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Blue Screen of Death, Windows Critical Error, Unable to boot

post #1 of 10
11/5/06 at 5:11am
Thread Starter 
Hey guys, just signed up. I seem to be having problems with my Toshiba Satellite, model M35-S320. Here are the details:

I recently put my laptop in hibernation/standby mode by closing the top. Later on, opened the top to start working. Windows XP comes on, but in less than five seconds, the blue screen of death came on. It came on too fast, and was gone in a second, since the laptop restarted itself. As the laptop restarted, Windows would not boot at all. All that would show up is the Toshiba welcome screen, after that, the screen went blank. Initially, I could press f8, and then the safe mode menu came on. But once I selected safe mode, the screen would go blank again, and safe mode never loads. Now, even pressing f8 doesn't give me the safe mode menu anymore. I tried doing the power button/esc combo to get to BIOS, but BIOS wouldn't load either.

Any idea how to solve/fix this? Is this a hardware or software issue? Did my HD just crash on me? Would it be possible to use the HD as an external HD so I can retrieve the files that were in there? Please help, thanks.
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post #2 of 10
11/5/06 at 10:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by SonicYan
Hey guys, just signed up. I seem to be having problems with my Toshiba Satellite, model M35-S320. Here are the details:

I recently put my laptop in hibernation/standby mode by closing the top. Later on, opened the top to start working. Windows XP comes on, but in less than five seconds, the blue screen of death came on. It came on too fast, and was gone in a second, since the laptop restarted itself. As the laptop restarted, Windows would not boot at all. All that would show up is the Toshiba welcome screen, after that, the screen went blank. Initially, I could press f8, and then the safe mode menu came on. But once I selected safe mode, the screen would go blank again, and safe mode never loads. Now, even pressing f8 doesn't give me the safe mode menu anymore. I tried doing the power button/esc combo to get to BIOS, but BIOS wouldn't load either.

Any idea how to solve/fix this? Is this a hardware or software issue? Did my HD just crash on me? Would it be possible to use the HD as an external HD so I can retrieve the files that were in there? Please help, thanks.

Try posting the exact error message. All of it. This may help someone who is trying to help you
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post #3 of 10
11/5/06 at 2:21pm
IT is possible to read the HD from a desktop machine. You will need a 2 1/2" - 3 1/2 " adapter from a computer store or online. I just looked for "2.5 HD adapter" on google and found this one:
http://www.cablesonline.com/44pinto40pin.html

Note: Your HD will be jumpered for "Master", rather than cable-select so you may need to change that, depending on where it is put on a cable.

If you cannot get to the BIOS, it sounds like hardware. (assuming you can normally get to the BIOS outside windows on that model)
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post #4 of 10
11/5/06 at 3:41pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by saugen48
Try posting the exact error message. All of it. This may help someone who is trying to help you

I tried, but that's the only thing that I remember seeing, Critical Error, and the screen was gone.
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post #5 of 10
11/5/06 at 3:45pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by richk
IT is possible to read the HD from a desktop machine. You will need a 2 1/2" - 3 1/2 " adapter from a computer store or online. I just looked for "2.5 HD adapter" on google and found this one:
http://www.cablesonline.com/44pinto40pin.html

Note: Your HD will be jumpered for "Master", rather than cable-select so you may need to change that, depending on where it is put on a cable.

If you cannot get to the BIOS, it sounds like hardware. (assuming you can normally get to the BIOS outside windows on that model)

Thanks for the tip and link. Can you please explain further or give a lil more detail on how to do this?

Well, I'm not sure if I'm trying to get to the BIOS correctly. But either way, once the laptop starts and shows the Toshiba screen, any button I press makes the laptop turn off and restart again.
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post #6 of 10
11/5/06 at 7:05pm
Hi SonicYan
The blue screen of death or BSOD can happen for a variety of reasons, one being HDD failure. The fact that now you can njo longer access windows, or the "safe mode menu" definetly means one thing. Your windows software is currupted. At this point it is very hard to tell if it is indeed just the windows software or the actual hard drive that is currupted, you say you cannot get into the BIOS (this would have been the best option as then we could see what state the hard drive is in) There is one thing we can do though to see if this problem lies with Windows or your hard drive; Your laptop should have came with a Toshiba Recovery DVD/CD
  1. Insert the first recovery CD and restart the notebook.
  2. Hold down the C key and the CD will load to the recovery screen
From this point the recovery will need to be done on the system (the recovery will re install Windows), if there is a hard drive error the recovery program will tell you. If the recovery goes through OK then your problem should be solved.
It is worth noting that doing the recovery will delete all your own data on the system. There will be ways to save your datak, you can take the hard drive out and attach it to another computer but you will need whats called a hard drive caddy. It is basically a docking station that connects your laptop hard drive to another computer via a USB cable, another way is to take the laptop to a data retreival company who can perfrom the data back up for you
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post #7 of 10
11/5/06 at 8:36pm
Regarding the post about booting from the CD, hold fown the "C" key when you turn it on. That will force it to boot from the CD before the HDD. If it won't boot from the CD, it is probably not a HD problem.

As far as master/slave, most new drives and machines come with cable-select as the default. In that case, the designation master/slave is automatically controlled by the placement of the drive along the IDE cable. (master is in the middle), but you have the option of setting the drive yourself with a jumper on the back of the drive. The drive in your satellite must be set to master or it won't work in the laptop. To temporarily use the drive in a desktop, you may need to set the jumpper.
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post #8 of 10
11/6/06 at 8:41pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks so much for the replies and information.

Programfiles, can you send me a link on where to get one of these HD caddies? Also, if possible, can I use this old HD as an external HD, and if yes, what parts do I need and where do I get them from?

Also, can anyone recommend a good replacement HD for my laptop? I already posted the model number in the first post if that helps.
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post #9 of 10
11/7/06 at 2:29pm
the link for the hdd caddy is:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?...48013&doy=7m11

Yes you can use that old HDD as an extermal drive if it is not the HDD that is the part of the original fault. You should see what state it is in before you make that decision.
I cannot find any information on the type of hdd you will need for your Toshiba, it may be worth going to their website at http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.c...toshiba.co.uk/
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post #10 of 10
11/7/06 at 7:09pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the reply.
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