Laptop shuts down during boot AND external HDD failure!

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cdy

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A few weeks back I backed up most of the the docs on my old Toshiba because it's been running slower than a one-legged horse and I intended to format it. I decided to finish the job today. However, it won't power up, instead it shuts down during boot-up. I've tried blowing cold air from the missus' hairdryer whilst booting in case it's a case of the CPU overheating, but that hasn't helped. The power source seems to be fine: The 'mains-powered' and 'battery-charging' icons are both on, However, when I power up it goes through the motions for about 3 seconds then shuts back down.

It gets worse.

As I needed access to a doc on the laptop, which I believe had been backed up on my Western Digital 'my book' external HDD I decided to connect the external HDD to my newer Dell laptop. I asked the missus the hand me the power lead. I didn't realise that she passed me the power lead for the Toshiba. After about 5 seconds (just after it appeared in 'my computer') the external HDD suddenly died. It was then that I realised the missus had handed me the wrong power lead. So, now I'm in a situation where my Toshiba won't boot and my external HDD appears to close to-death. I say 'close-to-death' because their is still something there: The blue power light is flashing, which gives me hope that their is a change it hasn't been fried. (Maybe an internal fuse or diode has shorted to protect the drive from frying??)
 
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Sounds like you've had better days!

What are model no's of toshiba and dell laptops ? Does the dell still work on it's own power supply, without the external hdd ?

Check the voltage and polarity on the plugs of both toshiba and dell power units, should give a clue to the problems.

My toshiba uses a 19v 3.95a psu, replacements are around £6 on *bay, but check voltage on the old one first.

If the dell still works, suggest worry about the toshiba first, that's where your docs should still be.

If external hdd is a usb type, the supply to it is regulated by the dell mobo, so it should have survived.

Do you have a working pc to try it on ?
 
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danforth said:
What are model no's of toshiba and dell laptops ? Does the dell still work on it's own power supply, without the external hdd ?

Check the voltage and polarity on the plugs of both toshiba and dell power units, should give a clue to the problems.

My toshiba uses a 19v 3.95a psu, replacements are around £6 on *bay, but check voltage on the old one first.

If the dell still works, suggest worry about the toshiba first, that's where your docs should still be.

If external hdd is a usb type, the supply to it is regulated by the dell mobo, so it should have survived.

Do you have a working pc to try it on ?
Click to expand...

Dell is an Inspiron 3520; Toshiba is a Sat U300; HDD is a WD 'My Book' powered from mains but connects to laptop via USB. When I try to use it with the Dell, which is working fine, it doesn't work.
 
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Well, at least the Dell still works.

The "my book" psu is 12v, plugging the 19v toshiba psu into it (if I'm understanding your op) "fried" the hdd, and could have damaged the toshiba psu.
The toshiba psu has overload protection though, and may still be ok, worth checking the output, or just plugging into the toshiba laptop and see if the power leds still light.

Two problems now, any priority ?
 
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Can you not remove the hdd from the toshiba? If so install it in a external case, they only cost about £10.
 
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sneaker said:
Can you not remove the hdd from the toshiba? If so install it in a external case, they only cost about £10.
Click to expand...

Didn't think of that! I could maybe do that myself!
What about the HDD? Maybe remove from the case?
 
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Yes just take the hard drive out of the laptop and put it in an hard drive caddy, check some out HERE, they are as cheap as £3 these things really have dropped in price.
 
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Before you start removing the hdd, try taking the battery out and see if it boots with just the mains power unit connected.

If the battery is faulty, or completely flat, it may be shunting the supply.
 
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That was one of the first things I tried, Dan.
Think I'll order a cheap caddy and see if I can salvage the saved docs.
Still no further forward with WD external HDD. Blah!
 
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when you take the hdd out of your laptop cdy, it should have info on it to tell You if it is pata,sata sata2 etc.Or google Your laptop model no. for hdd specs.
If you look at the scan link i posted, there are some caddies that do both, pata and sata in one case. Hope that helps.

ps. all caddies should work with windows 8, it's getting the caddy that works with your hdd.
 
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