belle232

I have a toshiba satelite circa 2004 that I recently took on a trip to the caribbean. The laptop made it to the island, but on the second day it just shut down and wouldn't come back on. i read somewhere that removing the battery, holding down the power button for 30 secs, then putting the battery back in and starting it might work. I've done this several times and it always works, but only for about 3-5minutes before it shuts down and the process must be restarted.

I've talked to others who said it may be my battery or power cord, both of which I'm replacing, but I wondered if anyone had run into this before? I was told by one person that the outlets in the caribbean are not reliable and it could have been a power surge, and someone else that the moist air sometimes damages components. I'm not really sure about either of those theories?

any ideas? tia!

Mikhalkov

Those theories all sound plausible, especially the moisture one. When you have electronics near the ocean, it's not the moisture in the air you should be worried about, but rather the salt in the moisture in the air. I know for cameras at least, if you are doing beach photography and don't have some sort of protection, the salty moisture can damage components in a very short amount of time.

belle232

yes, the person i was with took a camera that died the very first day of the trip, and others at the resort had similar problems.. but then I'm not sure how to fix it and I really don't want to get a new laptop just yet..

TriggerFinger

Hi,

So does it still display the same behavior? Can you give more details to it? I mean, if it shuts down after power ON, how long after power ON? Do you still see the logo splash or the POST? Do you see messages? Do you hear any beeps?

Hmmm... I looked into my crystal ball and it said it would be best to ask you.

belle232

Yes, the same.. If I do the power button thing and replace the battery, it will come up for about 3-5minutes.. It takes a while to start as usual but starts up perfectly normal, then it connects to my wireless, the battery shows about 78% full. No warnings, no windows pop up, no beeps, nothing. I can use it briefly, then it just powers down without warning and will not restart again until I again remove the battery, hold the power button for 30 sec, replace the battery and then start up again. It will not run without the battery in (when just connected to outlet power). And after it shuts down, connecting the power cord does not produce the charging light, it's simply just dead, no lights, no restart, nothing.

TriggerFinger

Hi belle232,

Thank you.

If I may suggest some things to try...

1. Run Memtest86+ to test your RAM. This test is run from the CD drive. Check the link on my sig. Get the CD image file (.ISO) and burn the image into a blank CD using ImgBurn or Nero or similar. Run the this test for like 2 passes for each stick of RAM installed. We do recommend if you have 2 sticks of RAM, to test each one individually (remove one while you test the other).
   
2. Run HDD diagnostics using Hitachi DFT or Seagate's Seatools for DOS (see my sig. for the download link). Again like Memtest86+, either one of these is run from the CD drive. With that I mean, you should download the CD image.

Post back what happens...

Thanks.