Member Avatar for IbreakStuff

Hi,
I was given Toshiba Tecra 9000 which worked 3 days until WinXP gave blue screen. After numerous reboots I finally reinstalled WinXP at it worked next 8 hours just fine and then blue screen again. After that it wouldn't install WinXP again. Install stopped error which told to use chkdisk, didn't help.
After that I bought new HDD and installed WinXP without any problems. This installation worked for 2 days before i got blue screen. After that i managed to repair the installation for a week every time laptop crashed. Next I tried install Ubuntu but same problem it crashed soon as I was installing Ubuntu to HDD. HDD is now working just fine as usb-hdd.
Currently the state is that laptop won't boot at all. Power led lights up but cpu-fan,hdd and cd-rom won't work. FN-button will light up led in the keyboard. I have tried to changed memory module to different slot, no help.
Is this a lost cause or can I somehow save this machine ?

Thank you

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by coolraj003

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Useful, focused troubleshooting and realistic next steps based on the thread so far. has already bench-tested the fan and tried different RAM slots, and correctly pointed at cooling/CPU as a possible cause. At this stage the symptoms point away from the HDD/OS and toward power or motherboard faults. The goal below is to isolate whether the problem is an easy fix (DC jack, caps, CMOS) or a board-level failure that makes the machine uneconomical to repair.

First, do the non-invasive checks in this order: disconnect battery and try AC only; try a known-good AC adapter; remove HDD, optical drive and any PCMCIA/wireless cards and try power-on with only CPU, GPU and one RAM stick installed; remove the CMOS battery for a few minutes to force a BIOS reset; carefully inspect the motherboard for bulging or leaking electrolytic capacitors, scorch marks or loose connectors. If LEDs light but fans and drives never spin, that usually means the main power rails are not coming up rather than a software issue.

If those checks fail, the next step is voltage verification (multimeter). Confirm the adapter output and then check for the board standby rail(s) near the power button connector and the main 3.3/5V rails. Absence of standby voltage implicates the DC jack, input filter or power MOSFETs/VRM. If you see standby but no fan/HDD spin, suspect the power sequencing or a failed regulator chip; those are repair-level faults that often require board replacement or professional rework.

Practical options: (1) If you are comfortable with electronics, replace any bad caps and recheck rails; (2) otherwise find a donor motherboard or accept parting the laptop for usable components; (3) if repair costs approach replacement value, recycle. For safety, work on a static-free surface, disconnect power before probing, and take the machine to a service shop for any work beyond basic visual checks.

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Member Avatar for coolraj003

Are you sure the cooling system on the laptop is working fine? It could be due to the fact the cooling fans have failed to work and thats causing the whole system to crash. Or it could be the CPU itself failing as well. Now it would be hard for you to test the cpu when the machine wont even boot up but surely you can test it in another machine to see if it works.

Raj

Member Avatar for IbreakStuff

I tested cooler/fan with external power source and it worked. I can't test prosessor because I can't find compatible motherboard for it. It uses mPGA479m socket, so i guess this laptop will end up recycle.

Thank you for your help

Member Avatar for coolraj003

No problemo matey

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