Toshiba Satellite P-35 Black Screen w cursor

On start up computer flashes opening screen then goes to black screen with flashing cursor in top left corner...

 

Can you boot to safe mode?
Have you tried last known good configuration?
Do you have and recovery disks, images or an XP disk?
What is the exact model (letters and numbers after P-35)?

 

Hi plodr,

P35-S605
I cannot get it to boot to safe mode F8. When I do attempt an F8 start the screen shows:
INTEL UNDI,PXE-2.0(buiild82)
Copyright 97/2000 Intel
For Realtek RTL8139(X)/8130/810X PCI Fast Ethernet Controller V2.13(020326)
PXE-E61: Media Test Failure
It shows it twice, flashes and then loops back to the same
I was able to get the original recovery disc to run by inserting the disc, pressing on and F8at the same time. The recovery monitor onscreen showed it recovered completely. However after restarting it went right back to the black screen with flashing cursor.

 

Get into the BIOS and change the boot order to internal hard drive.
The PXE means your computer is trying to boot from an OS out on a network - not what you want.

Also be sure when looking in the BIOS that the computer sees the hard drive.

 

Doing it...
The Bios recognizes Toshiba MK1032GAX-(PM)
I went to 'boot' highlighted +Hard Drive and moved it to the first position
Then saved configuration
Still gives me the same Media Test Failure, check cable
Could this mean the OS is corrupted?

 

I was able to disable quiet boot and get this information (see pic)

 

No, I'd say it means check the cable.
Cables do die. Replace the cable then try and boot.

 

Sorry, which "cable" do you mean?

The power cable is working correctly as I can remove the battery and the unit powers up.

 

The cable connecting the hard drive to the motherboard. Since it is a laptop and is attached by a connector rather than a cable, remove the hd and then reseat it. While it is removed, clean the contact with canned air just in case there is dust.
You aren't having any power problems so no point in fooling with that. You are having problems getting windows to load which means the hd might not always being seen.

 

Yes, I took the HD out this morning and blew out both connecting points with air... plugged it back in solid and still had the same problem.

?? Someone else has apparently had the HD out before as the two screws which hold the HD tray down are gone??

Could this be part of the problem?

 

FYI... took two screws from an abandoned computer and reinstalled HD... still goes to same screen, PXE-ROM and loops

Also, removed HDD, changed bios to CD/DVD, loaded a CD with Linux mint on it to attempt to boot to it... puter went right back to same screen???

 

Hi,

Does F12 during the Toshiba screen give you a boot menu where you could select CD/DVD to force boot to the Linux CD?

Also, do you have an XP installation CD (not Toshiba Recovery CD) which would let you get into recovery console to try a fixmbr command? The blinking cursor is often an MBR problem but it is strange that the recovery you already ran didn't fix that already. Just to clarify is the computer hanging on the blinking cursor screen or the PXE screen?

 

Yes, my choices are 2- removeable devices 3-HD 4-network boot HOWEVER, when I click 'enter' for removeable devices it goes to a black screen with flashing cursor...
I can however enter BIOs using F2 and I had CD-ROM/DVD Drive checked and in the number one position when I attempted to boot from Linux...

Sorry, I don't have an XP installation CD for Toshia...

Edit; I do however have an Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP Cd for my HP 6200

Edit: oops, yes it hangs after the PXE screen on a black screen with flashing cursor.

 

Any Microsoft XP installation CD would work to get into recovery console. If you have a blank CD you could burn just the recovery console to it and then try to boot.

Removable devices is not usually the label for the CD/DVD drive. I take it you just have those choices of 2,3 and 4 but no 1 (which would probably be the CD/DVD). It may not be of any use to burn a recovery console CD if you can't boot to CD. You said you did use Toshiba recovery discs and you were able to boot from them?

Do you have an empty USB flash drive? Maybe a bootable flash drive would be considered a removable device?

 

I didn't think HP gave straight XP CDs. Does that HP XP CD boot up to an HP recovery screen or a WinXP screen that gives you the option to hit "R" for repair which would take you into recovery console? If it is an HP screen it won't do any good.

 

Update:

I went into the bios and changed turned all four options on.

Upon turning the computer back on I now have a black screen with

Operating System not Found
_

 

The BIOS is seeing your HD and your optical drive from what I can tell.

