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Laptop turns on then off after 9secs

I've a laptop here that when turned on powers off after about 9 secs (before video is initialized). I was thinking it was overheating BUT this is what's really odd: if I hold down a key on the keyboard it will stay on and even boot the OS. Until I release the key, then it shuts off in 9 secs.

This would seem to rule out overheating and the PSU. Any ideas what it might be?

Why don't my "FN + Volume up/down" keys work?

I have a Toshiba laptop with Windows Vista. I turned on my computer once and it had a little red 'X' on the volume speaker. I reinstalled the driver (I'm not sure if I did that right though), and now the sound works, but I can't adjust the volume with the Fn and ↑ / ↓ keys, or Mute.

Is there a way to fix this?

How can I install Microsoft Bluetooth Stack on my laptop?

The Toshiba Bluetooth Stack is giving me a hard time to manage and I want to switch to Microsoft's. My netbook uses Microsoft's and I am fine with it. How can I install it on my laptop? I followed this link but I was only able to download a PowerPoint presentation.

Bypass BIOS password set by faulty Toshiba firmware on Satellite A55-S1065 laptop?

I want to rescue this 7 year old laptop that has been crippled by a glitch in its BIOS:

'A "Password =" prompt may be displayed when the computer is turned on, even though no power-on password has been set. If this happens, there is no password that will satisfy the password request. The computer will be unusable until this problem is resolved. [..] The occurrence of this problem on any particular computer is unpredictable -- it may never happen, but it could happen any time that the computer is turned on. [..] Toshiba will cover the cost of this repair under warranty until Dec 31, 2010.' -Toshiba

As they stated, this machine is "unusable." The escape key does not bypass the prompt (nor does any other key), thus no operating system can be booted and no firmware updates can be installed. After doing some research, I found solutions that have been suggested for various Toshiba Satellite models afflicted by this glitch:

1. "Make arrangements with a Toshiba Authorized Service Provider to have this problem resolved." -Toshiba. Even prior to the expiration of Toshiba's support (see above), there have been reports that this solution is prohibitively expensive, labor charges accruing even when the laptop is still under warranty, and other reports that are generally discouraging:

   "They were unable to fix it and the guy who worked on it said he couldn’t find the jumpers on the motherboard to clear the BIOS. I paid $39 for my troubles and still have the password problem." - Steve.

   Since the costs of the repairs can now exceed the value of the hardware, it would seem this is a DIY solution, or a non-solution (i.e. the hardware is computer graveyard material).

2. Build a Toshiba parallel loopback by stripping and soldering the wires on a DB25 plug to connect connect these pins: 1-5-10, 2-11, 3-17, 4-12, 6-16, 7-13, 8-14, 9-15, 18-25. -CGSecurity. According to a list of supported models on pwcrack, this will likely not work for my Satellite A55-1065, as well as many other models of similar age. -pwcrack

3. Disconnect the laptop battery for an extended period of time. This laptop already sat in a closet for several months without the battery connected. The poor thing!

4. Clear the CMOS by short circuiting a specific pair of solder pads. Examples given for other Satellite models:

   • Toshiba Satellite 1800:

     "Underneath the RAM there is black sticker, peel off the black sticker and you will reveal two little solder marks which are actually 'jumpers'. Very carefully hold a flat-head screwdriver touching both points and power on the unit briefly, effectively 'shorting' this circuit." -shadowfax2020

   • Toshiba Satellite A105:

     "You will have to jump the two solder squares at label C88." -kerneltrap

   • Toshiba Satellite L300:

     "Short the B500 solder pads on the system board." -Lester Escobar

Wiping the CMOS might clear the password prompt issue, but I cannot locate a jumper or a battery on this board. Nothing that looks remotely like a battery can be removed (everything is soldered). See for yourself:

Update: Matt located a pair of solder pads marked "reset." I shorted the circuit several times, but the password prompt still remains.

Possibly related questions:

• Remove Toshiba laptop BIOS password?
• Password Problem Toshiba Satellite..

Can a faulty battery cause a laptop to crash?

After replacing a blown out motherboard, my Toshiba Satellite C600 is still malfunctioning lately:

1. BSODs.

2. Distorted graphics, and freezes.

3. Sudden shutdowns.

After removing the battery and doing a re-format the laptop works perfectly (I should mention the problems continued before removing the battery after the re-format). I haven't seen a fault while solely running on A/C power for two days. Could the problem be a faulty battery?

