Dropped my Toshiba L505

[AKingston]

I dropped my Toshiba L505 this weekend. When I boot the computer up I get the toshiba screen that allows me ot chose F2 to go to setup utility or F12 to go to boot manager. Both Options allow me to go to the F2 screen and the F12 screen. If I do nothing I get a cursor for a few seconds and then a plain black screen with a glow on it. I did get a message stating that it could not connect to something but I cannot get the laptop to replicate this message. There is not cracks on teh case/shell, the screen and keyboard are perfectly in tact. It will be 2 years old on May 13th and my 1 yr warrently from Bestbuy ran out on 05/13/2011. Has anyone had this problem? If so how do you fix it? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

and yes I know I should have renewed the warranty last May. It's too late now though.

When it was frist dropped the display was up and everything looked fine but the computer froze and I could not get it to do anything so I rebooted. Then it came up with Resident evil lines like the little videos they have in the game accept those clear up a little and show you something. Now it will not show anything.

[JorgeM]

The hard drive may be either slightly damaged or completely damaged. If you can have someone assist you in removing the hard drive, you can plug the hard drive into another computer using a USB interface and see if you can access the contents of the drive. If so, I would copy the data off to ensure you have a backup. If the drive is damaged where it will no longer boot, you will need a new drive. If you have the recover CDs that came with the computer, you can restore the computer to the point where you bought it. If there are no CDs, i am confident that you can download that from Toshiba's site. Once you get the OS back in oder, then copy the data back to your computer (from the backup you made in step 1).

[driven81]

Hey, I have a toshiba laptop myself.

You can also try the F8 option at the first Toshiba screen, the same screen you are supposed to press F2 or F12 on. Press the F8 key multiple times until it takes you to another screen which gives you another list of multiple items to choose from. Try selecting "last known good configuration"

I used that function recently when I took a USB device out of its port without safely removing it. It crashed my laptop and I couldn't arrive at the welcome screen.

There are a few other options avaiable on the F8 screen which you should try using if what I said doesn't work.

[JorgeM]

You can try the F8 option, but if your Windows operating system did not boot from a normal power up, i doubt that it will boot to safe mode or even the last known good configuration. The last known good config can only be used in the event, for example, say you load a driver, and your OS blows up. When you reboot, PRIOR to getting to the login prompt, if you invoke the last known good configuration, your system will revert back to the state from the last good boot. If you get to the login prompt and login succussfully, your system creates new last known good configuration.

[AKingston]

The Toshiba laptop is my home PC so I did not get to read this until I got to work today.

Everyone in IT here at work said to plug the hard drive into another PC. I have never worked on a laptop before so I had a friend come over who upgraded our desktop. He could not get the hard drive out at first so he started taking out the keyboard thinking there was some kind of screw holding it from above. When he started to take the keyboard the electrical tape came off its connector. The keyboard is now unattached and I cannot try the F8 instructions. Although, when I was at work and I booted it up and kept hitting F8 (read it on line somewhere) it just beeped. I started getting a beep 60 seconds apart even when I was not touching the F8 key. I have the hard drive out and I am going to go to CompUSA and buy a case to plug it in and see if it is damaged. How easy is it to replace the keyboard if the HD is good? Is the connector a plug or is it permanently attached. He sent me this site that he found from Toshiba that has the replacement and said he would replace it and install it but I am thinking he can just buy it, just so nothing else breaks. If it’s just a plug I can do it myself. This is turning into a total nightmare.

[JorgeM]

So I do not think you will be able to buy a keyboard at a retail location. You may be able to find the keyboard from an authorized Toshiba partner.

Hopefully you can at least get the data off via USB.

Sorry to hear about the chain of event. A bad hard drive should be an easy problem to resolve without all of this extra complication.

[AKingston]

Well, I am not actually sure if it is bad or good. I was told the only way to check a hard drive if it is damaged was to plug it into another computer. I need a special case to do this, so I will buy the case tonight from CompUSA and see if the hard drive is good, if the hard drive is good I have a new problem.

The Keyboard can be purchased from a link that is on the Toshiba website. Toshiba does not sell parts but the link they provide is specifically for Toshiba products. http://www.nationalparts.com/product.aspx?ProductID=93423

My problem is how do I replace the keyboard? For the most part the keyboard lifts right off because the ribbon is not attached to the circuit that is attached to the board. Rather than try to muscle the circuit off I thought I would ask if they are easy to change. Are they plug and play like hard drives and memory, or are they soldered into place on the motherboard? I doubt that I can re-attach the ribbon.

[JorgeM]

I do not beleive that you will be able to re-attach the ribon either. As far as soldered in place, i doubt that as well. Usually, these field replacable parts will have a connector that you can remove from the motherboard. With regard to the hard drive, yes, as I indicated in my first response, the best approach is to plug this hard drive into another PC using a USB connection. Generally, this attachment will come with a case, but there are other products that you can use that will not require a case.

[AKingston]

I am going to go and buy a case tonight from CompUSA they have one for $9.00. So if it goes well, and the hard drive works then I should be able to replace the keyboard, correct?

I hate sounding stupid but when the ribbon came off and I saw the black attachment so flush against the board I had to ask someone if it was soldered on. I do not want to try to pry it off and ruin more things. He ordered the keyboard anyway so if anything I will have a complete shell without the Hard Drive (if it does not work) or an operating system. Do they sell hard drives that have operating systems on them? I do have the boot disks for the PC but I beleive they would only work with the original hard drive.

