My Toshiba Laptop comes on briefly and goes off.

Pls My Toshiba laptop Statellite C855-S5356, When switched on boots up to t he bios stage then the screen will change to some multi-checker boxes (as i f using a scratched DVD in a DVD player)then the screen will go off for abo ut 10 seconds then it will repeat that process(on and off)but takes a longe r time to come on again each successive time. I tried an external monitor but there was no display. I removed the harddisk but the problem remained t he same, remove the battery-same. I will be happy if l can get some help here. Thanks

Try removing and cleaning the RAM.

If you can, charge the battery and try with the AC disconnected. The symptoms you describe can be caused by a noisy power source (which resets the machine and causes multiple startup cycles, then interrupts them).

The battery (different power source) might not work better, but it's worth a try.

Hmmm... about 4 years old:

That's a failure to initialize video RAM which is shared with the main memory. The light show on the screen and the boot failures indicate some kind of RAM failure. As "Ken" suggested, try removing the RAM, cleaning out any dust and debris, and CAREFULLY reinserting it. If that doesn't fix it, try one DDR3 RAM stick at a time. If one is bad, it will be obvious. If you have new RAM

Go thee unto: or and burn a CD or flash drive with their memory testing programs. If you're lucky, it will boot and you can test your CPU, RAM, buses, etc.

If that doesn't work, leave the RAM in place, but unplug literally everything that can be removed. Remove the CD/DVD drive, wi-fi card, hard disk, and any USB dongles. One of them might be hanging the bus.

There's also a small chance that the battery might be causing a problem. Try removing the battery and running it totally on the charger.

On the other foot, it might be a bad GPU BGA chip to motherboard soldering job, which will take a major effort to reflow. Use an aluminum foil heat shield to avoid frying the PCB.

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similar Toshiba Statellite (C855D-S5303)and it worked. To my surprise, the

8GB RAM worked in the second laptop but will not work in the first one (-S5 356). I have tried several times but will not work. Any explanation? once again thanks to you all and I say more grease to your elbows.

:

a similar Toshiba Statellite (C855D-S5303)and it worked. To my surprise, th e 8GB RAM worked in the second laptop but will not work in the first one (- S5356). I have tried several times but will not work. Any explanation?

Each motherboard is designed to handle a specific maximum amount of memory. Carefully look up the specs for the machine that would not work with the

8GB and you will likely see that it has a max of either 2 or 4. The lack o f support for the additional "address lines" will cause the memory stick to have 2 locations responding to a single address, thus causing it not to wo rk properly. Think of this as 2 people speaking at the same time. It rare ly ends well...

Dan

the bios stage then the screen will change to some multi-checker boxes (as if using a scratched DVD in a DVD player)then the screen will go off for a bout 10 seconds then it will repeat that process(on and off)but takes a lon ger time to come on again each successive time. I tried an external monito r but there was no display. I removed the harddisk but the problem remained the same, remove the battery-same.

I fully understand now thank you.

Bios virus