Solved! Toshiba Satellite A215

[wynnb]

Hello,
I lost power when upgrading BIOS on my Toshiba Satellite A215 laptop. Now when I power it up, I get a blank screen. The power light comes on and it seams like its accessing the hard drive but nothing happens on the screen. My question is: Is there a plugable Bios chip that I can replace or a am I dead in the water? Any assistance will be greatly Thank you,
Wayne

 

[house70]

the manufacturer may be able to help you at this point. They need to disassemble the laptop and replace the chip. Try to contact them and see what options they offer.

 

[WR2]

Hello wynnb;

You can try to reflash the BIOS again.

First create a bootable floppy diskette

Copy the BIOS binary file and flash utility to the diskette. A flash utility is a stand-alone program that will do the BIOS flash. Check the Toshiba site for the one they recommend.

Create an batch file with any text editor and add the following lines, ie, flash.bat
@ECHO OFF
awdflash xxx.BIN /py/sn/f/cc/r

Exchange the awdflash with the name of whatever flash utility you are using, and replace the xxxx.BIN with the name of the BIOS file you are using.

Boot the floppy and run flash.bat

 

[wynnb]

the manufacturer may be able to help you at this point. They need to disassemble the laptop and replace the chip. Try to contact them and see what options they offer.

Hi House70,
Thank you for your input I contacted Toshiba and found out that there is no pluggable BIOS chip in the A215. I also dissembled it to verify that it was the case. I apologize for not replying to you sooner.

Thanks again.
wynnb

 

[wynnb]

Hello wynnb;

You can try to reflash the BIOS again.

First create a bootable floppy diskette

Copy the BIOS binary file and flash utility to the diskette. A flash utility is a stand-alone program that will do the BIOS flash. Check the Toshiba site for the one they recommend.

Create an batch file with any text editor and add the following lines, ie, flash.bat
@ECHO OFF
awdflash xxx.BIN /py/sn/f/cc/r

Exchange the awdflash with the name of whatever flash utility you are using, and replace the xxxx.BIN with the name of the BIOS file you are using.

Boot the floppy and run flash.bat

Hi WR2,
I apologize for not replying to you sooner. I tried your suggestion with no luck. It doesn't appear that the boot process reaches the USB floppy drive, so it can't flash the BIOS. But thanks again for your suggestion.

Wynnb

 

[house70]

In that case, you might need to send Toshiba the laptop to let them flash the BIOS for you.

 

[wynnb]

I have tried these options without any success, so I have pretty much given up on this project. but thanks to all that gave me suggestions.

wynnb

 

[pcfixed]

I'd replace the bios chip with a preprogrammed one like I did in this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZecyEGjoH4

there are lots of sites that sell bios for each specific laptop

 

[wynnb]

Hey pcfixed,

An excellent video, a little involved but doable. I don't have the equipment needed to accomplish it right now but I will try to acquire them and attempt the repair. I appreciate your suggestion and will inform you of my progress. One last thing, do you know of a website that I can find a schematic or photograph that I can use to identify and locate the BIOS chip on the Toshiba A215? Any input will be greatly appreciated. Have a great day.

wynnb