Notebook freezing when connected to external power supply

M

Mike De Petris

Guest
I have a Toshiba Satellite A205 - S4777 that works perfect while on
battery, but the instance i plug the charger in, it freezes. First i
thought it was a Vista-Toshiba issue but only to discover that even in
BIOS it freezes instantly when the charger is plugged in. When the
laptop is off, any attempt to power it on while the charger is plugged
in, results only in a flicker of the power led.
I tried different chargers, ANY possible power options combinations in
Vista and Win7.

If I boot from battery and enter Windows Safe Mode, or Hiren's boot
CD, or WinXP mini all works fine even if I connect the power cord,
where normal Windows and BIOS freeze istantly.

I'm even thing of giving current directly by the battery contacts...
may this be possible?

Any help or advice on possible causes or solution to this issue would
be grateful. Thank you :)
 
On Apr 23, 3:00 pm, Mike De Petris <mikedepet...@gmail.com> wrote:
I have a Toshiba Satellite A205 - S4777 that works perfect while on
battery, but the instance i plug the charger in, it freezes. First i
thought it was a Vista-Toshiba issue but only to discover that even in
BIOS it freezes instantly when the charger is plugged in. When the
laptop is off, any attempt to power it on while the charger is plugged
in, results only in a flicker of the power led.
I tried different chargers, ANY possible power options combinations in
Vista and Win7.

If I boot from battery and enter Windows Safe Mode, or Hiren's boot
CD, or WinXP mini all works fine even if I connect the power cord,
where normal Windows and BIOS freeze istantly.

I'm even thing of giving current directly by the battery contacts...
may this be possible?

Any help or advice on possible causes or solution to this issue would
be grateful. Thank you :)
Click to expand...
What do you mean by freezing, there are devices sold that either heat
or cool, but those are normally sold as refrigerators and heaters. Do
you mean the mouse stops moving, or what????
 
On Apr 24, 6:06 am, "hr(bob) hofm...@att.net" <hrhofm...@att.net>
wrote:
On Apr 23, 3:00 pm, Mike De Petris <mikedepet...@gmail.com> wrote:



I have a Toshiba Satellite A205 - S4777 that works perfect while on
battery, but the instance i plug the charger in, it freezes. First i
thought it was a Vista-Toshiba issue but only to discover that even in
BIOS it freezes instantly when the charger is plugged in. When the
laptop is off, any attempt to power it on while the charger is plugged
in, results only in a flicker of the power led.
I tried different chargers, ANY possible power options combinations in
Vista and Win7.

If I boot from battery and enter Windows Safe Mode, or Hiren's boot
CD, or WinXP mini all works fine even if I connect the power cord,
where normal Windows and BIOS freeze istantly.

I'm even thing of giving current directly by the battery contacts...
may this be possible?

Any help or advice on possible causes or solution to this issue would
be grateful. Thank you :)

What do you mean by freezing, there are devices sold that either heat
or cool, but those are normally sold as refrigerators and heaters.  Do
you mean the mouse stops moving, or what????
Click to expand...
yes the computer stops working, hangs.
 
If the charger is not plugged into the wall when you insert it into your
Toshiba, does the PC hang? I'm thinking the socket in the Toshiba may
be shorting out in some fashion when a plug, dead or alive, is inserted.


On 4/23/2010 1:00 PM, Mike De Petris wrote:
I have a Toshiba Satellite A205 - S4777 that works perfect while on
battery, but the instance i plug the charger in, it freezes. First i
thought it was a Vista-Toshiba issue but only to discover that even in
BIOS it freezes instantly when the charger is plugged in. When the
laptop is off, any attempt to power it on while the charger is plugged
in, results only in a flicker of the power led.
I tried different chargers, ANY possible power options combinations in
Vista and Win7.

If I boot from battery and enter Windows Safe Mode, or Hiren's boot
CD, or WinXP mini all works fine even if I connect the power cord,
where normal Windows and BIOS freeze istantly.

I'm even thing of giving current directly by the battery contacts...
may this be possible?

Any help or advice on possible causes or solution to this issue would
be grateful. Thank you :)
Click to expand...
 
Mike De Petris wrote:
no, I tried keeping the charged plugged into the notebook with mains
disconnected, and it works normally with battery, hang occurs as soon
as I connect the charger to the mains
Click to expand...
Let me see if H ave this right.

With the charger plugged into the lap top, but NOT connected to
the mains, the laptop functions properly.

If you plug the power supply into the mains, the laptop goes
stupid and hangs up.

IF that's the case, I would suspect that something is wrong with
the charging supply. Such as the voltage is way high, causing the
laptop top get annoyed and hang up.

Have you measured the charger output with no load on it? (I.e.
not plugged into the laptop.)



