Toshiba Laptop Restarting and wont power off

[xxsilk109xx]

Toshiba A305D
Customer brought it in because the keyboard did not work, come to find out some coffee was spilled on it but after observation, I noticed that it was contained in the tray and it did not seem to be "between" the bottom of the keyboard or the tray that it sits in. So I think that the coffee was contained in the keyboard.

I replaced the keyboard, booted it up, customer had not used it in a year or so and wanted it wiped and reset. So I nuke and paved this thing and it works fine.

Only problem is that when I hold the power button down, it shuts off then restarts. Same if I go to windows and tell it to shut down. I have disabled everything in the BIOS as far as auto wake up functions. This happens with the battery in and plugged into the charger and with the battery out running on charger power only, and when the battery is only in it.

I have also tried different ram, power supply, and reset the BIOS to factory defaults.

Any suggestions?

 

[PCX]

Only one question at this point, when did this start happening? During your full diagnostics before the repairs or after the diagnostics during the repairs?

What tests have your run?

 

[Rob_NNCC]

I think it is a bios/ACPI issue as I have an HP desktop in our shop that does this. I just have not been bothered to fix it. (read one of our training/Demo PCs)

 

[Mr.Mike]

You are very sure liquid never touched the Mobo or other pcb's like the on-switch ziff connection or anything else? How about the power switch? That being said, what OS is on the HD? All power and sleep settings in the OS checked?

 

[xxsilk109xx]

I took the lid off of the laptop after i noticed a slight coffee spill and didnt see anything at all that looked dirty. The laptop was in good shape and ran fine, except she didnt have a power cord. She brought it to me with the battery in it, but it was dead of course because it had been sitting. So I charged it and fired it up, saw that the keyboard was sticky and keys were not working, so I ordered a keyboard for it, unplugged it and I dont remember if it just died or if I went to shut it down.

But I replaced the keyboard and reinstalled VISTA fresh onto it and I guess never noticed that it was restarting.

The coffee spill was very slight, not a lot, but I will check the connectors and take the lid off to see if somehow some got through the cracks.

Yes I have checked all power settings, thing is it does it even with a bootdisk so I know its not OS related.

Ill check again for spills on any connections or switches.

 

[PCX]

I took the lid off of the laptop after i noticed a slight coffee spill and didnt see anything at all that looked dirty. The laptop was in good shape and ran fine, except she didnt have a power cord. She brought it to me with the battery in it, but it was dead of course because it had been sitting. So I charged it and fired it up, saw that the keyboard was sticky and keys were not working, so I ordered a keyboard for it, unplugged it and I dont remember if it just died or if I went to shut it down.

But I replaced the keyboard and reinstalled VISTA fresh onto it and I guess never noticed that it was restarting.

The coffee spill was very slight, not a lot, but I will check the connectors and take the lid off to see if somehow some got through the cracks.

Yes I have checked all power settings, thing is it does it even with a bootdisk so I know its not OS related.

Ill check again for spills on any connections or switches.

So, you did not run a diagnostics or check for other issues before you ordered the parts?

 

[xxsilk109xx]

I took the lid off and looked for other liquid and did not see any, as I said, it was a minor spill. the computer powered on and booted to windows, i did pull the hard drive to backup what data I could and the hard drive checked out. So that was about the extent of it, yeah. I did not notice it power cycling since it seemed to shut off after I checked it out and I did not need it to stay shut off until I was prepping it to give to customer.

 

[PCX]

I took the lid off and looked for other liquid and did not see any, as I said, it was a minor spill. the computer powered on and booted to windows, i did pull the hard drive to backup what data I could and the hard drive checked out. So that was about the extent of it, yeah. I did not notice it power cycling since it seemed to shut off after I checked it out and I did not need it to stay shut off until I was prepping it to give to customer.

This is why it is SOOOO important to run a full diagnostics on each computer before you do the repairs.