My suggestion would be to write a new MBR to the HD and see if it will try to boot XP. You need to find a way to boot either to Linux or an XP installation disc or recovery console.

Now, that you can select CD/DVD from the F12 menu, have you tried to boot to Linux? Are you certain that the Linux CD was burned to make it bootable using an image burning software? Does the Linux CD boot in another computer?

 

I burned the linux cd more than a year ago and used it to open three different HPs laptops which wouldn't boot...

The only extenal I have are flash drives and they are all 2 mg
The only time I got it to boot was with the Toshiba recovery disc and that was by tapping F8.

Now F8 doesn't do anything.

Is there any keyboard command I can use other than F8 and F11 to help boot?

Update: Linux will not open in my Sony PCG-K23

 

If the CD booted on another computer than it should at least try to boot here. What do you get when you hit F12 and select CD/DVD as the boot device with the Linux CD in the tray?

 

As you saw, linux will not boot in my sony... the other three were all HPs

I just put linux in the Toshiba, powered up, tapping F12 and it took me to the bios, then to the opening screen for one second and now back to the black screen, OS not found and _

 

The blinking cursor means the computer is going to the HD and not finding the next instruction telling it where to go from there. Usually that is a bad MBR. F8 won't work because it needs a good MBR to get there. What does the F11 option take you to (recovery options)? You could try doing the recovery a second time.

I can think of two options to try:

1) Burn a CD of the recovery console. Download the rc.iso file and burn it as an image file using ImgBurn or similar burning software using the "Burn image file to disc" option. Then boot from the CD and choose "R" to enter recovery console. Then use the fixboot and fixmbr commands to rewrite those basic boot instructions to the beginning of the HD.

2) Try another version of Linux on one of your 2gb USB flash drives. Parted Magic's ISO file will boot in most machines. You could use imgburn to put it on CD or use a program like LiLi ot create a bootable USB drive. Then use F12 to choose removable device if you wrote the file to a USB drive and see if it will boot from that. Then in partedmagic you would start TestDisk and hit enter to Create then enter to Proceed then enter for Intel and then choose MRBcode and hit "Y" to say yes to warning to write a new MBR to the HD. Then try to boot from the HD.

 

LOL... wouldn't you know, the Toshiba is my cd burner... lol... I am downloading Parted Magic to a flash drive and will try to get it to open... will keep you posted

 

:confused
I left the Toshiba on with the recovery disc in the drive to get a bowl of chili and when I returned this is what I saw:



Now, if this continues and restores the puter completely to day 1, will it work? lol

 

I've never seen a recovery start without at least one warning message and needing a keystroke. If it completes then it should work. You had already done one recovery before so I guess it was supposedly already at day 1. Maybe the first recovery just didn't complete correctly.

 

LMAO... No one was even close to the unit... I might have been in the kitchen 5 minutes... I walked back in and sat down and holy shit batman... lol... the thing was running... and its restoring from the HD it says...

Fingers crossed here...

 

:cry
Well, the good news is the chili was great... the bad news is after completing the recovery, I am right back to the Media Test Failure Screen...


Is it possible that 'part' of the HDD failed?

 

Both the HD and optical drive appear in the BIOS so I don't think the HD is dead or failing to be recognized.

I think that you still have a bad MBR or that the wrong partition is set active. I would go ahead and create the partedmagic USB and see if you can get it to boot using F12 and selecting Removable Device.

 

Lili is rather simple. Select your USB drive. Step 2, choose ISO and browse to your file. Step 3 is not applicable in Parted Magic. Step 4, tick the first 2 boxes and leave third unticked (all data on the USB will be erased, so copy anything important to the HD first). Step 5 click the lightening bolt to write the files.

 

The bad news is I cannot get 'anything to boot'.

I've not encountered this before and totally befuzzled.

Even after the somewhat magical recovery again yesterday the puter stills opens to the black screen.

:cry

FYI, I've read many posts on the Toshiba forum about this same problem across the board in Toshiba computers, with no real answers on how to make it boot, other than many non-Toshiba persons saying, "sorry, your HDD is toast".

 

If it was stuck at the PXE screen then I would say the HD and/or the DVDROM weren't working or not recognized but the black screen with cursor means it has gone to its boot device but is not finding the instructions it needs so it just stops and waits.

Using F12 to manually select DVDROM with Linux CD or Removable Device (with Linux USB inserted) both give you the blinking cursor?