For the past few months the lithium ion battery on my wife's computer
has been losing it's capacity. Now it's gotten to the point where it
won't keep the computer running more than a few minutes in the event
of a loss of AC power. Up to this point this hasn't been a problem
because my wife never really takes the computer out of the house. A
few weeks ago she started asking about getting a new battery. (You
never can predict these things), and so I investigated this. I knew
I'd have to make some kind of arrangements eventually, but truthfully
with Batteries Plus asking 79.00 and the cheaper online offers
questionable at best, I haven't been eager to jump into this, so thus
far we haven't done anything.

The other day she told me about a new problem that she'd been having
with the computer over the previous two weeks or so. It seems that
every so often instead of the computer going through post and then
booting up, a few seconds after you attempt powering it up a blue
rectangular box pops up with a black screen behind it. Inside the box
is an "enter password" message. Neither of us have ever seen this box
before, nor do we have any idea what "password" it's looking for. (Our
usual ones don't work). I tried removing AC power as well as the LI
battery for a few days but this had no effect.

Toshiba has a 24 hour tech line that if you're lucky enough to connect
to a intelligible person might be of some help. So I called them. The
Indian girl seemed knowledgeable, I could understand her, and she
suggested that the message was asking for a "CMOS" password, which she
said someone must have put it into the boot sequence. I've never heard
of anything like this and I told her that it was not possible that
anyone in this house could have installed this into the computer. I
know that I didn't, and I'm only slightly more computer literate than
my wife, which is not saying much.

The tech suggested that we will need to reset the CMOS by pulling the
internal battery. According to her, the battery could be defective as
well. Now I can certainly pull the battery and replace it as well if
need be, however I have my doubts about that being the cause of this.
This laptop is not that old and I have to question if this is what the
problem actually is. If it is in fact a dead CMOS battery, why would
it lock me out of BIOS? And if it isn't, why did it happen in the
first place?

Unbeknownst to me my wife has stored all the Grand Children's pictures
on this computer with no backup anywhere else. So if anyone has any
rabbits they might be able to pull from their hat, I'd really
sincerely appreciate any advice. Thanks, Lenny

On Sun, 4 Nov 2012 08:09:03 -0800 (PST), klem kedidelhopper
wrote:

a blue
rectangular box pops up with a black screen behind it. Inside the box
is an "enter password" message. Neither of us have ever seen this box
before, nor do we have any idea what "password" it's looking for.

Satellite A205, model PSAF3U-0NROOV is NOT the model numbers. Look on
the serial number sticker for something like:
A205-S1234
where 1234 is some other number.

That's the CMOS password. Google for "Toshiba CMOS password reset".

You might be lucky and find that just removing the CMOS battery (and
the main battery), leaving it sit for maybe an hour, replacing the
battery, and trying again, might clear the password.

Here's one method for an A205-something laptop:
http://www.techspot.com/community/topics/how-do-i-reset-eeprom-on-toshiba-a205.102975/

There are various schemes and tricks that work on different models.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/CmosPwd

I believe that the laptop is old enough that the parallel port reset
trick will work:
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/CmosPwd#Toshiba
(near bottom of page).

Incidentally, there's nothing your wife did that caused the problem.
Some laptops spontaneously set a password for no obvious reason. It's
a bug that was probably fixed in a BIOS upgrade, which you probably
didn't install. Toshiba claims that for "security reasons", they do
not offer a password recovery method. They assume that if it's
locked, you'll buy a new laptop. My customers reaction is often
something like... right, any new laptop except Toshiba.


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Be careful in there. Look at the harddrive and see if it is a Western Digital. (I know it sounds a bit off but it's true that it is possible)

The reason for that is that some WD drives do all the sudden start asking for a password. It happened to me. All I did was enter setup one rime to see if I could disable the webcam (I thought it might be the source of another problem). At this point if all it says is enter password, it might be a HD password. You have no way of knowing unless you have seen that password box on that unit before. If you want some info on it just google for "WD1600BEVT password". Those drives were used in Toshiba laptops as well as my Gateways.

There is a procedure you can do on a Toshiba that fixes it but it won't work on a Gateway (lucky me), however it invloves copying and pasting some code from a website and then making a bootable CD or thumbdrive and all this crap.

