01:43 AM »
Thanks for the suggestions, I really appreciate it. It's frustrating to say the least. I really don't need to have to buy another laptop at this time!

I can't post the error message as I haven't been able to stop the loop again like I did the other day. It just flashes on the screen now and keeps looping, sigh. Hopefully the stuck key ideas will get me to cmos so I can find out if it even recognizes the CD drive.
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Offline MrRiplEy[H]

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Fail to boot issue
« Reply #13 on: October 25, 2007, 11:04:44 AM »
In order to get to the cmos you need to open up the cover of the laptop, use a manual to locate the chip and then use a mini-ray to minimize yourself small enough to be able to enter the microchip.l

Entering the BIOS is a lot easyer with the keys suggested above. Keep in mind that if your problem is hardware related you might not be able to boot or enter the BIOS at all so even if you find the correct key it might not help.

Laptops usually default to boot from cd so unless you changed the setting somewhere along the way (in which case you should already know the correct key to enter the bios) it should remain in that setting.
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Offline Maverick

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Fail to boot issue
« Reply #14 on: October 25, 2007, 06:58:51 PM »
Success!

I was finally able to get the boot page to stop cycling rapidly and select the CD drive for boot. The recovery disk from Toshiba said it was the wrong machine for the disk. It figures. I had my XP disk from my tabletop so I used it for a boot disk and ran chkdsk. There were 3 boot files that were repaired and now it runs back to normal. Just in case I did a restore to an earlier month to drop any file that might have gotten in there somehow.

Thanks much for the help. Holding down F2 got the machine to slow on boot so I could move on the problem.
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