--
“Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.”
Frank Leahy, Head coach, Notre Dame 1941-1954

http://www.stay-connect.com
 
On Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:00:57 -0700 (PDT), Mike De Petris
<mikedepetris@gmail.com>wrote:

I have a Toshiba Satellite A205 - S4777 that works perfect while on
battery, but the instance i plug the charger in, it freezes. First i
thought it was a Vista-Toshiba issue but only to discover that even in
BIOS it freezes instantly when the charger is plugged in. When the
laptop is off, any attempt to power it on while the charger is plugged
in, results only in a flicker of the power led.
I tried different chargers, ANY possible power options combinations in
Vista and Win7.

If I boot from battery and enter Windows Safe Mode, or Hiren's boot
CD, or WinXP mini all works fine even if I connect the power cord,
where normal Windows and BIOS freeze istantly.

I'm even thing of giving current directly by the battery contacts...
may this be possible?

Any help or advice on possible causes or solution to this issue would
be grateful. Thank you :)
Click to expand...
Uninstall the Toshiba Power Managemnt utility if you have it
installed. If that fixes it try reinstalling it. If you don't have the
utility installed go to Toshiba and see if it is available for your
205 and the Vista platform.
 
On Apr 24, 7:13 pm, Bennett Price <bjpr...@cal.berkeley.edu> wrote:
If the charger is not plugged into the wall when you insert it into your
Toshiba, does the PC hang?  I'm thinking the socket in the Toshiba may
be shorting out in some fashion when a plug, dead or alive, is inserted.
Click to expand...
no, I tried keeping the charged plugged into the notebook with mains
disconnected, and it works normally with battery, hang occurs as soon
as I connect the charger to the mains
 
Jamie wrote:
A simple test to prove this would be to boot to bias so the
basics of the machine is on and energize the charger to see if
a lock takes place there.
Next, boot into safe mode, and try the same thing.. If all
is ok up to this point. correct the software on board.
Click to expand...
Good call, thanks Jamie.

Jeff


--
“Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.”
Frank Leahy, Head coach, Notre Dame 1941-1954

http://www.stay-connect.com
 
You said that this problem didn't occur with certain software -- only BIOS
and W7. Which suggests a software problem.

Toshiba notebooks have not generally have this problem. You could push and
pull the AC adapter's plug all day long, and the computer didn't mind.

I suspect the software interprets the tiny "glitch" when the plug is
inserted (or removed) as a power loss, or a command to switch to
Sleep/Standby.
 
On Apr 24, 8:30 pm, Jeffrey D Angus <jan...@suddenlink.net> wrote:
Mike De Petris wrote:
no, I tried keeping the charged plugged into the notebook with mains
disconnected, and it works normally with battery, hang occurs as soon
as I connect the charger to the mains

Let me see if H ave this right.

With the charger plugged into the lap top, but NOT connected to
the mains, the laptop functions properly.

If you plug the power supply into the mains, the laptop goes
stupid and hangs up.

IF that's the case, I would suspect that something is wrong with
the charging supply. Such as the voltage is way high, causing the
laptop top get annoyed and hang up.

Have you measured the charger output with no load on it? (I.e.
not plugged into the laptop.)
Click to expand...
I measured the voltage and it's normal, tried several chargers anyway
 
On Apr 24, 8:30 pm, Meat Plow <mhyw...@yahoo.com> wrote:
On Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:00:57 -0700 (PDT), Mike De Petris
mikedepet...@gmail.com>wrote:



I have a Toshiba Satellite A205 - S4777 that works perfect while on
battery, but the instance i plug the charger in, it freezes. First i
thought it was a Vista-Toshiba issue but only to discover that even in
BIOS it freezes instantly when the charger is plugged in. When the
laptop is off, any attempt to power it on while the charger is plugged
in, results only in a flicker of the power led.
I tried different chargers, ANY possible power options combinations in
Vista and Win7.

If I boot from battery and enter Windows Safe Mode, or Hiren's boot
CD, or WinXP mini all works fine even if I connect the power cord,
where normal Windows and BIOS freeze istantly.

I'm even thing of giving current directly by the battery contacts...
may this be possible?

Any help or advice on possible causes or solution to this issue would
be grateful. Thank you :)

Uninstall the Toshiba Power Managemnt utility if you have it
installed. If that fixes it try reinstalling it. If you don't have the
utility installed go to Toshiba and see if it is available for your
205 and the Vista platform.
Click to expand...
I have plain Windows 7 installed at the moment, no Toshiba nor other
utilities, even never connected to the network.

Anyway it freezes even in the BIOS when connecting power.
 
On Apr 25, 10:42 am, Jamie
<jamie_ka1lpa_not_valid_after_ka1l...@charter.net> wrote:
  Its your power management drivers and GUI software that is a problem...
  uninstall and install the original drivers from the CD's or web sight
for that laptop.
Click to expand...
I'm testing it with a plain Windows 7 installed on a new hdd, never
connected network, never installed other drivers or software.