I found this is a common problem with the 160GB models but nothing indicates that it is exculsive to them. There's no reason it should be.

At any rate, if you can get the thing to boot, get a bunch of thumbdrives and get every picture and everything backed up ASAP. I mean do that first. If it boots, leave it running and turn off the power saving so it doesn't shut itself down. After you have the backup, see if it does have that type of drive and let me know, I'll see if I can find the code and the instructions again.

However beware, I do not know if recovering the drive with that method saves or destroys the data.

J

"My customers reaction is often
something like... right, any new laptop except Toshiba"

I remember in the real old days they had some code you had to copy to a floppy to reset the password. It makes sense they just don't do tht anymore. Think there's any chance of getting a procedure like that some other way, like by figuring out the chipset or somethng ?

I hope it's not too stupid a question, I am not quite a guru. My advice here is based on personal experience. HA, I won't nut another Gateway after this, I found all kinds of things out about these things after while. For one - seriously substandard sound. I tried plugging it into a decent amp and speakers and UGH. Terrible. Then I find out that there is no preset "flat" on the EQ, I had to set it manually ! The camera software sucks ass and what's more that HD password issue keeps it from booting any other media just being there. I even excluded it from the boot menu and it still won't boot past it. GRRR. (supposedly that is not true of the Toshibas with the same problem)

Actually while you're here, just what kind of laptop would you recommend ? Maybe an Acer or something ?

J

On Nov 4, 1:55*pm, wrote:

Actually while you're here, just what kind of laptop would you recommend ? Maybe an Acer or something ?

Acer bought Gateway in October 2007. Gateway, eMachines, and Acer are
all the same thing, and pretty much all of their models are flimsy
junk. Also stay away from anything made by Toshiba, the power jack
breaks on most of them...I've seen 22 Toshibas in the past year for a
variety of problems, all but 3 had a broken jack.

Look at reviews if considering Sony. The high end stuff is quite nice,
but quality of the lower-end stuff seems to vary by model.

I personally like the HP Probooks and Dell's Vostro and Latitude
stuff. They're a bit more expensive (and things like a webcam are
often extra, these are mostly sold as enterprise units), but many
models from those lines can take a serious beating. Many models will
probably obsolesce before they break. Also, at least in my experience,
they came with limited bloatware that actually uninstalled cleanly, so
you don't have to format as soon as you get it.

On Sunday, November 4, 2012 11:09:03 AM UTC-5, klem kedidelhopper wrote:
For the past few months the lithium ion battery on my wife's computer

has been losing it's capacity. Now it's gotten to the point where it

won't keep the computer running more than a few minutes in the event

of a loss of AC power. Up to this point this hasn't been a problem

because my wife never really takes the computer out of the house. A

few weeks ago she started asking about getting a new battery. (You

never can predict these things), and so I investigated this. I knew

I'd have to make some kind of arrangements eventually, but truthfully

with Batteries Plus asking 79.00 and the cheaper online offers

questionable at best, I haven't been eager to jump into this, so thus

far we haven't done anything.



The other day she told me about a new problem that she'd been having

with the computer over the previous two weeks or so. It seems that

every so often instead of the computer going through post and then

booting up, a few seconds after you attempt powering it up a blue

rectangular box pops up with a black screen behind it. Inside the box

is an "enter password" message. Neither of us have ever seen this box

before, nor do we have any idea what "password" it's looking for. (Our

usual ones don't work). I tried removing AC power as well as the LI

battery for a few days but this had no effect.



Toshiba has a 24 hour tech line that if you're lucky enough to connect

to a intelligible person might be of some help. So I called them. The

Indian girl seemed knowledgeable, I could understand her, and she

suggested that the message was asking for a "CMOS" password, which she

said someone must have put it into the boot sequence. I've never heard

of anything like this and I told her that it was not possible that

anyone in this house could have installed this into the computer. I

know that I didn't, and I'm only slightly more computer literate than

my wife, which is not saying much.



The tech suggested that we will need to reset the CMOS by pulling the

internal battery. According to her, the battery could be defective as

well. Now I can certainly pull the battery and replace it as well if

need be, however I have my doubts about that being the cause of this.

This laptop is not that old and I have to question if this is what the

problem actually is. If it is in fact a dead CMOS battery, why would

it lock me out of BIOS? And if it isn't, why did it happen in the

first place?