Memory, HDD, Motherboard, CPU, GPU. Regardless of physical inspection, you should always always always test the MOBO when it comes to liquid spills. Even if you had not, somewhere along the lines of testing everything, you would have noticed the power issue. You said you checked the hard drive, but with what? Did you do a surface scan? check it with chrystaldiskinfo? did you do a short test? an extended test? What exactly did you do to "check" the hard drive? Please please please tell me you did not do a chkdsk as your HDD diagnostics . . .

 

[xxsilk109xx]

This is why it is SOOOO important to run a full diagnostics on each computer before you do the repairs.

Memory, HDD, Motherboard, CPU, GPU. Regardless of physical inspection, you should always always always test the MOBO when it comes to liquid spills. Even if you had not, somewhere along the lines of testing everything, you would have noticed the power issue. You said you checked the hard drive, but with what? Did you do a surface scan? check it with chrystaldiskinfo? did you do a short test? an extended test? What exactly did you do to "check" the hard drive? Please please please tell me you did not do a chkdsk as your HDD diagnostics . . .

No I ran Seagate Seatools on the short/quick and extended test and I checked it with hard disk sentinel. I just checked the motherboard and saw a few drops where some coffee has made it through, so I removed the motherboard and have checked it very well and cleaned any suspicious spots, put it back together and its still doing the same thing.

I am going to check the BIOS...

 

[PCX]

No I ran Seagate Seatools on the short/quick and extended test and I checked it with hard disk sentinel. I just checked the motherboard and saw a few drops where some coffee has made it through, so I removed the motherboard and have checked it very well and cleaned any suspicious spots, put it back together and its still doing the same thing.

I am going to check the BIOS...

Have you tried flashing / updating the bios?

 

[xxsilk109xx]

just flashed it to the newest version still same results.
Guess its a problem with the motherboard. Maybe Ill try pulling the CMOS battery out and see if that does anything.

 

[Mr.Mike]

Does the problem go away if you fire it up w/o the battery inserted?

 

[xxsilk109xx]

Does the problem go away if you fire it up w/o the battery inserted?

no its the same with and without the battery installed.

 

[Mr.Mike]

If you did not need to disconnect the power button ribbon cable or do anything with it, I can only conclude that some coffee (cream & sugar?) got into the button/switch itself and it needs cleaning too "unstick" it.

I'm out of ideas at this point.

 

[Rob_NNCC]

I am not so sure the power button is where you need to look. If the power button was stuck 'pressed' the system would shut off after 4 seconds, not reboot. The only way it could be the power button was if it had a bunch of short intermittent connections, and then the OS would shut down or go into hibernation right after boot up. I would put my money on a BIOS or power circuitry issue on the motherboard.

 

[xxsilk109xx]

I am not so sure the power button is where you need to look. If the power button was stuck 'pressed' the system would shut off after 4 seconds, not reboot. The only way it could be the power button was if it had a bunch of short intermittent connections, and then the OS would shut down or go into hibernation right after boot up. I would put my money on a BIOS or power circuitry issue on the motherboard.

Im thinking its a circuitry isse on the motherboard, since I have put the newest bios on and its still the same. I have cleaned it where it looks dirty with rubbing alcohol and a toothbrush, maybe I'll try to hit it again and see what happens.

 

[Mr.Mike]

I am not so sure the power button is where you need to look. If the power button was stuck 'pressed' the system would shut off after 4 seconds, not reboot. The only way it could be the power button was if it had a bunch of short intermittent connections, and then the OS would shut down or go into hibernation right after boot up. I would put my money on a BIOS or power circuitry issue on the motherboard.

I see your point. So, if the OP already flashed the BIOS and it didn't take, that would point to the MOBO for sure, and the coffee spill would seem to be just a coincidence.

 

[Rob_NNCC]

Well, it could be something correctable like wake on ring or wake on lan. I would scour the BIOS for things to turn off.