Toshiba Satellite C850 Boot Loop

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Feb 28, 2014
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Guys,

My client has handed over his Toshiba Satellite C850 lappy for a weird issue I've never encountered. On switching on the Toshiiba logo appears and then comes the select OS window and the screen keeps flickering and suddenly restarts again. This a continuous loop. if I switch it off and switch it on again It boots fine. This happends if I soft boot for eg: any program that ive installed requires a restart then this happends. Also happends on a fresh boot up. Any idea fellas??

Win 7 64bit Home premium
4gb ram
500gb HDD
Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2015
 
If it boots reliable with say a Linux live OS or even bart pe or something from cd then you know it is OS related and you need to do a repair/reinstall of windows, might also want to do disc error checking on drive.

If the alternative boot methods are also not stable/reliable then you have a hardware issue, likely psu, motherboard, or memory
 

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Didnt check from any other source. Nope no multi boot drive. No dual OS. Should I format it??
 


He needs to use a Linux boot cd, or windows boot cd to test the operation of the rest of the hardware. At this point still not sure if it is corrupt OS or bad hardware.

Don't need to take the Best Buy simpleton level of repair which is to wipe windows after 5 minutes or troubleshooting, and if that does not work, show customer the new computers.
 

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Feb 28, 2014
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I tried to boot Win7 from a USB stick but it showed the same problem. Restarts again n again. Wouldnt even allow me to format it. What should i do now?? :(

@grandmaster

It's an year old lappy my frend :D
 
Assuming PC is out of warranty (otherwise send it in to OEM).

You will need to start swaping/removing parts.
If laptop has multiple sticks of ram (or you have some to use), try swapping the memory around testing each stick in each slot.
Next I would remove wifi card and any other internal/external removable cards.
Next I would try removing the hard drive
Next I would try removing the CD drive.

If you have removed everything easily removable and it still has issues then it has to be motherboard. At that point you and the owner will have to decide if the laptop is worth enough for the cost of sourcing and replacing the motherboard.
 

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Yup I did as you said but I couldn't get a spare dvd drive to check. I swapped it a different HDD and RAM but the problem was the same. Really confused. Sometimes it boots fine if I switch it OFF and then ON. Loads the desktop and can use it normally for hours without any problem. One weird thing I keep getting it is a long beep very rarely on bootup and then I need to switch it off.