Laptop cannot run on battery - dies instantly when removed from mains power

My laptop is a Toshiba Satellite L640. If I remove the laptop charger, my laptop will instantly die, so I can only use the laptop whilst plugged in.

What can I do to fix this?

Toshiba laptop won't boot with third-party laptop battery?

I recently purchased a new third-party battery for my Toshiba M700 tablet/laptop. The battery fits fine and the tablet detects and charges it, but when I try to boot up all I get is the Toshiba logo then a flashing cursor in the top-left. I can get to the BIOS, but no further.

If I put the old battery back in, everything boots up fine.

Has anyone else seen this problem? What am I missing?

What drivers do I need to get the most out of my new laptop?

I have just bought a Toshiba Satellite L850-1VO.

The part no is PSKG6E.

I have done a clean install of windows 8 x64, but now I am stuck with no drivers installed.

I have located the website for driver downloads which is here

After entering my laptop information I am presented with about 30 drivers which I am eligible to download for my laptop (the drivers span 3 pages with pagination links at the bottom).

I am not very clued up to what drivers I would need to install to get my laptop up and running efficiently as it could be, and what drivers are optional which would be downloaded if I needed to perform a specific task.

Could anyone please take a look at the website provided while entering my laptop information and tell me which drivers are essential for my laptop and should be installed.

TOSHIBA DRIVER FORM INFO

1. Product Type: Notebook
2. Family: Satellite
3. Product Series: Satellite L Series
4. Model: L850-1VO
5. Short Model No: PSKG6E
6. Operating System: Windows 8 x64
7. Driver Type: All,
8. Country: UK
9. Language: English

I greatly appreciate anyone taking the time to help me with this, I decided to do a fresh install of windows 8 as the laptop came with a lot of pre-installed unwanted software. Installing the essential drivers for my laptop to function efficiently and effectively is the last thing I have to do.

How do I know what hard drives I can buy to upgrade my laptop

So here's the deal: It so happens that I need to reformat my computer (Toshiba Satellite L305), to install windows and then install ubuntu. I figure I should also upgrade my hard drive, since 160GBs isn't enough for me with dual booting. I'm wondering how I know which hard drives will work.

As far as I know, it needs to be 2.5" since thats the standard for laptops. I don't know what other factors influence which hard drives I can use. I did some research and got a lot of stats on my computer, but the most info I have on my hard drive is:

160GB (5400 RPM); Serial ATA hard disk drive

Is there a specific GB/s stat that I need to get? Would this one work?

I heard that if you get a higher RPM drive it will make the computer run hotter, and I've already had overheating issues on this computer. Do the RPM's make a difference? How about physical location of screws and whatnot? IS this standardized or do I need some specific info?

Thanks in advance for any help.

How do I delete the "HDDRecovery" folder on a Toshiba Laptop (Windows 7)?

I have a problem with a recovery folder called HDDRecovery on my D: drive, which is an NTFS primary partition (start partition is C:). The OS is Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, German. The logged-in user, the only one, is of type administrator.

I want to delete this approx. 7 GB large folder due to various reasons irrelevant to topic. It appears it won't go down without a fight. Here's what hasn't worked so far:

• Changing ownership and trying to delete
• Trying to modify file/folder access rights - it reverts back to write-protected.
• Fiddling with group policy settings.
• Turning off UAC completely, rebooting and then trying to delete.

Here's what Windows tells me when I do try to delete it:

It means something like "Folder access denied", "You must acquire the necessary permissions from the Administrator, to make changes on this folder".

I am an administrator, what rights else is it talking about?

I cannot see a service running in the background, watching over this directory, and not a single registry entry related to the folder.

How do I delete this folder, preferably without having to delete the whole partition?

How do I (electrically) ground a Toshiba Satellite S55 laptop?

I need to ground my Toshiba laptop as it says in the title. It is not a static charge problem because I live in the tropics. It also only happens when I plug in the laptop (the metal case becomes charged). I can ignore the occasional 'zaps' but I am worried about my equipment. I run a small home studio and using a condenser mic on my usb interface results in a lot of low frequency noise. The laptop charger has no distinct neutral, nor ground prong. I have tried placing the plug in the socket both ways but no luck. Everything else in the house doesn't appear to show symptoms of improper grounding.

