Weird Toshiba Satellite Pro boot problem

[sorcerer]

Toshiba Satellite Pro C660-1NQ (PSC0ME-01S00TEN) laptop running Windows 7 Pro.

It came to me because it wouldn't boot up - it kept going into startup repair but then saying that it couldn't automatically cure the problem and that's why the customer brought it to me. I must have not been paying attention properly because I hit F8 and then selected 'Last known good boot configuration', which is something I never do because in my experience it hardly ever works. Anyway, this time it did and it works perfectly!

Well, sort of, anyway.

On powering up it goes through POST to 'Starting Windows', on to the login screen and then completes the boot process successfully by displaying the desktop. You can use it perfectly normally for a few minutes or all day if you want to, and then you can shut it down in the usual way. All tickety-boo and all perfectly normal.

However, next time you power it up the lights come on, the fan and hard drive spin up but that's it, nothing else happens - no POST, no startup screen, no cursor etc., no matter how long you leave it. The only way out is to hold down the power button for four seconds to force a shutdown. But then, you can press the power button again and it boots up normally!!

This is a completely repeatable pattern that happens every time - a normal, successful boot followed by a non-boot; normal/unsuccessful; normal/unsuccessful ad infinitum.

I've never seen anything like this and don't know where to start. Any ideas folks?

 

[DataMedics]

Hmm.... first thing I'd do is run some checks on the hard drive to see if it has bad sectors. Possibly there's a log file or something like that which keeps getting stored in a bad sector region and making it hang.

 

[sorcerer]

Thanks for your quick reply my friend, I'll give that a whirl tomorrow, cheers.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Low RTC battery and corrupted BIOS come to mind. I think this is too recent to have NEC TOKIN caps, which could cause these symptoms, but I could be wrong. Don't know if the RTC battery is easily accessible, but I'd suggest removing it and measuring its voltage. And checking HDD health, as Jared suggested, or swapping in a known good HDD.

 

[FremontPC]

Had one like that, would (as I recall) get to the BIOS splash, black screen and then nothing. Not hitting the drives at all. Force it off with the power button, then turn it back on 2 seconds later and it would boot just fine. Handed it back to the customer, showed them the technique and said back it up and save your money for a new one. It was a low-spec Toshiba, just wasn't worth putting much time into.

 

[sorcerer]

Thanks Larry, I'll have a look. May well end up doing the same as you John, so thanks for that info too mate.

 

[sorcerer]

Just thought I'd let you know that I tried everything you suggested and nothing worked - hard drive tested perfect but 'just in case' I substituted a known good one with no change; known good RAM but no change; flashed an updated BIOS but no change; changed RTC battery but no change. So, it's gone back to the customer with a demo of the technique for achieving a successful bootup and advice that it may be time to start looking at new laptops.

Thanks for all the help guys.

 

[DataMedics]

Yeah, probably a toast motherboard. Those are the hardest thing to diagnose because the symptoms are never the same.