Toshiba BIOS

24

Comments

  • jescabjescab Inactive Imported Users Posts: 1,321
    I will remove the battery.......the XP CD will partition the hdd and install the OS.........I am off to find out how to remove the RTC battery in the Toshiba laptop.........
    GO STEELERS GO - STEELERS RULE
  • RussSRussS Member Posts: 2,068 ■■■□□□□□□□
    jescab wrote:
    the XP CD will partition the hdd and install the OS
    Only if you use the tools on it and not expect it to boot to the CD and partition it as you install XP - that will only format a partition and not create one.
    www.supercross.com
    FIM website of the year 2007
  • jescabjescab Inactive Imported Users Posts: 1,321
    I have done partitioned and formatted drives with just the XP cd for yrs

    this is the worst time i have ever had trying to get BIOS to see a hdd...

    since you seem to think that XP will not partition a hdd how do you suggest i do that - this laptop does not have a floppy.....
    GO STEELERS GO - STEELERS RULE
  • JDMurrayJDMurray Admin Posts: 13,086 Admin
    Does the Toshiba BIOS support booting off USB devices? USB floppy drives are under $30US. I use them on my Dell laptops all the time. Damn handy.
  • PlantwizPlantwiz Mod Posts: 5,057 Mod
    jescab wrote:
    I have done partitioned and formatted drives with just the XP cd for yrs

    this is the worst time i have ever had trying to get BIOS to see a hdd...

    since you seem to think that XP will not partition a hdd how do you suggest i do that - this laptop does not have a floppy.....


    Well since XP has only been out since Oct 21, 2001, it is almost 5 years already....however, sometimes it is good to revisit those basic skills that seem 'obscelete'. ;)

    Fdisk:Format:Install.

    If not a USB Floppy, how about a thumb drive? In either case, well worth having in the tool box.

    Also,
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812156101

    IS one of my most favorite tools added earlier this year (Jan 2, 06). Watch out for imitations that only all 1 drive type not both 2.5/3.5"and atapi drives. (the power cable is in the center whereas the other brands have the power on the back side).

    In some way, shape or form get the drive partioned and then I think you'll see some better results.

    Or my old favorite:
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812203012

    See if you can access the drive outside of the Toshiba.
    Plantwiz
    _____
    "Grammar and spelling aren't everything, but this is a forum, not a chat room. You have plenty of time to spell out the word "you", and look just a little bit smarter." by Phaideaux

    ***I'll add you can Capitalize the word 'I' to show a little respect for yourself too.

    'i' before 'e' except after 'c'.... weird?
  • RussSRussS Member Posts: 2,068 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Plantwiz wrote:
    If not a USB Floppy, how about a thumb drive? In either case, well worth having in the tool box.

    That is exactly what I use for Tosh laptops. Well I do if I forget to hook the drive up to my lab machine prior to installing it. I usually boot up my XP lab machine and use Windows Disk Management to create a partition.

    I have also at times used the UBCD to initialise disks for OS install.
    www.supercross.com
    FIM website of the year 2007
  • SlowhandSlowhand Mod Posts: 5,161 Mod
    Have you checked Toshiba's downloads page for firmware and other updates? You have to make sure you know which A15 it is. Well. . . there is one fix you can try, which is the same for almost all Toshiba laptops, and that's running the DMI update utility:

    http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/su/su_sc_dtlViewDL.jsp?soid=1008299&moid=578117&BV_SessionID=@.gif@1717987942.1157365526@.gif@&BV_EngineID=ccchaddikdklgfjcgfkceghdgngdgmn.0&ct=DL

    This is intended for machines that aren't recognizing their hardware or recognizing their reinstall discs as valid. Give it a shot, otherwise it might be time to upgrade the firmware for the HDD controllers, or possibly flashing the BIOS.

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  • jescabjescab Inactive Imported Users Posts: 1,321
    OK - What I have done is take a hdd out of my working laptop and install it in the Toshiba and tried to boot up. BIOS did not recognize that working hard drive. I put the new hdd in another laptop and it worked perfectly. I put the XP cd in and partitioned and installed XP on the new hdd.