Laptop GAINS time, why?

I have a Toshiba Satellite P25-S607 laptop, which works fine in general, but has one issue where the clock runs fast. For example, after running for a day or two, the clock will be ahead 2 hours or more (if it's 3pm, it will show 5pm - or worse).

I do not receive an error that the battery is bad when powering it up.

It's running Windows XP Pro (fully patched) and I have only tested with it sitting on 24/7.

Any ideas?

Upgrading RAM on Ubuntu 12.04 caused major hardware failure

This is first time I am trying to upgrade the RAM on my Toshiba Satellite L650 Laptop running Ubuntu 12.04 64 Bit version.

After a little research about upgrading RAM I ordered a Kingston DDR3 module and it arrived today, I just installed it and booted. Now I had a total of 6 GB of RAM, 2 GB from the module I already had and 4 GB from the Kingston module I recently got. After booting the system Everything went fine and I logged into my user account. after that I noticed that a major set of hardware was not working on my system. System was not detecting the Cooling Fan, Wireless card, Ethernet card, Bluetooth, USB ports, e-Sata, in built Card reader, web camera and possibly many more things I didn't noticed. so basically, I was left with only the LCD, keyboard, Touchpad and the in-built speakers working in place. However the total amount of RAM was updated to 6 GB as I can see it while running free.

I was wondering if I pulled some wires off the board while installing the RAM but after checking it again I realized that was not the case. So I went ahead and pulled the new module off the board and rebooted. This time everything was fine and working as always. So now, when I had the clue about the problem I tried switching the slots for modules i.e. putting the 2 GB module into the one at which the 4 GB was installed and vice versa but again after rebooting I got only the keyboard, LCD, touchpad and in-built speakers working, nothing else was working.

Again, I tried putting only the 4 GB module and booted, Same thing again, Nothing was working just the keyboard, LCD.... So finally, I inserted only the 2 GB module and booted, It was all fine now. and this new 4 GB stick that I got recently is working fine on my friend's Asus laptop running windows 7.

Now I am wondering if there is any setting in Ubuntu 12.04 that I need to modify after upgrading the RAM ? Is it limited up-to the amount of RAM presented at the time of installation ? or at least any clue about whats going on with me ?

Toshiba Satellite P755D USB 3.0 Drivers Missing - Windows 7 Professional

I bought a Toshiba Satellite P755D recently and installed Windows 7 Professional on the machine. It runs great. But I noticed the exclamation point in the yellow triangle icon in the Device Manager next to the Universal Serial Buss (USB) Controller (I'm assuming this is the USB 3.0 controller because mine doesn't recognize devices). Normally, when this kind of thing happens I go to the manufacturer's website and download appropriate drivers and call it a day.

But not this time...

I browsed to my model and found no driver for the USB 3.0 controller. I tried other HW and Utility drivers, thinking they would be bundled. No luck. I tried looking up the motherboard in my machine. Generic name, no luck.

I then called Toshiba technical support and they tried basic troubleshooting, eg, uninstall device, reboot, for auto-installation; no luck. I popped the Windows 7 disk back in and tried to get information that way, no luck.

Finally, the technical support guy said he would look into the engineer's system to see if there was a specific driver available and that's where I'm at. The technician told me that these USB 3.0 drivers come within the native driver pack in windows but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Any ideas?

Toshiba Laptop shuts down after 30 seconds

When I start my laptop it boots up but after exactly 30 seconds it makes a "click" sound and shuts down.
Here are some tests I have performed:

1) changed my RAM memory -> nothing changed

2) checked my hard drive for errors -> nothing changed

3) started my laptop without hard drive -> still shuts down after 30 seconds

4) took out my CD-ROM -> nothing changed

5) my cooler is working fine, my laptop doesn't get overheated

6) the battery makes no difference if it's in the laptop or not

I've also made a log to see if it's always exactly 30 seconds. Here are the results:

NORMAL BOOT

1) 31.17s

2) 31.45s

3) 30.78s

4) 30.34s

5) 31.23s

F2 SETUP

1) 31.07s

2) 31.03s

F2 SETUP AND EXIT

1) 30.52s

2) 31.13s

F12

1) 31.28s

2) 30.97s

It doesn't mater how I start my laptop or what I do, after 30 seconds it just shuts down. Can someone please help me? I can't find any solution on the web.