Laptop not booting after the battery died during sleep mode.

Hello everyone.

A few hours ago my computer was in sleep mode and unplugged when the battery died. Upon plugging it back in, I was met with an empty black screen. I turned it off by holding the power button, but the laptop refuses to boot now.

Upon turning it on, I get the Toshiba start up screen for less than a second before it goes to the Windows Error Recovery Page. Both options (Launch Startup Repair (recommended) and start windows normally) results in a screen that says 'windows is loading files...' with a status bar, then moves on to another screen showing another status bar (this one green with the microsoft corp at the bottom but no graphic) and ultimately to a black screen with a white cursor. From there, nothing works. The same happens if I try to start it in safe mode (with or without networking).

I have a system repair disc for the laptop but I haven't been able to do anything with it.

Fortunately 99% of the info on the laptop is backed up. Unfortunately the 1% that isn't is the most important (class notes for the last 4-5 weeks).

I have the extended warranty on it from best buy that actually expires in 4 days, but I certainly don't want to ship off my computer for who knows how long with those files on there.

Any advice would be tremendously appreciated.

Britton30 said:

Welcome to Seven Forums. you might try Launch Start up Repair 3 times to see if it will recover the boot sector.

I've tried to launch start up repair about 10 times now with the same results (leads me to the black screen with white cursor).

Britton30 said:

What does the repair disk do and is there a Recovery option in the Toshiba splash screen?

With the repair disc and the BIOS set to boot from CD, i get a flashing cursor (or underline...whatever you call it)and then a message saying press any key to boot from cd/dvd appears. I press it and the 'Windows is loading files..." bar appears and loads slower than it does without the cd in. Once it gets across the screen, the screen flashes between solid black (like it is unlit) then black, then the secondary loading bar (green) appears and loads and then it goes back to the black screen with white pointer on it. I hope that made sense.

On the splash screen it only displays the options for pressing F2 and F12 (and associated messages about setup utility and boot manager).

Everything is here that can be done for Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start
including the hardware tests which I would do, leading up to if necessary rescuiing your files to restore your Toshiba laptop to its factory fresh software condition using system recovery Factory Recovery or getting the superior Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

In the future in Power Options keep Hibernate set to kick in after a sleep period so that if it loses battery power it will write RAM to the HD and shut down (suspend) in an orderly fashion rather than just cutting power to the RAM>

And as always never run the corrupt OEM factory preinstall which throttles and interferes with Win7 so you never get to experience it's native perfect state. That's why tech enthusiasts all do the Clean Reinstall.

Thanks Gary, those OEM links change pretty often. Here's another: How to restore your Toshiba laptop to its factory fresh software condition using system recovery

gregrocker said:

Thanks Gary, those OEM links change pretty often. Here's another: How to restore your Toshiba laptop to its factory fresh software condition using system recovery

Thanks for your replies. Since I have a few files that I really don't want to lose, my best bet would be going to your link for Windows 7 troubleshooting failure to start right? And I suppose starting at option 3 is the right choice since safe mode gets me nowhere.