Toshba Satellite A200-ST2043, random shutdowns, random freezes

[Jintan]

Not saying you can never use Daemon Tools there, but for right now it needs to be eliminated as a possible problem source there.

[James2010]

I've removed daemon tools and observe if it was causing the problem, but problems still occurring. I'll tell you what I've done before all this problems started maybe you can tell whether what I did wrong and maybe we can reverse it. At first my original OS is vista, but I upgrade it to Windows 7, I used it for months without any problems until 1 time with unknown reasons, it started doing some check disk which is not completing due to shutdowns and keep repeating it until it does not continue to where I can log on to windows and keep on startup repair. So I decided to downgrade it to vista again, full format before installing vista. And now those said problems started happening after a week or so.. about 2 months ago from now.. And one more thing some shutdowns happens while booting windows, during at the very first part of startup, not inside windows. Now, did I do something not right and can it be reversed?

[Jintan]

it started doing some check disk which is not completing due to shutdowns and keep repeating it until it does not continue to where I can log on to windows and keep on startup repair

That sounds like a possible drive problem. One example would be that part of the Windows 7 install used bad parts of a hard drive already in trouble, the reformat/Vista install didn't at first, but then did and the problems again occur. But pretty much just guesswork. If you had reformatted, and so "wiping" the drive of Windows 7, just doesn't seem there is any problem tie that carried over from one Windows version to another. However, if you offloaded some files, then returned them on Vista, or reinstalled some program on Vista that was the source of issues with Windows 7, it sill could be that. No chance you can think back, and mentally identify anything you did that might match that scenario?

For right now, go here and download whatever drive utility matches your drive, and follow whatever steps are provided to use the utility to check your hard drive.

[James2010]

Hmm, I do recall something about upgrading my bios, I don't know if it's normal, I was using Windows 7 back then when I upgraded my bios. I think my bios now is Phoenix 2.50. I forgot what was the original bios back then. While it was in the middle of upgrading, If I recalled it correctly, the bar which indicates how much was completed, I think about half or 1/4 to go, it suddenly shuts down and it doesn't restarts again, unlike the shutdowns I'm having right now, which it'll shuts down but it'll restart all by itself. I do recall it's saying that it will shutdown several times before it'll complete the upgrade but I don't think it's normal to not restart by itself because it shuts down only ones and I manually started it, nothing is said about the upgrade was successful or not. But when I tried to repeat the upgrade it'll only said that I have the latest bios. Do you think it's possible that the bios upgrade was not successfully finished and it's causing this problems, and can it be undone?

[Jintan]

Not real sure on all that. I will ponder all this info and see if we can use something to assess the BIOS issue. What is the make/model of this computer?

[James2010]

Many thanks for your help. It's Toshiba Satellite A200, I don't know for sure if it's ST2041, ST2042, or ST2043, but I think it's ST2043, because mine has built in wifi and bluetooth driver unlike the other two..

One time, when I was browsing some forums which may relate to the problems here. I forgot where that forum was because the pc shuts down that time, but I read something about startup logs in MS/DOS. It's said about the pc memorized by log the last known condition that happened, might be good startup or not, which the pc keeps following. For example, like us people, having a list of a must do chores in the morning, whether it can be good or bad, as long as we do it, or something like that. To get to the point, It can only be accessed through MS/DOS. By doing that I can accessed all the logs which happened at a certain point in time. I think it said about erased all bad logs, and keep the good ones. I don't know if it can help? Maybe you know something about that and maybe you can clarify it and also if it can help, maybe some guidelines on how to do it? Thanks..

[Jintan]

Flashing the BIOS leaves no room for error, and any glitch in the process can lead to problems.

Go here, scroll through and download the ACPI Flash BIOS version 2.50, then click that to extract the files. Be sure to read through the readme.txt file it provides, so you can make sure everything goes off just fine. Be sure to disable any security programs, better yet all programs, then do the BIOS update/flash. I also recommend turning off any screensavers, and make sure no programs start doing things like updating right as the flash is occurring. Reboot, and see if that helped.

[James2010]

Many thanks jintan. I've tried the bios upgrade but it doesn't continue. it said, "The current system bios is the same version(or newer) than the version you are trying to flash, so the bios will not be changed". How can I continue the upgrade if it says I have the current version? I've read the readme.txt, where can I find the bios key installation method? It's said to be used in case of power loss or failure during bios upgrade? How it is used?

[Jintan]

I see that comment, but also don't see what it is referring to. My best guess is the first option below, which they recommend:

There are three options for installing this BIOS release:

1) From the bootable BIOS installation diskette. This is the recommeded
procedure whenever a diskette drive (internal, USB, or PCMCIA) is
available on the target system.

2) From within Windows NT-based operating systems (XP, 2000, NT 4.0) using
the Windows-based BIOS installer.

3) From the bootable BIOS installation CD-ROM

I looked through much of the code in the files for the flashing, but don't see any that suggests the options for one method are different from the other. Running the flash update from within Windows is almost always the least preferred. Perhaps doing the task before Windows loads (the diskette or bootable CD methods) may allow you to update with the same BIOS version (overwrite what is there).

[James2010]

Hey, I think it did it, that solved the problem. Thanks so much!! Cold start shutdowns still happening but it's the very least of those problems. I used and observed my pc in normal mode, while idle, It does not shutdown now, I try using it for long hours, no computer scan, but it stayed put.. I do web browsing, word typing, my my pc is on high performance, cooling method is on maximum performance. NO freezes, NO shutdowns, NO rainbow screen. All this time my last bios update caused all that problem and you solved it. I'm so much grateful for what you did. You helped me through the end.. I thank you very very much. I thank this site. And I will always support this site.. Thanks for everything!!!