Toshiba Satellite a215-7437 no display after bios update

[Delta808]

I need to reset the cmos chip, I was wondering if I can remove the ram and hope the settings will reset and so forth.

Can I just remove ram and wait 20 minutes or do I have to remove the cmos battery? Computer has no response.

 

[Sub Styler]

2 things.

1. Did the BIOS Update complete properly?

2. Was it the correct BIOS for your machine?

If the BIOS flash failed then the board is a write off. Hope it's under warranty and get it replaced!

 

[Delta808]

the battery is very weak the the computer told me it was gonna shut down after install, computer shut down, I waited thinking it would turn back on and it didn't, hit the power button fans came on, no screen.

 

[Delta808]

seems dead.... don't hear the fans come on at all.

 

[Sub Styler]

Its good advice to only update the BIOS while running from AC power and having a good level of charge in the battery. From what you say, I'm affraid to report it sounds dead. I don't see why laptop manufacturers are releasing BIOS updates for general use, it seems pointless and dangerous as error like this can occur.

I do hope your system is under warranty as they will replace it as "faulty motherboard", you are not obliged to tell them it was from a BIOS update you initiated and I would just say "my laptop stopped turning on".

EDIT: if fans are not powering up and battery is in poor condition, try removing battery and powering on with AC power ONLY

 

[Delta808]

ac power was on but the battery is very weak and I think it's toast. Not under warranty as this was shipped with Vista Home Premium

did that, fans aren't coming on and screen is blank but I hear it power up.

 

[Sub Styler]

you could always try and find one the same but with a broken screen or something to pinch the board out of. It would probably be easier to just keep your hard drive for data, sell what you have left- ram, cpu, screen, keyboard, optical drive, battery etc to put towards a replacement.

 

[Delta808]

sou you think trying to reset the cmos is moot at this point? Not even worth the hassle.

 

[vaidas3]

I need to reset the cmos chip, I was wondering if I can remove the ram and hope the settings will reset and so forth.

Can I just remove ram and wait 20 minutes or do I have to remove the cmos battery? Computer has no response.

RAM has nothing to do with cmos memory.
the sure way to reset cmos is to disconnect all power sources remove battery and remove cmos battery. sometimes there is special jumper to reset cmos but I don't know if there is such thing on your laptop

 

[Delta808]

I was figuring it would work after resetting the cmos, I'm going to give it a shot tonight.

 

[alphanumeric]

Laptops have eeproms, electronically erasable programmable read only memory. Removing the CMOS battery doesn't reset them like a regular eprom in a desktop PC. All it does is mess up the date and time, all the other settings like passwords etc stay in-tack. You have nothing to loose by trying it but I don't think it will help. If you are not getting any kind of BIOS message on the monitor it is probably bricked. If you poke around on the manufacturers web site you might get lucky and find a BIOS recovery procedure. It usually involves pressing a certain key combination while powering up the laptop with a bios file on a thumbdrive or floppy. disk. You may have to really hunt to find and there is no grantee it will work.

Here is an example Phoenix Bios Recovery - The Elder Geek on Windows

 

[Sub Styler]

Laptops have eeproms, electronically erasable programmable read only memory. Removing the CMOS battery doesn't reset them like a regular eprom in a desktop PC. All it does is mess up the date and time, all the other settings like passwords etc stay in-tack. You have nothing to loose by trying it but I don't think it will help. If you are not getting any kind of BIOS message on the monitor it is probably bricked. If you poke around on the manufacturers web site you might get lucky and find a BIOS recovery procedure. It usually involves pressing a certain key combination while powering up the laptop with a bios file on a thumbdrive or floppy. disk. You may have to really hunt to find and there is no grantee it will work.

Here is an example Phoenix Bios Recovery - The Elder Geek on Windows

Nice post alpha, I have never managed to find one of these, and as you say, there is a pre-requisite for the hardware to support it.

LAPTOP BOARD MAKERS TAKE NOTE: MAKE THIS A STANDARD FEATURE!

 

[alphanumeric]

My two ASUS motherboards have a CrashFree BIOS utility built into them. They will auto recover/restore the BIOS file if it fails or gets corrupted during an update process. I can restore a corrupted BIOS file using the motherboard support DVD or a removable device that contains the updated BIOS file. The instructions are all listed in the manual. Any decent motherboard bought today "should" have Boot Block, or Dual BIOS etc and some type of recovery option. Flashing your BIOS on todays hardware is not as dangerous as it used to be.