   Since the unit seems to be locking, the driver software could be most
likely is the issue and maybe proprietary to that lap top
Click to expand...
Even if it's plain Windows 7?

   Things like this happen after a Windows update, unexpected error on
the HD, some one removed something they shouldn't of or, a
funny program is running on board..
Click to expand...
No windows update, no driver nor software installations done.

   It's possible a bad onboard support circuit but I doubt that
very much.
Click to expand...
Of course it's possible.

   A simple test to prove this would be to boot to bias so the basics of
the machine is on and energize the charger to see if a lock takes
  place there.
Click to expand...
As I wrote, if I boot using battery and enter BIOS, it freezes when I
connect power.

   Next, boot into safe mode, and try the same thing.. If all is ok up
to this point. correct the software on board.
Click to expand...
As I wrote, safe mode works ok even if connecting power.

   P.S.
     some Laptops have a partition on the HD that has special set up
software at boot time to configure the proprietary onboard chips..
   This also could be an issue..
Click to expand...
I installed a new hard disk, so do you think I should install Toshiba
utilities in Seven?
 
Mike De Petris wrote:

On Apr 24, 8:30 pm, Jeffrey D Angus <jan...@suddenlink.net> wrote:

Mike De Petris wrote:

no, I tried keeping the charged plugged into the notebook with mains
disconnected, and it works normally with battery, hang occurs as soon
as I connect the charger to the mains

Let me see if H ave this right.

With the charger plugged into the lap top, but NOT connected to
the mains, the laptop functions properly.

If you plug the power supply into the mains, the laptop goes
stupid and hangs up.

IF that's the case, I would suspect that something is wrong with
the charging supply. Such as the voltage is way high, causing the
laptop top get annoyed and hang up.

Have you measured the charger output with no load on it? (I.e.
not plugged into the laptop.)


I measured the voltage and it's normal, tried several chargers anyway

Its your power management drivers and GUI software that is a problem..
Click to expand...
uninstall and install the original drivers from the CD's or web sight
for that laptop.

Since the unit seems to be locking, the driver software could be most
likely is the issue and maybe proprietary to that lap top

Things like this happen after a Windows update, unexpected error on
the HD, some one removed something they shouldn't of or, a
funny program is running on board..

It's possible a bad onboard support circuit but I doubt that
very much.

A simple test to prove this would be to boot to bias so the basics of
the machine is on and energize the charger to see if a lock takes
place there.
Next, boot into safe mode, and try the same thing.. If all is ok up
to this point. correct the software on board.

Have a good day.

P.S.
some Laptops have a partition on the HD that has special set up
software at boot time to configure the proprietary onboard chips..
This also could be an issue..
 
On Apr 24, 4:46 pm, "William Sommerwerck" <grizzledgee...@comcast.net>
wrote:
You said that this problem didn't occur with certain software -- only BIOS
and W7. Which suggests a software problem.

Toshiba notebooks have not generally have this problem. You could push and
pull the AC adapter's plug all day long, and the computer didn't mind.

I suspect the software interprets the tiny "glitch" when the plug is
inserted (or removed) as a power loss, or a command to switch to
Sleep/Standby.
Click to expand...
Does the hard drive light come on solid when it freezes, indicating it
is in some sort of loop, or does it go out, or does it flash
intermittently indicating it is not locked up?
 
On Apr 25, 5:05 am, "hr(bob) hofm...@att.net" <hrhofm...@att.net>
wrote:
On Apr 24, 4:46 pm, "William Sommerwerck" <grizzledgee...@comcast.net
wrote:

You said that this problem didn't occur with certain software -- only BIOS
and W7. Which suggests a software problem.

Toshiba notebooks have not generally have this problem. You could push and
pull the AC adapter's plug all day long, and the computer didn't mind.

I suspect the software interprets the tiny "glitch" when the plug is
inserted (or removed) as a power loss, or a command to switch to
Sleep/Standby.

Does the hard drive light come on solid when it freezes, indicating it
is in some sort of loop, or does it go out, or does it flash
intermittently indicating it is not locked up?
Click to expand...
it stays turned off, after lock up I see glowing these LED:
- power on
- power connected
- battery charging (if battery present)
 
On Sun, 25 Apr 2010 04:42:58 -0400, Jamie
<jamie_ka1lpa_not_valid_after_ka1lpa_@charter.net>wrote:

some Laptops have a partition on the HD that has special set up
software at boot time to configure the proprietary onboard chips..
This also could be an issue..
Click to expand...
What laptop(s) would have this feature?
 
