Toshiba Equium A110-252 laptop won't boot Windows

Question

I have a Toshiba Equium A110-252 laptop (XP Pro) which stopped booting a couple of weeks ago. The symptoms are that the laptop would display its DOS Toshiba splash screen, then the Windows (XP) boot screen would display, then a very brief blue screen flash, then back to the boot options screen (offering safe mode, safe mode with networking etc, last known good config, etc... none of these work).

I assumed a duff HD, and swapped it for a new one and reinstalled from a TrueImage backup. This worked until I installed windows updates I think (the backup was a few months old), and now the PC is doing the same thing.

I have installed a third, old HD (60GB) with Ubuntu 11.04 on it, and everything is fine. PC boots and runs Ubuntu beautifully. I need Windows running on it though !

Given these symptoms, could it a windows update issue ? Or might I have a hardware fault still ?

Answer 1

It could be worth going into your BIOS screen and resetting to fail-safe defaults in case something has gone wrong. You should see an option to enter the BIOS when you first switch the laptop on. Once in the BIOS screen there should be a number of options relating to defaults.

After you have done that I would suggest you try reinstalling Windows then:

• Update your drivers and BIOS to the latest versions in case there is a conflict. Be sure that the drivers you are installing are compatible with the version of Windows you are using.
• Make sure you have decent antivirus software installed in case some malware is interfering (some rootkits have been known to cause issues like this)
• Run a memory checker just to be certain that your RAM is OK
• Take regular backups
• Try to keep a record of what software/updates you are installing in case the problem comes back and you need to trace the source.