Problem with Tecra M4, random characters at boot

Bhangraman · 12-21-2006, 06:49 AM

Hello,
I have a problem with my Tecra M4. After one year and 2 months without a single glitch, after running a game on it (C&C Generals), my PC hanged, fan set to max speed and my screen progressively turned to white.
I rebooted the machine and I noticed:
1 - screens filled with random characters between the Toshiba logo and the Windows boot logo
2 - the Windows boot logo was relatively readable but filled with green blocks graphic artefacts.
3 - after Windows boot sequence, a black screen appears and that's it... no further picture onscreen

My current diagnostic would be that the graphic card is defective but what do you guys think?
If the graphic card is at fault do you think I can buy the part and install it myself? Since my M4 is no longer under waranty sending the PC to have it fixed will be both money and time consuming

MaxNH · 12-21-2006, 10:13 PM

I'm not an expert by far but if your video card is the problem... then it's gonna probably be the entire motherboard since I believe the vid card is part of the motherboard for laptops (unlike in desktops which is PCI/AGP/PCI-E based)

Well, if I were you, I'd backup everything I have from the hard drive then try to do a recovery process. (pressing "0" [zero] while the computer is booting to try to perform a recovery if the recovery partition is still there). Who knows... maybe it was just windows which got its drivers all bungled up or something. This is a long shot of course.

Bhangraman · 12-22-2006, 05:03 AM

If Windows was at fault don't you think the pre-windows boot screens would be fine? I really wonder what can cause random characters to mask the text that normally appears before the Windows loading screen appears.

fishmahn · 12-22-2006, 09:35 AM

My diagnosis would be the video card too. Before you jump to replacing laptop hardware its a good idea to do some software-only tests to eliminate other possibilities.

Do a BIOS update and if you have the nVidia graphics, do a video bios update (assuming you can - I've never tried on a laptop). Can you do a video bios update on integrated graphics? If you can, (hopefully someone knows...) do that too.

What MaxNH suggested is another thing to try but you could also get a bootable CD and boot off that to be sure Windows isn't the culprit. It could also be the boot sector on the HDD, and a complete system recovery (with reformat) could fix that. If it is windows, you can still do the system recovery.

If you have integrated grapics, you will have to replace the whole motherboard. If you have dedicated graphics, you still may have to replace the whole mobo, but maybe not. If you're pretty handy with tools, you may be able to do it yourself, but I'd suggest a service depot.

You can also call Toshiba and see if they'll cover it - 2 mos past warranty is probably too much, but maybe they'll be in a holiday mood. Well, one can hope, even if it is a slight chance.

Mike.

Bhangraman · 12-22-2006, 01:18 PM

THe problem is that I can access the bios but its all jammed with those characters making the text totally unreadable. Hence I can not modify the bios to change the boot sequence for instance in order to boot on cd.

fishmahn · 12-22-2006, 02:05 PM

Then it sounds like you can't do any more diagnosing, and you'll have to run with the assumption its the video card. If the warranty is over you could get a list of Toshiba authorized service centers and see if you can get a knowledgeable person there when you call asking about repairs. Ask them if the video is replaceable, or if you have integrated, what it takes to just add a dedicated card - if its workable for you it may be cheaper than a new mobo.

Mike.

wildwill445 · 01-04-2007, 07:13 PM

I had the exact same problem with mine back in July i took it to one of the "Toshiba certified repair depots" and they knew what it was and fixed it I didn't think to ask more about what was wrong but the guy mentioned replacing the "system board" so i don't think it was the entire motherboard but i think you will have to take it in to get it fixed, check the Toshiba website for list of repair places "near" (mine was 30 min away) you, good luck.

diekenny · 01-04-2007, 07:54 PM

Sounds to me like either a dead video card or corrupt vid card bios (especially given the situation under which it failed originally) or possibly a corrupted system bios. The M200 and M7 both have a menu which comes up at boot that allows you to select the boot device... I'm not sure if the M4 does as well, but if it does give that a shot with a live linux cd or similar to try and run some diagnostics. Additionally, you could try memtest (provided you can boot a cd) and rule out a bad stick of ram - though given that entering the bios gives you the same type of display, this is pretty unlikely.

wildwill445 - system board and motherboard are typically interchangeable but there could be a separate board in there too i suppose.

I haven't had any experience myself with this but, you might try extending your warranty another year (might be possible?) and then getting it in for service an "unsuspicious" amount of time after that... hehe. Couldn't hurt to try, right?

Metaformer · 01-05-2007, 07:05 PM

it happened to me too and they had to replace the entire motherboard. It was still under warranty then but I had 2 MB replacements during the warranty period.

JLeMosy · 01-11-2007, 02:09 PM

I had this exact same problem show up around 6 months ago. Sent my M4 to be repaired (not under warranty), and it came back with a new motherboard and working perfectly. Now, however, 6 months or so later, the same problem is happening again!

I'm just hoping that the new motherboard that was installed to fix the problem the first time is under some kind of warranty. Other wise I'm in big trouble.

This has convinced me to never buy another Toshiba computer.