    So now that does this tell us? The Toshiba laptop doesn't recognize a new hdd or a working hdd from another computer. The new hdd works perfectly in another laptop.

    What should we try next to get the Toshiba laptop working?
    GO STEELERS GO - STEELERS RULE
  • sprkymrksprkymrk Member Posts: 4,884 ■■■□□□□□□□
    My thought all along is that the mother board is fried. Either that was the original problem rather than a bad hard drive, or else it could have been damaged during the hard drive replacement or some of the trouble shooting along the way.

    It may be the connector on the MB to the hard drive, but otherwise it looks like you're due to replace the entire MB.
    Good luck.
    All things are possible, only believe.
  • PlantwizPlantwiz Mod Posts: 5,057 Mod
    Plantwiz
    _____
    "Grammar and spelling aren't everything, but this is a forum, not a chat room. You have plenty of time to spell out the word "you", and look just a little bit smarter." by Phaideaux

    ***I'll add you can Capitalize the word 'I' to show a little respect for yourself too.

    'i' before 'e' except after 'c'.... weird?
  • JDMurrayJDMurray Admin Posts: 13,086 Admin
    If the mobo were fried then a BIOS flashing would most likely fail. It may be that the integrated IDE controller was damaged by the original hard drive when it went bad, or was damaged by whatever caused original the hard drive to go bad.

    I assume that you've Googled for other Toshiba owners complaining about this same problem. Lord knows that Dell laptops have a common set of problems that people complain about on the Dell support forums all the time.
  • TheShadowTheShadow Member Posts: 1,057 ■■■■■■□□□□
    I have seen at least one laptops lose its cmos settings and refuse to locate a drive. All that was required was to set it back to auto or force it to identfy the drive and then set it to auto. I don't think that I have read where he went into cmos to see if the drive was identified unless I missed it.
    Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of technology?... The Shadow DO
  • jescabjescab Inactive Imported Users Posts: 1,321
    Yes, I have gone into BIOS/CMOS a few times and it does not recognize the hdd.
    GO STEELERS GO - STEELERS RULE
  • Silver BulletSilver Bullet Member Posts: 676 ■■■□□□□□□□
    I hate to keep pushing it but did you disconnect/reconnect the RTC battery and/or flash the bios?
  • RussSRussS Member Posts: 2,068 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Just thinking about this ... how was the original drive jumpered? laptops are very picky about this and mostly will not recognise a drive if it is not jumpered as per default settings. Remember that with different drives the pins you jumper may be different.
    www.supercross.com
    FIM website of the year 2007
  • blargoeblargoe Member Posts: 4,174 ■■■■■■■■■□
    The UBCD has an endless supply of motherboard, memory, etc. burn in tests that you could run to verify that your mobo does, in fact, have a problem.
    IT guy since 12/00

    Recent: 11/2019 - RHCSA (RHEL 7); 2/2019 - Updated VCP to 6.5 (just a few days before VMware discontinued the re-cert policy...)
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  • jescabjescab Inactive Imported Users Posts: 1,321
    OK what is UBCD?

    The new drive is jumpered the same way the old hdd was jumpered. No jumpers at all and it is the exact same make/model hdd.
    GO STEELERS GO - STEELERS RULE
  • sprkymrksprkymrk Member Posts: 4,884 ■■■□□□□□□□
    jescab wrote:
    OK what is UBCD?

    The new drive is jumpered the same way the old hdd was jumpered. No jumpers at all and it is the exact same make/model hdd.
    Ultimate Boot CD. Download the ISO here:
    http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

    However, you need to be able to boot to the CD, which as I understand you are having trouble doing? This post is getting long and I can't remember if you are able to boot to a CD or not.
    All things are possible, only believe.
  • jescabjescab Inactive Imported Users Posts: 1,321
    Yes, I can boot to the CD.

