HDD not booting Toshiba l770

[OverEight]

Streamable - free video publishing

Pretty sure the orange light on the laptop is for the HDD, and it's not turning on, as seen in the vid. Screen is still dark but the PSU seems to work.

Laptop has also been randomly turning on at midnight, possibly because of an update, not sure if relavant but worth noting.

Using Windows 10.

 

[file3456]

You need to go to tenforums.com as this is the Windows 7 forums.

 

[samuria]

Does the bios see the hd?

 

[Bree]

Pretty sure the orange light on the laptop is for the HDD, and it's not turning on...

I have an L750 with the same lights as your L770. No, the HDD light is white, and then only when there's disk activity. The only amber LEDs are for the battery (when charging, white when fully charged) and the WiFi (when turned on). See Chapter 2, page 9 in the User manual available here: Satellite L770 (PSK3SC-00R004) Support | Dynabook

The Hard Disk Drive/Optical Disc Drive indicator blinks white whenever the computer is accessing the built-in hard disk drive or optical disc drive.

 

[OverEight]

^It's the fourth light that's off, so actually I think it is the HDD. Should I just repost to tenforums?

 

[samuria]

Myself and other tenforum users are on here you didnt reply does the BIOS see the HD

 

[Bree]

^It's the fourth light that's off, so actually I think it is the HDD. Should I just repost to tenforums?

You're not actually getting as far as Windows of any sort. This is a hardware issue, not a Windows one, so it hardly matters which forum you post on.

From your video, I see no sign of the Toshiba splash screen at start up. It look like the bios isn't even getting as far as completing its POST tests.

As it happens, my L750 had exactly that problem 6 months ago. The HDD (its original TOSHIBA MK5065GSXN 500GB) had developed a fault that prevented the bios from starting up. Not only that, but the HDD would prevent ANY machine it was connected to from booting, even when in a usb external enclosure.

The only way to get the PC to boot from anything, USB, CD/DVD or HDD was to remove the original HDD. Controller failure? Not on the motherboard at least, I replace the HDD with one containing an installed Windows 10 and that booted correctly. The machine could also boot from USB while any HDD (apart from the original one) was present.

OK, so it must be the internal controller of the HDD that was at fault. But here comes the really strange bit - put it in an external USB housing and it is fully functional (read and write) and Chkdsk says it's healthy, BUT....

....if this disk is left connected, even in the USB enclosure, no PC it is connected to can boot from anything, its own HDD or a USB.

Unusual HDD fault Solved - Windows 10 Forums

But, strangely, after testing it for a while it spontaneously cured itself. In fact, I'm posting this from the L750 with that same HDD back in place.



If you cannot even get as far as the BIOS, then remove the HDD and see if the BIOS then works normally. Try the HDD in a usb enclosure if you have one. See if it can be recognised by another PC. If you are (very) lucky it may just be a temporary glitch (as mine was).

If not, you may have to replace the HDD. If so, I hope you have a system image you can restore to the new drive.

 

[Megahertz07]

Do you have a healthy battery? Bad battery can make the laptop un boot able.

As Bree suggested, take the disk out and see if you have a POST.

 

[OverEight]

If you cannot even get as far as the BIOS, then remove the HDD and see if the BIOS then works normally. Try the HDD in a usb enclosure if you have one. See if it can be recognised by another PC. If you are (very) lucky it may just be a temporary glitch (as mine was).

It can be registered/read on my other PC so it's not the drive, tried putting it back into my laptop but it still wouldn't start. I can't/am not going to put it in a seperate PC because if all the effort plus not having an easy way to do that so... Now what? It can still be read. Doubt it's the battery, the power cable works fine and it still starts with the fans without the battery but never reaches BIOS.

 

[Bree]

... it still starts with the fans without the battery but never reaches BIOS.

Did you try starting it with the HDD removed? If so, could you enter the BIOS with F2? Or get to the boot selection menu with F12? If that works, can it boot from any bootable usb (such as a Windows install usb) without the HDD present?

If that will boot, then you have isolated the HDD as being the problem. As you can read from it on the other PC, backup your user files while you still can.

If you can't boot or get into the bios with the HDD removed then the problem seems to be in the PC's hardware. It may just need a reset, try removing the battery then press and hold the power button for at least a minute.

If that doesn't revive it, then try removing the cmos battery for a couple of minutes to reset the bios to defaults. If you still have the problem, try a new cmos battery.

 

[OverEight]

Yep, tried removing the HDD, can't get to the bios without it, so I guess it's the hardware, even tried duster, but no luck. Maybe there's a loose connection between the Mobo and the HDD reader, might have to take it apart, which I hate doing because Toshibas are a pain in the butt to disassemble.

 

[Bree]

...might have to take it apart, which I hate doing because Toshibas are a pain in the butt to disassemble.

And they don't make it easy, like actually publishing the field service manual.
Best I can find is:Toshiba Satellite L775 L775D L770 L770D disassembly


But worth trying all the 'battery out to reset' tricks first....

 

[Bree]

...might have to take it apart, which I hate doing because Toshibas are a pain in the butt to disassemble.

And they don't make it easy, like actually publishing the field service manual.
Best I can find is irisvista.com's guide: Toshiba Satellite L775 L775D L770 L770D disassembly


But worth trying all the 'battery out to reset' tricks first....

 

[OverEight]

Tried all of my above, no luck, HDD won't boot. I can only disassemble it or ask someone at my local computer shop for free advice.

 

[Marie SWE]

Tried all of my above, no luck, HDD won't boot. I can only disassemble it or ask someone at my local computer shop for free advice.

Have you checked so there is power in the cmos battery?
There are many laptops, desktops and servers that don't start if there is too low power in the cmos battery... common problem on Acer, Asus and HP
According to the picture in the link posted by Bree, your cmos battery sits next to the RAM memory.

 

[OverEight]

Okay, they said if it can't get to bios it may not even be the HDD, as the bios is not related to the hdd

 

[Megahertz07]

Okay, they said if it can't get to bios it may not even be the HDD, as the bios is not related to the hdd

Not 100% true. In fact some defective devices, as HDD, can prevent the computer to boot into BIOS.

It can also be Memory. Remove the main battery, the HDD and the memory stick(s) and clean the contacts with a contact cleaner. Also spray the contact cleaner on the memory slot.
Put the memory back and try to boot into BIOS without the HDD.

 

[OverEight]

Okay back, need a bit of other advice. Just got a new laptop, a Lenovo with slightly better specs. My old one is probably defective, but now I need to move the old files over with MiniTool Partion Wizard. Trying to clone the old HDD, but it's taking forever and I see no progress bar. It just says cloning 15 items so what is up? blob:https://imgur.com/f38a18f8-efff-4f5b-bef9-a061b9584f52

edit: nevermind, I needed to click the apply changes button,

 

[Bree]

edit: nevermind, I needed to click the apply changes button,

:roflmao:That trips up everyone the first time they use Partition Wizard....

 

[SIW2]

Most partition managers need the user to Apply changes.

In Aomei the apply tick is at top left. In diskgenius there is a save button at top left.

Okay back, need a bit of other advice. Just got a new laptop, a Lenovo with slightly better specs. My old one is probably defective, but now I need to move the old files over with MiniTool Partion Wizard. Trying to clone the old HDD, but it's taking forever and I see no progress bar. It just says cloning 15 items so what is up? blob:https://imgur.com/f38a18f8-efff-4f5b-bef9-a061b9584f52

edit: nevermind, I needed to click the apply changes button,