Member Avatar for gjheath

My Toshiba Tecra 8200 laptop does not boot. When I plug in the power cord the power light (green) and the battery light (amber) light up. when I press the power on button the video or activity light (green) lights up but there is no other activity - no screen display - no hard disk light or sound or vibration of the disk drive running. Inserting a bootable cd in the cd drive before and/or after power up does nothing detectable. "Note" pressing the cd tray button does not open the tray - I have to open the tray with a paper clip. It seems that the only things that function are the power on button and the activity lights mentioned brfore.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks from a new member,
gjheath

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by illdecide

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A compact, practical checklist to work through before assuming a board swap. This expands on 's CMOS suggestion and adds a few targeted Windows steps for . Work top-to-bottom and stop when the machine shows any change (BIOS screen, beeps, drive spin, external video).

  • Do a hard power-reset first: disconnect AC, remove the main battery, then hold the power button ~30 seconds. Reconnect only AC and try power on. Use a known-good AC adapter if you have one.
  • Minimal-hardware POST: remove the HDD and optical drive, remove all but one RAM module (test each stick in turn), and try to power up. Reseat any removable cables/connectors. Use an external monitor to rule out panel failures. Listen for speaker/beep codes or watch any POST LEDs for patterns.
  • CMOS/BIOS reset and battery: if accessible, check the coin cell with a multimeter (significantly under 3.0 V = replace). If it sits in a holder, remove it for several minutes to force a CMOS clear. If the cell is soldered or you are unsure, have a repair shop do the replacement—some models need service-level steps to avoid damage.
  • If any BIOS or POST activity appears after the above, restore sensible boot order and test boot media. If still nothing, the fault is likely in the motherboard/power rails and needs professional diagnosis; replacements for older models can be costly, so factor repair vs. data-salvage.

For (Windows hangs, "preparing desktop"/low virtual memory): boot Safe Mode or Recovery Environment, run:

chkdsk /r C:
sfc /scannow

check/set the system-managed pagefile, and run a memory test (MemTest86/Windows Memory Diagnostic). Corrupt profiles or failing RAM/drive are common causes of that symptom.

If all hardware isolation fails, remove the drive and use a USB enclosure to recover data before pursuing board repair.

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Member Avatar for starfireone

Sounds like your mother board may have died on you. The CMOS battery has probably failed and if your system was working OK before this happen than your CMOS battery might need to be replaced first before totally prononcing your motherboard as dead.

Member Avatar for edwardusername

Hi, i am edward 'new member' and have exactly the same lack of booting on tecra 8200. QUESTION IS 'YOU HAVE GUEST '
HAVE YOU REPAIRED YOURS AND IF YES HOW PLEASE?
seasons greating with thanks for any time given. edward.

My Toshiba Tecra 8200 laptop does not boot. When I plug in the power cord the power light (green) and the battery light (amber) light up. when I press the power on button the video or activity light (green) lights up but there is no other activity - no screen display - no hard disk light or sound or vibration of the disk drive running. Inserting a bootable cd in the cd drive before and/or after power up does nothing detectable. "Note" pressing the cd tray button does not open the tray - I have to open the tray with a paper clip. It seems that the only things that function are the power on button and the activity lights mentioned brfore.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks from a new member,
gjheath

Member Avatar for illdecide

ok im having some issues with this aswell, when i change the boot sequence in the cmos and then select [c] as the boot device on the multi-boot screen, i get an error, something to do with check cable and then it starts booting up into windows, however it gets as far as saying its preparing my desktop, then after an hour or 2 says windows is low on virtual memory then nothing, i left it like that for a further 6 hours and when i came back it still said the same.

What am i doing wrong??

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