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Question

Toshiba satellite startup problems

Jul 22, 2016 5:29PM PDT

So my laptop (Toshiba Satellite L775) doesn't boot, unless I remove and reinsert the cmos battery (located behind the ram). Also the laptop screen doesn't receive power. After the cmos trick I don't have to press the power button and the laptop boots the moment I connect my adaptor. I am able to use my laptop by connecting an external screen.

Things I did:
-check voltage on my adaptor (A ok)
-check CMOS battery voltage (3.08V)
-check the power button by checking the resistance with a multimeter and seeing it go from infinity to zero when I press the power button
-check the voltage on the wires that power the screen (0 V DC, is the DC a correct assumption?)
-pushing the power button repeatetly (no effect)
-holding the power button to clear the remaining power from the board ( without the battery/adaptor), this didn't help but was neccesary to make the CMOS-battery trick work

Discussion is locked

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Answer
3.08 is a tad low.
Jul 22, 2016 5:59PM PDT

New batteries come in higher and are cheap. I'd toss a new one in just to remove that as a possible issue.

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No result
Jul 23, 2016 10:25AM PDT

Changing the battery with a 3.32V (new) battery didn't help.

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That's not good.
Jul 23, 2016 10:49AM PDT

Remember I can't know what's not stock but I'd retry but without WiFi card, no ODD or HDD, single stick of RAM and boot Live OSes from USB for testing.

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no improvement
Jul 23, 2016 4:16PM PDT

I unplugged my second ram stick, my odd and my hdd but I couldn't locate my wifi card on my board. I haven't replaced any parts in the laptop, but I am using a new adaptor(one of those that's designed for many laptops with an interchangable head) (I'm unsure what you mean by 'stock'). These changes didn't result in improvement, I still have to use the cmos trick to boot. I've got a ubuntu stick but I'm not sure what tools I'm supposed to use (I don't know what to google since I think that part of the boot can't be logged (I think it's the bios's bootloader that doesn't start unless I use the cmos trick)).

Another odd thing: after the pc has been unplugged for a while the laptop somtimes starts after pressing the power button, if the laptop starts like this the laptop screen functions, kinda(lots of flickering between no power and what I'm supposed to see/windows boot visuals), for a short while. After +- 30 s the screen has no power anymore.

I tried the power button with the laptop screen & peripherals unplugged, but this didn't improve anything.


I haven't tried pressing the 'jrst2002' button on my motherboard, I assume this reloads my bios from the static memory on the board.

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Sadly
Jul 25, 2016 12:24AM PDT

It means the machine has a fault. I've seen it before and we had to replace the motherboard.

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Update
Jul 28, 2016 5:57PM PDT

I'm the OP brother
UPDATE
When I put it back together to do it to the computer repair guy I tried to put it on a last time and it just booted. For the last 4 days I just put in sleep mode when i'm not using it so I don't have to boot it anymore. I know this will not work forever but hey it's something.
There is only one apparent issue, sometimes the screen goes flickering even black but most of the time it's fine. Any thoughts?

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Best to use your judgement next.
Jul 28, 2016 6:10PM PDT

I can only tell so must in a forum. I can share what we usually replace and you don't agree. Time to find others to give you more ideas.