Black screen after POST; persists for over 4 minutes

[Princee]

Hello,
(This is my first time posting here, so sorry if this is the wrong section or anything)

Tachyon-PC is being slow to boot its OS. Ironic, right?

Lately my laptop has been experiencing a problem when I boot it up. After the "Toshiba: Leading Innovation" POST screen, a black screen pops up that lasts for 4 minutes, 20 seconds on average. This black screen has a grey underscore (_) in the top-left corner, like a terminal. Afterwards, the Windows 7 splash and then login screen will appear as normal.

-I went into BIOS and set my boot to Fast Mode; that didn't help
-I was told to see if the on-die or onboard cache has been disabled; however, on my Satellite L875's BIOS, I can't seem to find an option for it.

Any help would be highly appreciated.
Thank you.

 

[andrew129260]

Have you tried resetting your bios to default settings?

Have you made sure the hard disk is the 1st boot priority?

You did not specify what toshiba model you have. I suggest looking for bios updates as well.

http://support.toshiba.com/support/products?cat=Computers

 

[Princee]

Yes, I'm running BIOS defaults.
And I have a Satellite L875-S7209.

 

[andrew129260]

Update to the latest bios here:

Looks like it resolves the issue you are having.

Satellite L875-S7209 Support | Toshiba

 

[Princee]

I installed the latest BIOS version (6.80), but that didn't fix the problem completely.
The average of my last 3 recent startup test times (since the BIOS update) was 3 minutes, 39 seconds.

 

[Britton30]

If you have any USB devices attached, try booting with them disconnected.

 

[jumanji]

Hi Princee,

It looks like a Power Management issue holding your laptop on black screen for quite a while. Your processor may not be getting adequate power in the Minimum Processor State.

Try this to resolve the issue.

Control Panel > Power Options > in "Balanced" > "Change plan settings" > "Change advanced power settings" > "Processor power management" >" Minimum processor state"

Change it to 100% for both "On battery" and "Plugged in" > Apply > OK

Shut down your computer and then reboot.

Everything OK now?

If your laptop boots now without the black screen, you may try decreasing the Minimum processor state power to such a lower value as to maintain boot without the black screen. So change it to 90, 80, 70 etc, till you get the minimum power required for a perfect boot.

Feed us back on the results after changing it to 100%.

Have a good day.

 

[gregrocker]

jumanji, what are the indicators for this? Just black screen flashing cursor after boot for extended time? or can it relate to slow boot as well?

 

[Britton30]

The processor power states settings will only be enforced with Windows booted, at least I think so.

There may be a low battery or charger not keeping it up all the way.

 

[jumanji]

jumanji, what are the indicators for this? Just black screen flashing cursor after boot for extended time? or can it relate to slow boot as well?

Yes, black screen flashing cursor for extended time - can be an indication of power-starved processor. Let us wait and see whether it is so in the case of OP.

Can it relate to slow boot as well? - Quite possibly yes. A power-starved processor may not be operating at its full rated speed and may take a longer time to execute the assembly level commands of the OS as it loads, increasing the boot time. This is an intuitive inference but increasing the power levels in case of a slow boot and checking is not a big procedure and I would think that this should always be carried out first before chasing and eliminating other reasons for a slow boot.

The processor power states settings will only be enforced with Windows booted, at least I think so.

Let us wait and see the user's feedback.

There may be a low battery or charger not keeping it up all the way.

Then a fully charged battery pack should resolve the problem.

 

[Princee]

Minimum for "charged" and "on battery" was 5%.
I changed it incrementally by +10% each time, but there was little change, if any.
Current boot time from POST to Splash at 100% minimum is 3 minutes, 18 seconds.

 

[jumanji]

You are not following the instructions.

Change both "On Battery" and "Plugged in" to 100% Hit Apply and then OK. Then reboot.

Please post a screenshot of the screen where you have made this 100% change.

Once you confirm that this resolves the problem then and only then you will start decreasing both incrementally.

If it does not resolve the problem then we have to look elsewhere for a resolution. ( About which I have no idea whatsoever. May be others have to step in.)

 

[Princee]

Sorry, by "charged" I meant "plugged in."

 

[jumanji]

OK, looks like it did not resolve the problem. As I said already I have no other ideas.You can go back to the original 5%,5% settings.

Wait for someone else to step in and help you.

 

[jumanji]

You may also go through this thread Toshiba Laptop doesn't start up. Black screen [Solved] and check whether some other user experiences can help you.

Sometimes some of these strange problems get resolved on power cycling the lap top. Remove all connections from the laptop including AC Power. Remove the battery pack also. Press the power button on your laptop for a few seconds to remove any residual charge in the laptop. Leave the laptop in this condition for a few minutes. Then put back the battery, give it the AC power and boot.

 

[gregrocker]

Could it also be a PSU issue based on that principle?

Boot into Win7 DVD or System Repair Disk to run a few Startup Repairs to see if it finds anything.

Next work through the Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7 starting with establishing a Clean Boot right away, checking for malware, system file integrity, hardware testing, system resources, cull logs, etc. Report back as you go if you want more related steps.

 

[jumanji]

The chase as per your procedure begins now. It could be anything you stated - malware, a rogue start-up , sytsem file corruption,the start of a motherboard component failure and also a most dreaded failing HDD.

 

[Britton30]

jumanji, what are the indicators for this? Just black screen flashing cursor after boot for extended time? or can it relate to slow boot as well?

Yes, black screen flashing cursor for extended time - can be an indication of power-starved processor. Let us wait and see whether it is so in the case of OP.

Can it relate to slow boot as well? - Quite possibly yes. A power-starved processor may not be operating at its full rated speed and may take a longer time to execute the assembly level commands of the OS as it loads, increasing the boot time. This is an intuitive inference but increasing the power levels in case of a slow boot and checking is not a big procedure and I would think that this should always be carried out first before chasing and eliminating other reasons for a slow boot.

The processor power states settings will only be enforced with Windows booted, at least I think so.

Let us wait and see the user's feedback.

There may be a low battery or charger not keeping it up all the way.

Then a fully charged battery pack should resolve the problem.

My statements are valid. If what I say is true that could cause the issue.
You now have the con jumanji.

 

[andrew129260]

I still feel like its a bios setting or issue somehow.

But that is just me.