Windows 10 Dead Laptop Mysteriously Comes to life

Hermitkrab

Hermitkrab

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 27, 2016
A while back I started a thread concerning my Toshiba laptop. One day it worked fine. Next day it wouldn’t even turn on, using either AC or battery. Even the light on the front, showing connection to AC, remained unlit. Yep, she was completely dead. So, I went and bought a new HP laptop but kept the Toshiba in order to salvage the hard drive.

I asked a friend to assist me since he had the small tools necessary for the operation. We met at a local library to perform the job. On a whim, I plugged the Toshiba into a socket and voila, First thing I noticed was the AC light was lit, whereas it was dead before. I proceeded to turn the machine on and it fired up like it normally used to. My PC wasn’t subject to any jarring while en route to the library, so that couldn’t have been the fix. Besides, I had tapped on it several times to see if that would do anything. It remained completely dead.

Anyhow, I’m happy to have it back in working condition, although now I have 2 laptops but will never know the mystery behind the sudden resurrection of my Toshiba

BTW, this may be related: Before my Toshiba died the battery would stop charging at 85%. Now it goes to 100%. Go figure
 
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I don't know, but she's still working fine. I don't think hibernate was enabled. Anyhow, now I have 2 laptops. I can use one for experimentation, if I wish. I even had a wild thought about going back to my first laptop's OS (XP) just for the memories, even though it's no longer supported and I would need to pay to get W10 back. Or, I can use my resurrected Toshiba to try out a new program or app. Just thinking.....
 
I've seen some laptops get, for lack of a better term, locked up. The only way to get them to work was remove A/C, the battery and hold the power button to drank any held charge. After that they would boot. The equivalent would be to let the battery drain completely and any held charge would eventually dissipate.
 
Thanks, Nemo. I just learned this from another forum: Laptops with built-in batteries have a battery reset button, which would usually fix a dead computer problem. Wish I knew that before buying a new one. Anyhow, maybe having 2 laptops isn't such a bad idea. One is good as a spare, or can be used for experimentation with different programs or apps. :)
 
Here's another question. If I wanted to install a different operating system for experimentation, would that overwrite the Windows 10 OS already in use, meaning I couldn't go back to it, or would W10 remain on the HDD in another partition and can be safely retrieved? Thanks again.
 
It would wipe it, but you could take a system image, so going back if needed wouldn't be an issue. I use acronis many here recommend macron.
 
Hermitkrab said:
Here's another question. If I wanted to install a different operating system for experimentation, would that overwrite the Windows 10 OS already in use, meaning I couldn't go back to it, or would W10 remain on the HDD in another partition and can be safely retrieved? Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Do you mean DUAL BOOT?
Yes, you can keep Windows and install a Linux operating system, as long as you have free space on your hard disk. You can resize your HDD partitions in order to make free space.
 
Yes, I guess the term is "dual boot". I wouldn't have any possibility of messing up my current W10 OS, would I? Or, is it possible to load the new OS on an external device, such as a thumb drive or HD? I have approx. 416 GB free space on my laptop's HDD.
 
Hermitkrab said:
... Or, is it possible to load the new OS on an external device, such as a thumb drive or HD? I have approx. 416 GB free space on my laptop's HDD.
Click to expand...

You can either:
1) run it from a live media (thumb drive, CD, DVD),
2) install it on your HDD along Windows (I do not recommend this for a beginner) or
3) run it in a virtual environment (download VirtualBox).

If you run it from a live media (thumb drive), whenever you do some changes they will not be persistent, you start from zero every time you boot again. So, if you really want to experiment Linux then you should definitely install it or, the safer way is to run it in VirtualBox (Basically run it inside Windows without affecting it). You can watch this video tutorial.
 
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Thanks for that info, Livix07. I'd never heard of Virtual Box. I'll experiment with that since it appears to be the safest way to protect my existing Windows 10 OS. Thanks again, and also to all those who responded.
 
Hermit if you really want a challenge install gentoo from a stage2 tarball or have a play with slack.
 
Well, I installed Virtual Box and am now in the learning process. The app tells me it can find no bootable media, although I've downloaded another OS on to a flash drive. It doesn't "see" the flash drive. I'll continue playing with it until I figure it out. In the meantime, I'm investigating ways to make a bootable thumb drive, with either Linux or Windows OS. I'm also in the process of downloading Ubuntu, to be launched from the desktop. Isn't experimenting fun?
 
I would just mount the ISO as a virtual CD/DVD drive in the VM and boot from that. Hardware pass-thru can be somewhat difficult to get to work.
 
Hermitkrab said:
Well, I installed Virtual Box and am now in the learning process.
Click to expand...
No problem, we all learn.

Hermitkrab said:
The app tells me it can find no bootable media, although I've downloaded another OS on to a flash drive. It doesn't "see" the flash drive.
Click to expand...
There is no need for a flash drive to run an operationg system in VirtualBox.
Just download the Linux ISO to your computer and load it into the VirtualBox.

Please watch this video tutorial and replace Ubuntu with the Linux you want to use.
 
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