Laptop won't boot

**vesperlind** · April 30th, 2004, 01:33 AM

I have a Toshiba Satellite 5105-S501 that currently hangs on the manufacturer's screen and doesn't even get a chance to start up Windows. It will hang on the screen for about 60 seconds until the message "HDDPassword=" shows on the small media screen on the front of the machine. At this point, it will hang for about another 10 seconds and then shut down.

I attempted the following:

1. Boot from Windows XP CD = CD drive will run, but machine still hangs on manufacturer's screen
2. Press ESC to get into BIOs = nothing happens (still stuck on manufacturer's screen)
3. Removed and reinstalled RAM = nothing
4. Removed and reinstalled harddrive = nothing

Any ideas? This problem arrived after going on a trip (ie airport X-ray machine) and apparent complete battery drain - I had no idea the computer had not been completely shut down and was in sleep mode for quite a while.

I did also notice last night that the battery had been drained again even though we just took it off the AC adapter the night before and only turned it on to test it two or three times.

**kpataska** · April 30th, 2004, 08:51 AM

Originally Posted by vesperlind

I have a Toshiba Satellite 5105-S501 that currently hangs on the manufacturer's screen and doesn't even get a chance to start up Windows. It will hang on the screen for about 60 seconds until the message "HDDPassword=" shows on the small media screen on the front of the machine. At this point, it will hang for about another 10 seconds and then shut down.

I attempted the following:

1. Boot from Windows XP CD = CD drive will run, but machine still hangs on manufacturer's screen
2. Press ESC to get into BIOs = nothing happens (still stuck on manufacturer's screen)
3. Removed and reinstalled RAM = nothing
4. Removed and reinstalled harddrive = nothing

Any ideas? This problem arrived after going on a trip (ie airport X-ray machine) and apparent complete battery drain - I had no idea the computer had not been completely shut down and was in sleep mode for quite a while.

Seeing that it's a Toshiba, turn the unit off, charge the battery fully, keep the AC adapter plugged in and plug a parallel loopback dongle into the parallel port.

Power the unit on and the BIOS should be unlocked.

The other thing to try is hitting F12 a sh!tload of times and get the BIOS boot device screen to come up.

Hopefully it's something simple and won't have to be sent in.

Hope this helps!

Kenny P.
Visualize Whirled P.'s

**NooNoo** · April 30th, 2004, 01:51 PM

The hard drive might just be toast....

**kpataska** · May 3rd, 2004, 07:55 AM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

The hard drive might just be toast....

While possible - not probable as the message would be different - something about "unable to find primary boot device" or something similar...

Kenny P.
Visualize Whirled P.'s

**vladd** · August 26th, 2004, 03:46 PM

i have the exact same model laptop, and the exact same frickin problem. Mine is 2 years old and just yesterday it started this, i can't get into windows, it asks me for a hddpassword that i've never set, which leads me to believe it can't read the HD (bad HD) and it's thinking that's because i have it pw protected. i stayed on the phone with support yesterday for about 4 hours (circuit city's warranty plan is a POS) and i accomplished nothing, they said "you need to get a new restore CD from toshiba."

Anyway if you've fixed your problem please let me know how.

Matt

**vladd** · August 26th, 2004, 06:42 PM

I just wanted to add that i found on a windows driver's site, a bios update that included a fix worded something like "asks for HDD password when defective HDD is detected" bad for us i'm thinking

Originally Posted by vladd

i have the exact same model laptop, and the exact same frickin problem. Mine is 2 years old and just yesterday it started this, i can't get into windows, it asks me for a hddpassword that i've never set, which leads me to believe it can't read the HD (bad HD) and it's thinking that's because i have it pw protected. i stayed on the phone with support yesterday for about 4 hours (circuit city's warranty plan is a POS) and i accomplished nothing, they said "you need to get a new restore CD from toshiba."

Anyway if you've fixed your problem please let me know how.

Matt