Toshiba Laptop Black Screen after W10 update

[phroberts]

Toshiba Satellite L655D-S5050 model PSK2LU-001003

My mother in law had been complaining that her laptop wouldn't turn on when she opened it, was getting slow, etc. So I decided to do a clean installation of Windows 10. From the recovery menu I selected the slow option that formats the hard drive. Windows 10 eventually installed, and I had a nice clean desktop. Then it had me connect to Wifi, log in to Microsoft account, and looked for updates. A large windows update was available. It warned me that the update was in excess of 3gb, and would take a while... I assume this is the latest update that I just installed on my desktop. Anyway, this update took forever... hours and hours to get to I think 43% complete when I finally went to bed. This morning the laptop was off. Turning it on gets me to a black screen. No evidence of bios loading... no toshiba logo, just a quick flash of the number lock and caps lock buttons, a slow fan for a second, and then a fast running fan.

I'm running it without the battery, and have tried holding down the power button for a minute or two. I also tried unplugging and re-seating the RAM, and the hard drive. I also tried plugging in a USB drive with Windows 10 on it, but nothing.

Any suggestions to get it going again?

Thanks!

 

[webworkings]

Try this...

1. Turn the laptop off (not sleep or hibernate but off).
2. Connect an external monitor to the laptop.
3. Turn on the external monitor.
4. Turn on the laptop.

NOTE: You may have to press an "external monitor" button. Could be the f4 button or a button with two monitors on it, for the external monitor to work.

If you can see fine on the external monitor, then your attached display, or the ribbon cable that connects it, are your problem.

If you can't see on the external monitor at all, or the problem occurs on the external monitor as well, then it is probably the graphics card/GPU that is the problem, which may require the motherboard be replaced.

 

[phroberts]

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try that later this evening!

 

[phroberts]

So nothing from hooking the VGA port up to an external monitor. Tried pressing F5 to switch displays, etc. In your experience, would it be unusual for the graphics to fail during an update? I guess it's like an old high mileage car... anything is fair game at this age, but it just seems to be quite a coincidence. I wonder if the BIOS got messed up somehow in the update process?

 

[webworkings]

Yes, it would be unusual. It could, however, be that something was overwritten. Drivers perhaps. However that shouldn't make it not show on the second display. This one has me very curious as I have not run into it.


Anyone else have any suggestions?

 

[phroberts]

Are drivers used for the initial screen splash when the computer powers up?

Also, for fun and games, I tried powering it up with the hard drive removed, the RAM removed, and with both removed. There was no change in how it behaves... quick flash of the num lock, and caps lock lights. "Power Supply Plugged in" "Power" and for a while "Hard Drive" lights on solid with a fast cooling fan. I also tried booting from a Windows 7 recovery DVD for a different computer (both with and without the HD). If this one came with one, it's long gone. The optical drive spins for a minute, then stops.

It looks like there are a lot of mother board repair services for this laptop on eBay, referencing shimming and re-soldering the video card. Maybe running it so long for the update finally melted a solder joint. If my thought on the BIOS being corrupted was the problem, is there any way to re-flash it without the display? Toshiba has multiple versions of it available on their support site.

Thanks again for your help on this!

 

[webworkings]

I wouldn't try anything without the display since you could easily choose the wrong options, or even make things worse. I would be looking at the hardware at this point.