Boot looping

[Tartanmuso]

Hi, I have a toshiba satelite L300 that is in a boot loop, It gets to the windows logo then restarts. the bios settings seem ok. if I leave it looping it will freeze at the windows logo until I turn it off. all the other ideas I tried to find did't work. have you guys any other suggestions?
thanks

 

[bazz2004]

Starting up in Safe mode is something I recollect doing to check out what is loading with Windows. Have a watch of this video that covers your situation.

 

[Tartanmuso]

Starting up in Safe mode is something I recollect doing to check out what is loading with Windows. Have a watch of this video that covers your situation.

Ok, thanks for your reply, I've seen that and nope, there's no option to go into safe mode, it goes into 'preparing automatic repair' for a bit then restarts and sometimes I get the blue screen saying we've encountered a problem and it will restart again. Insure it's running windows 7, there was a idea to try windows 10 on one stage.

 

[captaincranky]

`

Hi, I have a toshiba satelite L300 that is in a boot loop, It gets to the windows logo then rest

Is this the relic I think it is, Celeron 2.0 Ghz, from sometime between 2005 & 2008? (The entirety of this reply assumes I am correct about the model).

If so, the HDD would be a likely suspect. Most of these things originally shipped with Vista. (Of course Windows 7 should install as an upgrade, maybe). Or possibly Windows 7 might have been in later runs.

Anyway, AFAIK, Toshiba never shipped Windows discs with these machines, but rather "restore discs". These contain an image of the OS, complete with drivers, and the original "bloatware", (or more charitably, "value added software"), included.

A 250 GB SSD can be had for about $18.00 ("Team Group" @ Newegg). Assuming you still have the restore discs, I would swap out the HDD for the SSD, then try to reinstall from them.

Plans "B" through "?". Do a "live run", with Ubuntu or Mint Linux via the USB port, to see if the drive is accessible. You could burn either of these OSes to DVD and run them from the laptop's DVD drive as well.`

Pull the lappy's HDD and install it into a desktop, (you can also put the drive in a USB external enclosure if you have one), to see if you can gain access to it that way.

Be sure to scan the drive with the desktop's antivirus as soon as it's hooked up.

 

[bazz2004]

Yes, it's really old tech. If the hard drive is gone I doubt it's worth expending time and money on it. There are methods to force a PC to boot into Safe mode. I'd research and try those first before making a decision but it's not looking good.

 

[Tartanmuso]

`

Is this the relic I think it is, Celeron 2.0 Ghz, from sometime between 2005 & 2008? (The entirety of this reply assumes I am correct about the model).

If so, the HDD would be a likely suspect. Most of these things originally shipped with Vista. (Of course Windows 7 should install as an upgrade, maybe). Or possibly Windows 7 might have been in later runs.

Anyway, AFAIK, Toshiba never shipped Windows discs with these machines, but rather "restore discs". These contain an image of the OS, complete with drivers, and the original "bloatware", (or more charitably, "value added software"), included.

A 250 GB SSD can be had for about $18.00 ("Team Group" @ Newegg). Assuming you still have the restore discs, I would swap out the HDD for the SSD, then try to reinstall from them.

Plans "B" through "?". Do a "live run", with Ubuntu or Mint Linux via the USB port, to see if the drive is accessible. You could burn either of these OSes to DVD and run them from the laptop's DVD drive as well.`

Pull the lappy's HDD and install it into a desktop, (you can also put the drive in a USB external enclosure if you have one), to see if you can gain access to it that way.

Be sure to scan the drive with the desktop's antivirus as soon as it's hooked up.

Ok, worth a try, it's actually a 2009 model and I did replace the HDD with a 500gb one a few years after I bought it new. Thank you, you were the only one who suggested that of all the internet search I have done apart from using Ubuntu or Linux.

Dan

 

[captaincranky]

Yes, it's really old tech. If the hard drive is gone I doubt it's worth expending time and money on it.

Well, it is, and then again it isn't. As I said, the bottom has fallen out of SSD prices, particularly "Team Group's" offerings. As for "time consuming", it's just a bunch of Phillips head screws to take the back off and R & R the drive. IMO, anything that "boots and compoots", is worth $20.00 to (attempt), to repair.

Should it be the case the laptop's HDD isn't bad, you just spring for an external enclosure, (as low as $6.00 on sale), and use the orphaned SSD as a USB stick.

IDK if full access to the machine's BIOS is possible. In pre-builts. they sometimes have an administrative password, behind which, the Windows COA is locked and wedded to the board.

The L-300 "Satellite", shipped in different configurations. If the OP's machine is Windows 7, then 2009 sounds about right. I have an earlier model with Vista.

The only drawback about them, is the god forsaken TN panels they employ.

And well, they won't run "Crysis"... I think that's the meme of that era

 

[Tartanmuso]

Yeah, access to the Bois is ok, mine come with Vista but I put 7 on it a couple of years ago.