Help failed BIOS update won't boot

[LesD]

I'm afraid it's my so all I can suggest now is joining Elder the Geek's forum and asking for help there.

[Wingco1]

Thanks for your help Les. As far as the elder geeks, been there done that 

[Wingco1]

Should the project path not be set to browse for those files on your hard drive?

Managed to get it to work, thanks for that pointer. The disk was made but the end result was no different. The HDD light on the lappy is on all the time. If I was to take the HDD out do you think it would make any difference?.

[Steve]

I suspect taking the HDD out could make matters worse. However I wonder whether  this laptop is powering up in the correct mode for bios recovery, some links say there should be no led's on at all or that the power led should change colour from normal. Does the fan stay on high speed or does it slow down back to normal after a while? Have you tried win B instead?

[Steve]

Might also be worth asking the toshiba support forum which bios manufacturer this laptop uses

[Dangerjunkie]

There is a way to recover from this but it is *very* dangerous. If you have access to a second, identical machine you can try the following but please be cautioned that if this goes bad you will possibly trash both machines. If you try this do not hold me responsible if it ends in tears.

• Get yourself an antistatic mat/wrist strap - You'll be touching chips and you don't want to blow them.
• Open both machines up and find the BIOS flash chip. If it's soldered on the board it's game over. If it's socketed get the correct tool to remove the chip from its socket. *very important - If you break the socket by using a makeshift tool then you've screwed it*
• Make sure the shadow bios feature is turned on *I think*
• Connect the USB floppy to the working machine and boot the bios disc
• Stop at the point it asks if you're sure you want to flash.
• Pull the chip out of the working machine with the power still on
• Put the chip from the non-working machine in the working one
• Say "yes" you want to flash
  

If that works the contents of the bad chip will get rewritten and you will have a good chip for each machine. If it goes horribly wrong you may end up with 2 borked motherboards. If the chip is socketed you an also call the manufacturer and see if you can buy a new, pre-flashed chip.

These things being said I'd probably go back to the manufacturer to get it fixed unless the machine was of no importance to me and I didn't care if I borked it.

Good luck,
Paul.

edit: Important note - Many machines rely on the case to duct air to/from the fans over components. Operating a machine with the case off for any significant time may cause significant overheating.

[Rik]

I would have thought so, Steve.

[LesD]

If it's soldered on the board it's game over. If it's socketed get the correct tool to remove the chip from its socket. *

Being a Laptop my bet is that it's soldered in. If it is socketed you can send it to Arthur in the Netherlands along with a copy of the BIOS image on a floppy or as a zipped up email attachment. Arthur runs the business reflashing chips that I mentioned way back in this thread see here for details:
http://www.flashbios.org/

I think the one I had done a year or two ago cost me about £15 including p&p.

Mine was a soldered chip but I had the advantage of working for a Company that manufactured and repaired PCB's so for a price of a box of chocs a very skilled lady removed my BIOS chip and put a socket in its place. Arthur flashed the chip she removed and once back in the new socket it worked a treat. I know this is not going to be possible for the majority of folks and without the right desoldering tools do not attempt to remove a soldered in BIOS chip. 

The hot swap flash method has been known to work from what I have read in other forums but it sounds too risky for me.   

(Have we got a "Wimp" smiley?) 

[Rik]

(Have we got a "Wimp" smiley?) 

No, but it's a good idea, Les.

[Simon]

(Have we got a "Wimp" smiley?) 

We have now! 

[Rik]

Have you added it?

[Simon]

: wimp: 

[LesD]

OK thanks for that but it would appear to have been the easy bit.

What about getting this dead BIOS back to life!  I know miracles take a little longer! 

[Wingco1]

Does the fan stay on high speed or does it slow down back to normal after a while? Have you tried win B instead?

The fan stays at a slow speed from switch on to switch off . Yep I've tried Win+B, I'm assuming Win is the WINDOWS KEY.

[Wingco1]

Might also be worth asking the toshiba support forum which bios manufacturer this laptop uses

It's definately Phoenix, I checked before the failed flash.

edit for clarity: I checked before we started the flash that failed.

[Wingco1]

Thanks for the info DJ but that is way out of my league. Going back to my "remove the HDD idea". Not knowing too much about the technicalities of computers, I assumed that a spinning HDD being the first boot option is basically stalling the machine. If the first boot option was removed, would the machine then default  to the next?.

[Rik]

It's worth a try if you can disable it easily.

[Wingco1]

Removed the HDD tried again from all USB sockets, all key combinations. Even opened the DVD drive and tried it all again, (clutching at straws ). I think we have exhausted the possibilities, so will have to wait and see what the professional Toshiba repairers say.

Many many thanks to all who have contributed advice and support it was greatfully received.

[LesD]

I don't know much about the inside of Laptops but in a Desktop pulling off either the ribbon cable or the power supply connector or both would disable the HDD without removing it physically.

On the links I read there were some instructions about removing the mains power connection, then the battery connections and reapplying the mains maybe with certain keys pressed to kick start the boot block code. I guess that you have been there and done that too!

[Rik]

will have to wait and see what the professional Toshiba repairers say.

It's probably very simple - if you have access to the service manual. 

Good luck. 

[Sebby]

The hard drive usually slots onto a connector on laptops, Les, so it has to be removed to disconnect it.

[LesD]

The hard drive usually slots onto a connector on laptops, Les, so it has to be removed to disconnect it.

There are half a dozen in the Lab at work, my kids have them but I have never had one apart.
I like my big old desktop cases with plently of room inside to swing a cat.

(have we got a swinging the cat smilely? ........... I jest before Simon jumps in again!)

[Rik]

Simon rarely jumps into open cases, Les.

[LesD]

Sorry to be a pain if you have been here already but posting in this thread:

http://www.wimsbios.com/phpBB2/topic9866.html

may be worthwhile.

[Wingco1]

Thanks for that Les. You posted the link earlier, I actually made a recovery disk from that link which unfortunately didn't work.