    I never used this UBCD before what does it do........how do you use it

    Is this UBCD something for the tool box......
    GO STEELERS GO - STEELERS RULE
  • RussSRussS Member Posts: 2,068 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Yup the UBCD is definitely a tool for the kit. Most of the included programs have excellent help files. What I would do in your case is go to the hard drive tools - -> to the next screen and run the appropriate manufacturers tool to ensure that you have a valid partition. After that you should be able to install from the XP CD.
    When you run the manufacturers tool you will find whether the BIOS is in fact seeing the raw drive.
    www.supercross.com
    FIM website of the year 2007
  • jescabjescab Inactive Imported Users Posts: 1,321
    OK, I removed the RTC and left it our for 45 minutes. Then I put it back in, rebooted and it did not recognize the new hdd, the old hdd or a third hdd.

    I am doing the UBCD now.
    GO STEELERS GO - STEELERS RULE
  • jescabjescab Inactive Imported Users Posts: 1,321
    I ran thru the drive menu of the UBCD and that did not work.

    I am completely baffled.
    GO STEELERS GO - STEELERS RULE
  • PlantwizPlantwiz Mod Posts: 5,057 Mod
    jescab wrote:
    I ran thru the drive menu of the UBCD and that did not work.

    I am completely baffled.


    3rd HDD??

    I thought I was following....Do you have 2 HDDs in this notebook? If so, is one slave and the other master?


    Or did you simply mean you found yet another drive meaning
    1. Original
    2. replacement
    3. 2nd possibly replacement
    Plantwiz
    _____
    "Grammar and spelling aren't everything, but this is a forum, not a chat room. You have plenty of time to spell out the word "you", and look just a little bit smarter." by Phaideaux

    ***I'll add you can Capitalize the word 'I' to show a little respect for yourself too.

    'i' before 'e' except after 'c'.... weird?
  • Silver BulletSilver Bullet Member Posts: 676 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Looks like you need a Part replacement. icon_lol.gif
  • jescabjescab Inactive Imported Users Posts: 1,321
    Sorry - earlier I stated that I pulled a hdd from a working laptop to see if it was recognized in the BIOS/CMOS and it was not.

    1. Original
    2. replacement
    3. pulled from working laptop
    GO STEELERS GO - STEELERS RULE
  • PlantwizPlantwiz Mod Posts: 5,057 Mod
    jescab wrote:
    Sorry - earlier I stated that I pulled a hdd from a working laptop to see if it was recognized in the BIOS/CMOS and it was not.

    1. Original
    2. replacement
    3. pulled from working laptop

    Thanks, I was loosing track.

    I'm going to go back through the thread and see if I can map it out for myself....maybe something will jump out??? :)
    Plantwiz
    _____
    "Grammar and spelling aren't everything, but this is a forum, not a chat room. You have plenty of time to spell out the word "you", and look just a little bit smarter." by Phaideaux

    ***I'll add you can Capitalize the word 'I' to show a little respect for yourself too.

    'i' before 'e' except after 'c'.... weird?
  • jescabjescab Inactive Imported Users Posts: 1,321
    No problem - THANKS very much.........
    GO STEELERS GO - STEELERS RULE
  • Danman32Danman32 Member Posts: 1,243
    If I recall, you still haven't been able to get into the BIOS setup. That's where I would go. Often resetting the BIOS (like selecting default BIOS) clears up a lot of woes. I solved a boot problem on a DELL that originally looked like a PCMCIA problem.
  • jescabjescab Inactive Imported Users Posts: 1,321
    I CAN access the boot menu. I will see what setting it to the default settings do for me. Hey it is worth a try. Thanx!
    GO STEELERS GO - STEELERS RULE
  • Danman32Danman32 Member Posts: 1,243
    Not the BOOT menu, where you select what device to boot from, but the BIOS setup menu where you can change various settings on the bios, including the time, enabling/disabling built-in peripherals, etc. as well as the default device boot order.
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