Hi,

I have a Toshiba Tecra M4 Tablet PC that is about 2 years old. 1 year
ago, the machine froze during use requiring a hard reset. When it was
reset it failed to post (all I got was a black screen). After several
hard resets from this state, I got the machine to restart. Now, after
the machine runs for a period of time (sometimes 5 minutes, sometimes
25 minutes), it freezes again and goes into the failure at POST. Now,
sometimes it takes 30-40 hard resets at the start to get it to POST
and boot - but when it does the machine runs perfectly until it
freezes. If, when the machine is running properly, I do a normal
shutdown, the startup is uneventful. It seems that a hard reset is
what causes the problem at startup.

I have updated the BIOS to the latest version. I have tried
disconnecting the CMOS battery, taking out the laptop battery, etc in
an effort to reset the CMOS - nothing works.

Any suggestions? I feel like this is a (relativley) minor problem, as
the rest of the machine works 100%. What I am looking for is a method
to "reset" the BIOS right after I do a hard reset. I think this will
clear whatever issue is preventing the POST.

Thanks,

In
news:5f7adfe2-397f-4318-ac52-04909cd00431@s19g2000prg.googlegroups.com,
NJ typed on Sun, 30 Mar 2008 06:17:34 -0700 (PDT):
> Hi,
>
> I have a Toshiba Tecra M4 Tablet PC that is about 2 years old. 1 year
> ago, the machine froze during use requiring a hard reset. When it was
> reset it failed to post (all I got was a black screen). After several
> hard resets from this state, I got the machine to restart. Now, after
> the machine runs for a period of time (sometimes 5 minutes, sometimes
> 25 minutes), it freezes again and goes into the failure at POST. Now,
> sometimes it takes 30-40 hard resets at the start to get it to POST
> and boot - but when it does the machine runs perfectly until it
> freezes. If, when the machine is running properly, I do a normal
> shutdown, the startup is uneventful. It seems that a hard reset is
> what causes the problem at startup.
>
> I have updated the BIOS to the latest version. I have tried
> disconnecting the CMOS battery, taking out the laptop battery, etc in
> an effort to reset the CMOS - nothing works.
>
> Any suggestions? I feel like this is a (relativley) minor problem, as
> the rest of the machine works 100%. What I am looking for is a method
> to "reset" the BIOS right after I do a hard reset. I think this will
> clear whatever issue is preventing the POST.
>
> Thanks,

Simply removing the CMOS battery just isn't enough. Sometimes it has to
be removed for days. Sometimes removing the battery and shorting the
battery connections on the board is enough to do the trick.

--
Bill

Yikes! I have the *identical* problem... but since it is locking up for an unknown reason, this problem makes the machine highly unreliable (and opening it up to remove and "short out" a battery isn't a good solution).

What other solutions have people come up with?

What is the cause of this?

I turn it on after the hard reset, and it won't come up.. just a loud fan and no POST... UGH! And then it'll come back after a while... happened twice and now I'm really concerned!

Help!