Meat Plow wrote:
On Sun, 25 Apr 2010 04:42:58 -0400, Jamie
jamie_ka1lpa_not_valid_after_ka1lpa_@charter.net>wrote:

some Laptops have a partition on the HD that has special set up
software at boot time to configure the proprietary onboard chips..
This also could be an issue..

What laptop(s) would have this feature?
Click to expand...
Compaq, they were nortorious for having a special partition they would
fail to boot if they didn't find.

Jeff


--
“Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.”
Frank Leahy, Head coach, Notre Dame 1941-1954

http://www.stay-connect.com
 
On Sun, 25 Apr 2010 14:57:49 -0500, Jeffrey D Angus
<jangus@suddenlink.net>wrote:

Meat Plow wrote:
On Sun, 25 Apr 2010 04:42:58 -0400, Jamie
jamie_ka1lpa_not_valid_after_ka1lpa_@charter.net>wrote:

some Laptops have a partition on the HD that has special set up
software at boot time to configure the proprietary onboard chips..
This also could be an issue..

What laptop(s) would have this feature?

Compaq, they were nortorious for having a special partition they would
fail to boot if they didn't find.
Click to expand...
I've never owned a Compaq laptop but working in the industry when
Compaq was the workstation of choice I would have thought I'd read
about it somewhere. This must have been really proprietary as I've
never heard of a chipset needing to load code from a fixed drive
during boot. Can you give me an example of a model number and year
and what operating system? Not that I don't believe you I'm just a bit
taken back that onboard chips could be so proprietary that they
couldn't be produced with their own non-volitile embedded instruction
sets.
 
Meat Plow wrote:
On Sun, 25 Apr 2010 14:57:49 -0500, Jeffrey D Angus
jangus@suddenlink.net>wrote:

Meat Plow wrote:
On Sun, 25 Apr 2010 04:42:58 -0400, Jamie
jamie_ka1lpa_not_valid_after_ka1lpa_@charter.net>wrote:

some Laptops have a partition on the HD that has special set up
software at boot time to configure the proprietary onboard chips..
This also could be an issue..
What laptop(s) would have this feature?
Compaq, they were nortorious for having a special partition they would
fail to boot if they didn't find.

I've never owned a Compaq laptop but working in the industry when
Compaq was the workstation of choice I would have thought I'd read
about it somewhere. This must have been really proprietary as I've
never heard of a chipset needing to load code from a fixed drive
during boot. Can you give me an example of a model number and year
and what operating system? Not that I don't believe you I'm just a bit
taken back that onboard chips could be so proprietary that they
couldn't be produced with their own non-volitile embedded instruction
sets.
Click to expand...
The Compaq Presario series comes to mind. They had a special 1-2 meg
partition on the hard drive that the bios looked for and not finding,
would hang the system. "OS NOT FOUND"

I found out the hard way, loading SCO Unix on one, going through the
entire ordeal of loading the operating system (and mistaking wiping
the service partition, then rebooting and finding I had to (a) replace
the service partition and reload the service software and (b) start
from scratch again with SCO Unix install.

Jeff


--
“Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.”
Frank Leahy, Head coach, Notre Dame 1941-1954

http://www.stay-connect.com
 
Jeffrey D Angus Inscribed thus:

Meat Plow wrote:
On Sun, 25 Apr 2010 14:57:49 -0500, Jeffrey D Angus
jangus@suddenlink.net>wrote:

Meat Plow wrote:
On Sun, 25 Apr 2010 04:42:58 -0400, Jamie
jamie_ka1lpa_not_valid_after_ka1lpa_@charter.net>wrote:

some Laptops have a partition on the HD that has special set
up
software at boot time to configure the proprietary onboard chips..
This also could be an issue..
What laptop(s) would have this feature?
Compaq, they were nortorious for having a special partition they
would fail to boot if they didn't find.

I've never owned a Compaq laptop but working in the industry when
Compaq was the workstation of choice I would have thought I'd read
about it somewhere. This must have been really proprietary as I've
never heard of a chipset needing to load code from a fixed drive
during boot. Can you give me an example of a model number and year
and what operating system? Not that I don't believe you I'm just a
bit taken back that onboard chips could be so proprietary that they
couldn't be produced with their own non-volitile embedded instruction
sets.


The Compaq Presario series comes to mind. They had a special 1-2 meg
partition on the hard drive that the bios looked for and not finding,
would hang the system. "OS NOT FOUND"

I found out the hard way, loading SCO Unix on one, going through the
entire ordeal of loading the operating system (and mistaking wiping
the service partition, then rebooting and finding I had to (a) replace
the service partition and reload the service software and (b) start
from scratch again with SCO Unix install.

Jeff
Click to expand...
I remember those ! Caused all sorts of mayhem. If I recall the trick
was to wipe the MBR and sys the drive from a floppy boot disk.

--
Best Regards:
Baron.
 
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