[henritechie]

Hi Everybody

I'm new to this forum, just posted a small introduction in Community.

I've got a problem I can't solve. A friend of mine gave me his toshiba Satellite A205-S5000 because "it doesn't do anything anymore".

I reseated the RAM, which allowed the computer to start, but then it hangs on a welcome screen where I can choose between Setup and Boot options, none of them working. No keyboard, no mouse, no change when using a bootable CD or connecting to a network.

The computer only boots and allows POST and Setup access when the hard drive is disconnected and it boots from the optical drive. The hard drive, a SATA 2.5 " works perfectly well on another computer. But when the HD is reinserted in the laptop it hangs again.

When using a SATA or a PATA drive, both working with Vista or XP, externally connected via USB to the laptop, the system boots but keeps finding errors in windows and after correcting them and rebooting hangs on a windows startup screen where I can "repair" or just "start normally".

I took the laptop apart, saw nothing obvious, updated to the latest BIOS, used only 1 stick of memory at a time, still nothing.

I'm LOST, anybody any idea? I asked a friend of mine, professional repairman, who told me he had had this problem twice with other brands and abandonned, he couldn't make the laptops work...

Thanks for any suggestion

HenriTechie

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XP is not designed to boot from an external drive. Plus that installation is for another machine, not that laptop.
It's most likely the laptop has a board problem, so it's effectively scrap.

[Neil Jones]

XP is not designed to boot from an external drive. Plus that installation is for another machine, not that laptop.
It's most likely the laptop has a board problem, so it's effectively scrap.