Booting problem - Toshiba Netbook NB200

We have a little net book, running XP, and it is a lovely little machine for browsing the web, reading mail etc. Works perfectly except when rebooted, which I only do after MS updates.

When shut down, for any reason, it will not restart until the battery has run down, and I mean completely flat. Every little volt. Removing the battery does not help - the battery has to be in place, but completely expired, which normally takes a couple of days. Then, with the charger plugged in, it will boot normally and run perfectly, either from battery or mains until the next upgrade/shut down.

The battery itself seems to be OK - it will run the machine for several hours, which is all it managed when the machine was new a couple of years ago.

Any thoughts?

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Maybe try an OS with more uptime :) I've no idea re the fault, best to ask on sci.electronics.repair.

Reply to
NT

I don't know much about these machines, but I wonder if its got some problem with memory that gets corrupted when it reboots?

Is there any way on these machines to get into a bios or boot menu? Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Have you tried turning off suspend?

Reply to
Chris Bartram

In message , Brian Gaff writes

I'll see, when the battery has completely discharged, and I can start it again!

Downloaded MS updates around 8-ish yesterday morning, and still waiting for the battery to go completely flat.

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News

Hmm. Interesting thought. I'll try.

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News

1.Turn off, remove battery and power supply. 2.Press and hold the power button for 30+ seconds. 3.Insert battery and power cord, boot netbook.
Reply to
Nitro®

Buy a second battery and keep it flat?

Reply to
David WE Roberts

A little more infomation perhaps? Anything on the screen, does it do the initial POST, any error messages?

Reply to
Graham.

Have you tried ensuring it is really "off" rather than sitting in a low power suspended state?

Push and hold its power button for 10 secs. Then release, and press again.

Reply to
John Rumm

Nothing. Tried holding the power button for 50 seconds the first time, then two minutes the second time. No change :-(

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News

In message , Graham. writes

Sorry. Absolutely nothing. The power light comes on, but the screen does not react. No messages, no beeps, nothing.

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Thanks John. I've tried that, but no change. It does this every time I shut it down. Will restart perfectly normally once the battery is completely discharged which takes days. Not enough power to run it, but just enough to be detected, I suppose. Very strange.

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News

Have you seen this thread? :-

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way to simulate a completely flat battery is to remove the main battery and disconnect the mains adaptor, then turn the machine on, and when it tries and fails to boot using the RTC battery, it acts as if the main battery has been completely flat when it is reconnected.

Reply to
John Williamson

It ought only take 5 or 6 to force a machine to "off"

Reply to
John Rumm

Brilliant! No, I hadn't. Thank you. Managed to get it up and running, read the thread, upgraded the BIOS and rebooted successfully a number of times. Perfect. It really is a useful little machine, and I'll be delighted if this is a permanent fix.

Thank you :-)

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News

It sounds like uptime is one half of the problem. Frequent updates result in downtime each time. Hopefully you've fixed it now, if not though I'd simply switch off autoupdates if its not a security critical machine, or if it is, try a few linux live CDs to see if something more stable suits you. Mint 7 is a good replacement for xp, and can happily keep running weeks at a time with a 2G swap partition (the bigger the swap, the more uptime). Support has ended for 7, so no updates, and seldom any reason to reboot.

NT

Reply to
NT

Personally I dunno. Apparently others have gotten their units to boot by freezing them (in a real freezer) before booting up.

This looks interesting from

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" Re: Toshiba NB200 won't boot I have found a fix for this. I do computer repair for a living and have now repaired two nb200's with this fault. Here's how:

1) Get the computer to post and boot. There's a few ways to do this if it will NEVER post. You can leave the computer off for around 2 months. I had one which never posted no matter what I tried. After leaving it sit around for about 2 months, I tried again and it posted and booted, but once it warmed up again it wouldn't post again. You can also try putting it in your car overnight to cool it down, or lastly you can try the freezer trick. Once you have it booted to windows, DON'T restart or power down as it may not post again. 2) Download the latest BIOS update for your NB200 which is v2.1. Make sure it's for the correct part number which can be found on the back of your nb200. 3) Connect your power lead and make sure the nb200 has at least 50% charge. 4) Install the v2.1 BIOS update.

Both nb200's I have repaired like this would only post intermittently before this v2.1 BIOS update. As I mentioned, 1 of them wouldn't post at all for two months. Both nb200's were initially running the v1.2 BIOS. Immediately after this v2.1 update, both nb200's post and boot every time, even when i have left them running near a heater in a hot room. Basically fixed.

You can find out what BIOS version you have on the main page of the BIOS setup screen.

So, get it to boot, and flash to the latest bios update."

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

In message , Winston writes

Thanks for that. Yes, I followed that advice, upgraded the BIOS and it has behaved perfectly since then.

Cheers,

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News

Both the solutions (freeze or leave for long time) sound like ways of clearing the BIOS (freezing car radios used to be a way to clear their security codes!).

If there is an accessible battery (probably not) then pull it and leave for a week might do the same job. Or there may even be a way to force clearing the BIOS on boot.

Paul DS

Reply to
Paul D Smith

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