Hardware·18,997 discussions

Laptop overheated, bios update crashed now what?

Locked

Ok, I have a toshiba laptop P105-S9337, basically a Intel core 2 duo T7200 2GHZ vista with 4 gigs of ram. I closed the lid of my laptop and put it into my backpack and I got to work and got busy so I didnt take it out for about an hour. Well I went to take it out and come to find out it failed to hibernate and was smoking hot and had a faint electricity burning smell!

I put it on the chill mat, plugged it in and it started up just fine a hour later. The only thing I noticed was 1) the keys being pressed didnt always regsiter and required multiple attempts occasionally to get them to register and 2) the battery wasn’t charging. I looked up support bulletins on Toshiba’s website and they had a update on their BIOS back in march for the indicator on the vista desktop not registering the battery charging. Also Ill add I plugged it in all day and left it off for about 6 hours and when I booted up before the bios update the battery was only at 55% when I think it should have been 100%, making me think I damaged my battery.

Well I downloaded the bios and was using the utility toshiba provided to do it through windows, it locked up, i retryed it and it locked up again, so I rebooted….

Now the lights come on, the cd rom drive spins, but I get no display. I made a bios update cd which is supposed to update the bios on boot up but it does nothing. Ive tried every key combination to get into a menu but nothing.

Also I noticed that my charger doesnt always register on the led its plugged in and on ac power, it flickers some times faintly, other times its normal, and sometimes it wonts register at all..

Is my motherboard fried or do I just have to find a way to update the bios, but then I have the keyboard issue that just popped up too? I took apart my laptop after all this to inspect it and nothing looked fried. Any help would be great, thanks Pat

Topic

Clarifications

In reply to Laptop overheated, bios update crashed now what?

Clarifications

Is the unit under warranty?

In reply to Laptop overheated, bios update crashed now what?

if so, warranty work would be the best route to take.

out of warranty

In reply to Is the unit under warranty?

Unfortionately the unit is about a year and a half old so im out of luck that way.

You jumped to the BIOS flash to quick

In reply to out of warranty

Did you remove the battery?

If the BIOS flash failed, and you cannot flash it again, the motherboard needs replacing.

Edited to add — if something burnt as well, and you are having charging/battery issues, it may have caused other damage as well. Best bet is to either take it to a shop for a full diagnosis, or replace the unit, or do a full diag yourself.

Thanks

In reply to You jumped to the BIOS flash to quick

Thanks for the quick response! Yea I think Im SOL in being able to reflash it as theres really no way to do it being that it isn’t taking from the cd bios update. I thought about replacing the laptop all together but if I buy one I want to buy a good laptop that can handle gaming and is at least 17″ since I spend alot of time in Iraq so I need something all round and that is looking like about $1500 versus about 315 for the motherboard and maybe 100 bucks for a new battery if thats bad too. To me its worth the risk even though I could spend an additional 60% and get the latest and near greatest. Id rather drop 500 then 1500 I suppose. Thanks again!

NP :)

In reply to Thanks

I hear ya,
here is a suggestion that I give out (for notebooks), get an extended warranty with accidental damage protection.
most people tell me, nah, its a ripoff. For a desktop system, I would agree, for a notebook — heck no. Too many times I see notebooks go down from ‘freak’ accidents within 8 months of the warranty being over.
I think the e-gremlins know and mess with us all 😉

Will it run

In reply to Laptop overheated, bios update crashed now what?

on AC without the battery. If it does and is exceptable replace the battery.

Battery works

In reply to Will it run

It will turn on all the lights, spin the cdrom but no display even on battery so I believe the battery is still good. Thanks for the help though, I’m guessing a motherboard still unless you have any other ideas?

No, other than

In reply to Battery works

removing the battery and running on AC and then checking the function key to swap the display to an external monitor and back. If that doesn’t work it looks like your up for a new motherboard.

< missed a bit >

some shops can help you with that problem

In reply to No, other than

some shops can help you with that problem

http://www.buythiscomputer.com/LAPTOP-COMPUTERS/WHAT-TO-DO-WHEN-LAPTOP-OVERHEATS-AND-CRASHES-DURING-BIOS-UPDATE

How to hotflash your bios chip

In reply to Laptop overheated, bios update crashed now what?

Occasionally, either through a bad flash or corruption ie through a virus, you could be left with an unusable mobo.
One way round it is to buy a replacement bios chip, another is to Hot Flash it.

What is Hot Flashing and how do you do it?

What is it?

Hot Flashing is a way of using a running mobo with a compatible bios chip as a host for your corrupted bios chip. Your corrupted bios chip obviously won’t allow you to run POST, therefore won’t allow you to re-flash it normally, so you need to use another mobo to get you there.

What to do

You’ll need a mobo with a compatible bios chip.
A tool to remove the bios chip
A DOS boot disc with a flashing utility and the required bios image

You’ll be using a live running mobo, so extreme care should be taken!

Here’s how:

The easiest way to remove the working bios chip is to remove it whilst the mobo is disconnected, then put it in just enough so that it is connected but not fully inserted.
Another method is to either attach some dental floss with a little superglue to the top of it, or run a piece of dental floss under it, so that when the ends are pulled it comes out easier.
If you have a bios removal then the above isn’t necessary.

Using the working mobo, create a DOS-boot disc on a spare floppy.
Copy the bios image file for your corrupted bios chip from the manufacturer’s website it usually has a .bin or .rom extension.
Most manufacturer’s have a downloadable flash utility which can be copied straight to the floppy.
Make note of the orientation of the bios chip on your working mobo, one corner is angled.
Disconnect any unnecessary hardware such as Hdd’s, Opticals etc. to prevent loss of data.
Set your primary boot device to Floppy, then reboot.

When the screen says “INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND HIT ENTER TO RESTART”, you need to swap bios chips.
At this point the bios chip has done it’s job and is no longer required, so remove it carefully and replace it with the corrupted bios chip. Make sure you orientate it correctly!

Now insert the floppy containing the bios flash utility and flash as you would normally.
When the flash is complete, remember you don’t want the mobo to boot with the newly flashed bios chip in, unless it is the same mobo!
Switch off and switch bios chips, your corrupted bios chip should now be fully working, time to make sure.
I have just done this on one of my motherboards and it works perfectly. You will have to follow the instructions carefully. Good luck.

Please post back if you have anymore problems or questions.

[Author]

Replies