[JorgeM]

So, it is possible that the drive can be partially damanaged. Buying the USB connector will at least provide you with hope that if you can copy data off. You may still need a new drive since you indicated in your original post that it would not boot.

With regard to the keyboard, it should come with a new ribbon connector so replacing that should solve your keyboard issue.

Hard drives do not come with an operating system. Since you bought a Toshiba laptop, you should be able to log onto their website and download or order recovery CDs so that once you get a working harddrive, you can simply recover the hard drive to the point where you first bought the computer.

[AKingston]

So it can be any NEW Hard Drive or does it have to come from Toshiba? Also, the connector that came off the Ribbon for the keyboard is basically a plug and can be unplugged easily? Also, I bought the recovery CD's a while ago. With Toshiba all you have to do is pay for the shipping which is really nice.

So basically..... I can get a new hard drive and keyboard (which is on its way) and I should have a functioning laptop again?

[JorgeM]

In theory, you should be good once you receive the new hard drive and keyboard. When you receive the new keyboard, it should come with its own ribbon and connector. Be careful when plugging the new connector making sure you do not force it in the wrong way or you may bend some pins in the process. The same goes for hte hard drive. Once you have everything in place, you should be able to boot from the CDs that Toshiba provided and go through the restore process.

Of course, my advice to you have been completely from the information presented in this thread. I am depending on the accuracy of your description on what happenened and what you are seeing. Having the eqiupment physically in front of me, would have made me feel more confident on exactly what is needed to repair this without added expenses...

[AKingston]

OK, here is the update. First let me say you have been very helpful. I scoured the internet to find directions on how to install the new keybaord and it showed the ribbon being unattached so I opened it up and followed the instructions and what do you know, the keybord was just unplugged and it works. I am going to return the keyboard and tell them to apply the credit to memory. So I bought the $9 case and the hard drive could not be opened and it kept asking for me to format it. I tried the boot disk but it was making a ginding sound. So I put it in the case and tried to format it and I could not do that either.

So I went and bought a new hard drive instead of 360mb I was talked into getting a 500 MB. I installed it and started the instalation back ot out of the box status and when it got to disk number 2 it ran for a second and told me to put the next disk in and then I put the 3rd disk and that went for a second and asked for the next disk. So not I am thinking the image on the cd is messed up (Maybe) so I chose the second option to erase the hard drive. I recently bought a 8MG jump drive that came with software on it. I am thinking the same thing could be on the new hard drive. So I have to wait until 5 a.m. for it to finish 20 hours (WTF) anyway. I will plug the disk into the case to check it in the desk top. If anything it should work unless the boot disks are bad. I backed it up last yeat but I cannot find the 5 disks that everything was copied to. The only had numbers on them so maybe wifey tossed them. Also I noticed that there was less mamory like 498 instead of 500 that is what makes me think there was somthing on it like the scandisk memory stick had.

[JorgeM]

I am confident that once you get the recovery disks in order, you will be fine. The worst case scenario would be to buy the OS again. Windows isn't cheap though unless you have access to the MS alliance for students.

[AKingston]

I think we just have the upgrade for Devry. I actually do have the disks and once the first one is done it asks for the second and then spits it out immediatley. Then I received an error F3-F200-0002. I tried everything I found on the web and I still cannot get it. Frustrated!

[JorgeM]

wow, sorry to hear about these issues. Can you get access to new Operating System media, or a new set of recovery disks for that specific computer?

[AKingston]

Yes. Here is what I have ad what was done:

I pulled the hard drive and tested it and all it did was click. I could not even format it. I have a Toshiba L505-ES5018 - Part Number PSLU0U-02S034. So once I determined the hard drive was bad I went to Comp USA and bought a brand new one. Instead of a 360gb; I bought a 500gb Western Digital 5400 RPM/8MB SATA HD. I already reformatted the laptop back to factory last year so I had the 3 disks made for the Toshiba L500 series; I was having trouble with the registry and it was running slow. So I already reset it back to factory once before. I put in the first install disk (I ordered them last year when my laptop was slowing down) and it seemed like it was working. I never created my own back-up restore because I own the boot disks.

It asks for the next disk, you can hear it spin for a few seconds and then it pops it out and asks for the next one, when you put that one in it does the same thing. It keeps asking for the next disk but does not complete. Then I received an error (F3-F200-0002) I tried rebooting while holding zero, tried changing the order by selecting F12 so it will go to the DVD/CD first (optical). I still cannot get the brand new hard drive to work.

Everyone I spoke with said as long as I had the Media to image the laptop and a new hard drive it should work. I have no idea what I am doing wrong. I have all 3 recovery media for the Satellite L500 series Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit. I just reordered the same 3 disks again because I thought something was wrong with them.

[AKingston]

OK, I was actually able to restore back to out of box status with the new CD/DVD's. What I lost now is my wireless connection, during the restore I was getting messages about my realtec devices and I received 3 messages. One for the sound and one for the wifi. How do I get this back?

[JorgeM]

Ok, it sounds like you may need some drivers. Toshiba's site may have a support page with access to drivers. Check the CDs you have, sometimes these vendors split the CDs into recovery CD, Drivers CD, etc...

If you can get the restore completed and the OS up and running, if its drivers you are missing, they can be added later.

feel free to post the error message you received...

[AKingston]

I ended up taking the wireless plug in from the desktop to get on line. Microsoft has a update checker for newer hard drives. You run it and it tells you what drives are not signed or bad. Then you can write them down and find the doewnloads on the internet. So my computer is finally up and running. Thank you for all your advice and assistance.