Unbeknownst to me my wife has stored all the Grand Children's pictures

on this computer with no backup anywhere else. So if anyone has any

rabbits they might be able to pull from their hat, I'd really

sincerely appreciate any advice. Thanks, Lenny

I looked for a model number Jeff and it is A205-S5804. And it appears to be one of the models covered by the procedure under the first link that you sent me. I thought that it was interesting that pulling the CMOS battery as one guy had tried) didn't help at all. This automatically created password **** reeks of "virus", and certainly must be a nice little money maker for the dirt bags at Toshiba. Almost like the *******s designed it to do this. Thanks a bunch guys, I'll get into it this week and let you know if it worked. Lenny

On Sunday, November 4, 2012 9:09:03 AM UTC-7, klem kedidelhopper wrote:

For the past few months the lithium ion battery on my wife's
computer has been losing it's capacity. Now it's gotten to the
point where it won't keep the computer running more than a few
minutes in the event of a loss of AC power.

stored all the Grand Children's pictures

http://www.IrisVista.com , a website dedicated to Toshiba laptops,
is great for repair information. Iris refers to Toshiba's awful
Ask Iris help database at their website and is what their level 1
and maybe level 2 tech support have to rely upon for all their
information. If you want real help from Toshiba for their hardware,
ask for level 3. OTOH their software tech support seems decent.

I also have an A205, and it's not difficult to remove the hard
disk to make a backup with a desktop machine or with a SATA-USB
adapter:

http://tinyurl.com/mmhl7o

http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptop...assembly-1.htm

Remove the screws from the lid on the bottom that covers the hard
disk, then slide the disk toward the edge of the computer to
disconnect if from its SATA data and power connectors. Pull up
on the flexible plastic strip to remove the disk. Clone it to
another notebook hard disk, in case the original disk fails.
Notice the disk is set inside a metal cage, and you'll need to use
that if you replace the disk in the laptop, or else the disk will
flop around inside and maybe even unplug itself.

There are cheaper sources than Batteries Plus, like almost every
place except Toshiba themselves. OTOH be careful about buying
really cheap laptop batteries because some of them don't contain a
temperature sensor to tell the computer when to stop charging but
instead they have a fake sensor (fixed resistor) that makes the
computer charge at a low current forever, rather than stop when
done. That can be really bad with lithium batteries, which are
particular about how they're charged.

If the Toshiba doesn't grossly lose track of time, then I seriously
doubt its internal CMOS battery is bad. OTOH if you do replace it,
be sure to get a RECHARGEABLE lithium battery for the CMOS because
there are non-rechargeable lithiums that look just like it and even
have the same cable attached.

On Sun, 4 Nov 2012 10:55:35 -0800 (PST), wrote:

"My customers reaction is often
something like... right, any new laptop except Toshiba"

Actually while you're here, just what kind of laptop would you recommend ? Maybe an Acer or something ?
J

I usually get into trouble making such recommendations. The problem
is that by the time we have a good idea of the long term survivability
of the laptop, it's obsolete and no longer being sold. To recommend a
current model laptop is risky, as it may contain problems which will
not appear for many months or years. For example, I didn't know about
the crappy soldering, exploding batteries, defective video chips, and
early hard disk failures found in many laptops until well after the
warranty periods had expired. Caveat emptor.

So much for the ritual disclaimer. This week, for new machines, I
like Lenovo. Not every model Lenovo, as their bottom of the line
models are marginal junk. The one's costing $500 and up seem decent.
Avoid 1366x768 screens, which don't really have enough dots to be
useful.

Note that you can almost buy two bottom end $350 laptops for the price
of one decent machine. If expendable laptops are your style, I would
recommend buying the cheapest, and just plan on having it blow up just
after the warranty expires.

For older machines running XP, I'm partial to IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads. I
have several customers runing T61p laptops, which are a good
compromise between price, performance, and reliability.

For those with an unlimited budget, I like Panasonic Toughbook
machines. They're built like a tank (magnesium case), and everything
is shock mounted. They weigh a ton, but will survive being dropped on
a hard floor. Performance sucks, but that's because they use older
known components instead of the latest greatest fresh off the
prototype line.


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558