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Reformatting Win XP Machine

F

FAHall

n00b
Joined
Feb 3, 2011
Messages
16
Hey Guys,

My Toshiba Satellite M45-S355 laptop from back in 2005 was on the fritz. It started a couple years ago where the "Toshiba Power Saver" would have a fatal error. The computer would then usually overheat after awhile and shutoff.

It also wouldn't shut down all the way on it's own, but rather required me to hold the power button for 10 seconds to get it off completely. I think the shutdown problem is due to the power button being damaged. It seems to have broken off the top slightly, so now it jiggles a bit, and has to be pressed deeper than previously.

Finally, I ended up with one of two results when booting:

1. Never ending loop of restarts.

2. BSOD that says my BIOS is not completely ACPI compliant.

I tried using the f7 trick mentioned in the BSOD, but to no avail.

So, I went to reformat using my Recovery CD. After it ran through it's whole process (probably an hour) it ends up going to restart, but just as my computer wouldn't shut down before, it won't completely shut down to restart.

When I manually restart it, I end up at the ACPI BSOD again.

I've tried inserting a Win XP CD as the boot CD, and there I get two results:

1. If I let it run as normal, I get the ACPI BSOD

2. If I hit F7 to load the Standard HAL it hangs at "Setup is starting Windows".

I've tried this several times and with two separate burns of the XP Boot CD.

There are no ACPI settings in the BIOS that I can see. And, I have tried with the BIOS loaded from the recovery CDs as well as a BIOS flashed with the most updated version.


Any suggestions how I can get this thing to work?

My next step while I wait for responses is to try the Ultimate Boot CD Diagnostics to see if I can find anything.


Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!
 
you don't want to repair the install, you want to do a clean install. Insert the xp disc and delete the volume information on the drive, format and re-install windows. If the problem still persists after the clean install, I would start looking for some type of hardware failure.
 
Have you tried running Memtest86? You can use a linux live cd to do this. A linux live CD in general may be a good idea to help you diagnose. I've had RAM errors cause BIOS BSODs on my laptop.
 
It passes Memtest, and I've tried running a clean install a few times.

I've been able to get as far as the desktop where it tries to finish the recovery CD process, but it then freezes.

A HDD check shows only 1 bad sector on the hard drive, but I suspect this is what's causing my problem, which is rather frustrating.


Thanks guys,
-Alex
 
All the force shutting down likely corrupted something.

Have you been able to boot to Ubuntu? Try a different HDD if you think that's what stopping you.



I still think it's the RAM. " BIOS is not completely ACPI compliant. " makes no fing sense(you didn't accidentally change your BIOS) it reminds me of a BIOS issue I had that ended up being bad RAM I had on my Ferrari. Try taking out both sticks of RAM and putting them back in.

Then try just booting with only one stick of RAM. Test each one to see.



P.S. I'll try to find my old thread...has to be somewhere


Edit: That didn't take me long XD

I think that may have actually been why I created an account here. I posted this problem on several forums...I was desperate as my Ferrari was my main gaming rig at the time.

Edit Edit: Here's the thread that actually solved my problem.
 
Last edited:
Thanks Deathwish!

I'm going to try booting with only 1 stick of ram tonight to see what happens.

Yes, I was able to load a Linux OS from the Ultimate Boot CD (I don't know if it was Ubuntu or not). Everything ran fine in Linux. Does that mean my RAM is okay? I'm a complete newbie to that OS, so I'm not really able to accomplish much. I ran the F-Prot virus scan, but that didn't find anything.

I also ran Spin Rite at level 2 (took 16 hours) and at level 5 (only took 2 or 3 hours), and neither one came up with any errors on the hard drive. At one point, after the Spin Rite, I was able to boot up into Safe mode in XP. But, upon restarting I ended up right back at the BSOD.

I get the feeling that more than one thing is wrong and each one is preventing me from fixing the other.

More tinkering...more learning.

I just have to tell myself that this is an excellent learning opportunity for me.
 
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