My Toshiba Laptop has gone beserk

14 years ago

Here's my sad tale:

I've been using my laptop the last few days due to some issues on my desktop which is an entirely different story.

So, let's deal with the laptop which has an Intel Celeron processor, Win XP and about 350MB RAM.

I had been using it with no problem, then partially closed the lid for about an hour and when I came back and totally re-opened the lid, I had a black screen with white letters and the text was periodically repeating itself.

This said something to this effect:

INTEL und1, PXE2.0 (build 082)

Copyright (C) 1997-2000 Intel Corp

CLIENT MAC ADDR RealTek RTL8139(x)/8130/810x PCI Fast Ethernet Controller v2.13 (820326) 000F B0 64 89 25

GUID 821F0 226-94F8-11D9-9640-000 FB0648925 DHCP

PXE E-53 No Boot File name received

PXE-MOF

As it would move through this sequence like it was searching for something and then progress through this sequence and then repeat the entire sequence over and over.

After going through numerous repeats, I shut down waited a bit and started a re-boot. Early in the boot process, this whole process started all over again.

What demons have taken up residence in my laptop and how do I drive them away?

Some kind assistance would really be appreciated.

Many thanks,

Tom

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Comments (6)

ravencajun Zone 8b TX
14 years ago
well it could be that your Ethernet card has gone bad.. Have you tried unplugging everything including the power to your modem and router and doing a power off then a power up sequence? if not try that.

are you using it wireless or did you have a cable connected to the Ethernet plug in the laptop?
bpgreen
14 years ago
Go into your BIOS and make sure your hard drive is in the list of boot devices. Also make sure it's not set to try to boot from the network.

Next time you boot, watch all the messages carefully and see if there is a message about a bad boot sector or a bad device or a bad drive.

I may be wrong, but I think I've gotten similar messages when I've had a hard drive go bad on me.

If your hard drive had a problem, you may be able to resurrect it using Spinrite but it's kind of expensive, so if you have a good backup and install disks, you'd probably be better off replacing the drive and starting over. Even if spinrite recovers the drive, you'll probably need to replace it soon, but spinrite buys you time to recover the data on the drive.
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genes
14 years ago
I agree, it looks like its a HD failure. If its an older model you probably have the recovery disks with it.
Buy a new HD, remove old one (easy and there are all kinds of tutorials out there just Google for them). Take the old one out of the HD cage and put the new HD in the cage and reinsert back into laptop, secure the HD cover(1 screw).
Insert recovery disk into optical drive reboot and follow instructions. The HD removal and insertion of new one should take about 10 mins.
genes
14 years ago
Before you try replacing the HD, try removing from power source, remove battery then press the start button for about 30 secs (hard reset). Put battery back in, plug it back in to power source then try and reboot
samtom_gw
Original Author
14 years ago
Hi Folks,
Many thanks for the feedback. I tried ravencajun's suggestion of unplugging the etherenet cable and booted without it. It booted as normal. Then I plugged the ethernet cable back in, rebooted and here I am.

So, whether it was a "bump in the road" or a warning of troubles to come, I don't know. Just taking it one step at a time.

And, for right now the desk-top is cooperating, also. So, both machines are getting back-up without delay after the virus and Malwarebytes scans finish on the desk-top.

Many thanks to all for your kind suggestions. If there are changes, I'll be back.

Best wishes to all for a Merry Christmas Season.

Tom
ravencajun Zone 8b TX
14 years ago
excellent news lets hope it was just one of those gremlins and now it has moved on!

My Toshiba Laptop has gone beserk

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ravencajun Zone 8b TX

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My Toshiba Laptop has gone beserk

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