Re: Toshiba Satellite A200 - RAM testing

Somewhere on teh intarwebs "Tomek" typed:
G.G. Willikers pisze:
BillW50 wrote:
In news:gjj5r0$ovp$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
Tomek typed on Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:32:43 +0100:
BillW50 pisze:
In news:lSp6l.7686$hc1.457@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
G.G. Willikers typed on Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:02:48 -0500:
Tomek wrote:
BillW50 pisze:
In news:gjb5p5$jb$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
Tomek typed on Mon, 29 Dec 2008 19:42:34 +0100:
I have Toshiba Satellite A200 1N7 laptop and I have a problem
with very long time system booting. Probably the reason of
that long time booting is testing the RAM memory. I've
checked the BIOS. I had Phoenix ISKAA BIOS Ver. 1.7 and I
updated it to ver.
2.5 but I still can not turn of the RAM memory test. I have 1
GB memory and it takes a lot of time to test it during
booting. I
can not find in BIOS where to turn it of. Or any other way to
do it. I've found the option in BIOS for faster booting, but
it didn't solve my problem with testing the RAM memory.

If anybody can help me, please give my any advice how to
solve my problem.
Thanks.
How long does the BIOS take before your OS starts to load? And
what OS are you booting? And how long does this take?
I'm using MS Vista (32) Home Premium. Testing the Ram memory
takes about 90 seconds. After that OS starts to load, it takes
about 70 seconds. I have the other laptop (HP Pavilion
dv9308nr) and it starts in only
40 seconds (also with MS Vista 32bit Home Premium).
The HP laptop doesn't have this problem with fast booting. It
also has Phoenix BIOS.
Have you swapped in another memory chip to compare times?
Reseated the current chip?
Yes 90 seconds is way too long. One would think you could turn off
the memory test in the BIOS, but maybe not. Checking the memory
should only take a second anyway. And I agree with GG, something
is wrong. First place to look at is the RAM itself like GG
suggested.

I've replaced the RAM modules with modules from HP laptop. Toshiba
still boots very long time - no change at all. So I belive the RAM
modules are not the reason of that long booting.

You convinced me too! Roland Franzius suggested that the hard drive
has bad sectors on it and which is the cause of the delay. He might
have something there. Can you throw another hard drive in there?

If a spare HD isn't available, try booting directly from a Linux Live
CD, bypassing the HDD in the boot config.
You may be able to get a better sense of where the delay occurs in
your bootup, by seeing how fast the system hits on the CD drive.

I changed HDD and it didn?t change anything in laptop booting time. I
also tried booting from CD with Linux, the same result.
In both cases the BIOS screen showed the RAM memory test, which lasts
long time and after that OS started to load.
So I guess it not HDD.
Can anybody tell me how to turn off the diagnostics during booting the
laptop in my Phoenix ISKAA BIOS?
The option "Quiet boot - Enabled" doesn't work.

Frankly I'm amazed that these binaries are getting through. Normally they're
stripped out either before they get to, or by my NNTP server.

From what I can see you've got everything set up correctly for quick
booting. It's (rather obviously I thought) nothing to do with HDD etc. and
all to do with the BIOS and / or RAM / slots. As you've (probably) ruled out
RAM then perhaps the slots are faulty but I think that's unlikely. (Then
again life itself is unlikely...) Maybe try just one SODIMM and see, then
alternate to the other (if you can).

I would suggest that your BIOS is broken. Not meaning your 'flash'
particularly, perhaps the BIOS release, or the whole range of BIOS' for that
machine. Can you get to a user's forum and discuss? Check manufacturers BIOS
release notes?

Finally, are you sure that your BIOS settings are being saved? Are you
hitting F10 and then confirming each time you make a change? Is the BIOS
battery OK? (I see that the date in BIOS is a couple days before this post
showed up, is the machine keeping the date all the time? Does it keep the
date etc. if the main battery is removed for a couple hours?)

Good luck,
--
Shaun.


.

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