Laptop start up issues

[Lostinfantry]

Hey! So I got a used laptop recently that the previous owner was having issues with. When I got it, I could only run it in safe mode. If I tried to run it in normal, it would either hang and glitch in the initial windows loading screen (black with small Windows Corporation and black and green loading bar at the bottom) or it would restart completely back to the first start up DOS screen.

I thought maybe that meant a faulty driver but when I disable the drivers and tried to restart it in normal, the problem persisted. Still worked in safe mode, though. I as able to move all the old files that the previous owner wanted onto a usb drive for them and then I wiped the drive completely, thinking it was a corrupted boot file.

However, now when I try to reload windows onto the laptop, it shows me the (loading windows files) with the black screen and grey loading bar, and then STILL restarts all over again. could this be faulty ram? I already tried switching out the Hard Drive with one I had lying around, and I want to be sure before I go buying new Drives and RAM. thanks for your help!

 

[BadActor]

Could be a number of things. Make sure the battery and charger are functioning correctly. Try running it on AC with the battery removed and alternately with the battery in and unplugged from AC. Check to see there isn't a buildup of dust on the cooler. Also, if you can get into Bios, restore the system defaults in case the PO has changed the settings. You might also be able to test the RAM from the Bios if it has diagnostics.

 

[Lostinfantry]

Could be a number of things. Make sure the battery and charger are functioning correctly. Try running it on AC with the battery removed and alternately with the battery in and unplugged from AC. Check to see there isn't a buildup of dust on the cooler. Also, if you can get into Bios, restore the system defaults in case the PO has changed the settings. You might also be able to test the RAM from the Bios if it has diagnostics.

Thanks for the help so far! I've put back in the original HDD so that I can start this whole thing from scratch.

I took out the battery and the plug symbol on the laptop just kept blinking. I put in another power supply cable that I had and the symbol stopped blinking. So I assume that a bad AC cable is one of the issues. Now when I attempted to start the laptop, I hear the HDD drive spinning but the HDD symbol isn't coming up. The power light (not the light showing it's cable is plugged in but the light to say there is power in the system) shows that it's trying to start but it keeps going back off and starting again.

I'm also facing a black screen. No start up screen at all.

 

[Lostinfantry]

OK. So it had been a while and the Power symbol is consistently on. I guess from a functioning power cable being plugged in. However, Still no other response from the laptop. I put the battery in and it's showing an orange battery symbol. I'm guessing that means the battery itself is low on power. So right now I'm seeing a consistent plug symbol, power symbol and orange battery symbol and still watching a black screen.

 

[BadActor]

If this laptop is more than a couple of years old and the battery has never been replaced, I would suspect that this is your problem. On many laptops, the battery LED will change color to indicate when it is fully charged.

 

[Lostinfantry]

If this laptop is more than a couple of years old and the battery has never been replaced, I would suspect that this is your problem. On many laptops, the battery LED will change color to indicate when it is fully charged.

OK. The Battery light is now white. So it's fully charged for now. Or at least it's thinks so. I press the power button and I get the toshiba logo and the screen for the BIOS option and the Boot Manager option.

I choose to boot from and External optical drive I have and it goes and seems to be reading fine. I get the screen saying 'windows is loading files'. The HDD light is blinking and I believe it's reading. The grey bar fills and it changes to the small black bar with moving green Icon with the 'copyright Microsot Corporation' below it. Then the whole thing cuts off and it goes back to the initial Toshiba start up screen. thsi s a constant loop I believe. Is this still a battery problem? Thanks for all your help so far.

 

[BadActor]

OK, we're making progress. What model laptop do you have and what version of Windows did it come with and what version are you trying to install?

 

[Lostinfantry]

OK, we're making progress. What model laptop do you have and what version of Windows did it come with and what version are you trying to install?

Toshiba Satellite A300. It came with Windows Vista. I was gonna try out ubuntu on it since this was gonna be a laptop for me to experiment on but after all of this I'm just trying to reinstall Vista. The PO didn't have the install disk so I downloaded one and was planning on reinputting the product code.

 

[BadActor]

A little research turned up this a common problem on the A300 due to bad capacitors. You might try installing the OS to the other hard drive to rule out the that possibility, but I'm guessing this is more likely. If you can't do the repair yourself, probably won't be worth fixing.

http/www.laptoprepairblog.net/toshiba-satellite-l300-a300-freezing-or-restarting-when-ac-power-plugged-in/

 

[Lostinfantry]

A little research turned up this a common problem on the A300 due to bad capacitors. You might try installing the OS to the other hard drive to rule out the that possibility, but I'm guessing this is more likely. If you can't do the repair yourself, probably won't be worth fixing.

http/www.laptoprepairblog.net/toshiba-satellite-l300-a300-freezing-or-restarting-when-ac-power-plugged-in/

Thanks for all your help. The problem persisted with the different hard drive, so it's most likely the capacitors. I'm just gonna strip out the ram and HDD and toss the rest of it. Thanks again!