Solved Win 10 won't start on Toshiba Satellite L70C-12H - "Preparing Automatic Repair"

This unmodified, fully-updated Windows 10 laptop has behaved pretty normally up to now, and is out of its extended guarantee period. But suddenly when I switch on all I get is the "Toshiba - Leading Innovation" splash screen, followed after a while by "Preparing Automatic Repair" and the spinning dots underneath this logo. For ever, and ever and ever.... or until the battery runs out if it is not plugged in.

Of course there is no longer any support from Toshiba who pulled out of the market - as did Sony earlier just when I needed them. I have searched in vain for a local repair service - I am sure there used to be dozens, but even "Checkatrade" has no entries for PC fixers any more. Googling gets me dozens of different YouTube etc solutions which I find very difficult to follow - having Alzheimer's I need something in writing that I can keep track of and tick things off as I do them, and in any case I find the presenters gabble or have impenetrable accents. As far as I can see I need to reset the OS completely, some solutions want me to extract the hard drive and put it into another machine and download a copy of Windows onto it - that seems a bit extreme, but if I have to, I probably can - one clear step at a time. I have a currently unused Windows 10 desktop with spare hard drive bay. Other solutions suggest I press a certain function key as the machine attempts to start up and tinker with the settings that come up. I remember doing this of old back in DOS days (it's two minutes ago I have trouble recalling, not 35 years ago). I can get to a Toshiba menu by pressing F12 as it starts, but this does not lead me to anything helpful, and certainly doesn't have any of the detailed options I remember. And at no point do I see anything offering me the option to start up in Safe Mode. Maybe there is another F key for that, but if so I do not have a clue which and haven't found it yet by experiment.

Is there any kind, patient, person out there willing and able to explain to me in clear and simple terms without abbreviations that mean nothing to me, what I have to do to get this machine running again? I'm prepared for a complete reset, experience has taught me to save anything important in the cloud or on USB drives.

Thank you

Michael

Hi and many thanks for the quick answer. That was one of the many options I came across on the net, but I wasn't sure if the laptop would actually boot from a USB drive - which is why I wanted to get to the BIOS to set it to do that... See, today I have remembered the word I couldn't remember when I was typing the message yesterday - BIOS. It's so frustrating!

Yes, all important data is on external USB HDDs, USB sticks, on OneDrive or Dropbox or GoogleDrive or all three. Of course there will be something useful but less important I have forgotten, but it won't be vital.

I'll try your suggestion and get back to you. I'm hoping this laptop will not end up on the pile of others going back 25 years in my loft, next to the Sony desktop Vista machine - a Mac-a-like in its day.

Still stuck in the loop I am afraid. I created the bootable USB stick and plugged it in, then switched on. After a while the "Preparing Automatic Repair" came up. I switched off and hit F12 when I started up again. The screen that came up allowed me to change the boot order, so I did, with USB as No 1. That at least would seem to suggest that the machine <can> start from USB. However, on the next restart it was back to "Preparing Automatic Repair". Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks.

Thanks again.

the USB stick you made with the Media Creation Tool, you followed the 'make it bootable' path? - Yes, indeed.

and it was the only USB device in the laptop when you started it? - Again yes.

and when you hit F12 and saw this USB in the list, its name was something that referenced it to the physical USB stick? - like the brand name or something? - no specific names in the list. It was HDD, USB or some other abbreviation I didn't recognise. It's a very simple menu with minimum explanation.

what may be better is the option where your USB stick appears in the list and you scroll down and select it, making the laptop use that device to boot from - Agreed but I have to find it first. It may take a while. It doesn't help that the F key markings are virtually illegible - always have been, since the machine was new. Toshiba was more concerned about making the same keys work to control the sound etc and put appropriate icons over most of the surface area.

I have read various solutions with different ideas for closing down the laptop, ranging from holding down the off switch until the power cuts off (this is what I do, you can hear a relay click), to pressing the off switch three times, after which it is alleged that it should restart into the BIOS (whether this is a valid idea or not, it doesn't work for me). Some say unplug the PSU before switching off and restarting. Hmm, the battery doesn't last too long any more... At this point I start to wonder if there is an actual proper logical procedure, and go back to editing a scan of a 40 year old slide in Photoshop on my desktop - I have hundreds to get through, and I find it therapeutic.

I'll be back eventually!

Michael

Hi again Bruce.

This is the current situation (with USB stick in on startup). It looks like the usual screen described in my first post, but e l o n g a t e d in the part below the Toshiba splash.... Still trying! If you look carefully you can see a reflection of a puzzled cat on my lap staring at it.

Michael

I still haven't found the standard non-graphical BIOS screen that I remember, but one of the left-hand F keys got me the Toshiba version and so I went through the procedure again of setting "USB" at the top of the boot order and saving the settings. I carried on and got up to F12 again before anything happened. This time I got the Toshiba "BIOS" screen but it referred to the USB stick and gave me options. Magic! I clicked on the option to re-jig the HDD (sorry, can't remember exactly what it said it was beyond a minute ago). The screen went black and I am waiting patiently for something to happen. The only sign of life is the glow around the power button and a faint hissing - which may be the fan, it doesn't really sound like a hard disk, but who knows. There are no clicking sounds, anyway. I'll give it a few hours before I give up!

Michael

Hi Bruce. I made another bootable USB drive; both have been self-named "ESD-UFS". and include the same folders and programs, one of which is "Setup.exe" (I checked thos on a different working PC). I have been trying it in different USB sockets on the laptop - there is a choice of four. I'm back at the blank screen. Attached is what I got when I booted up with the USB stick in and pressing F12 (if I don't press F12 it goes straight to "Preparing automatic repair". This appears to be the Setup.exe" on the USB stick, which suggests that the usb stick works and the laptop reads it - but then... When I clicked YES I got "Please wait" and the spinning dots for a short while, then the screen went blank and has stayed that way for a couple of hours now, with no HDD chuntering noises. I wish I knew what it was doing. Shouldn't there be some kind of error message if it can't do what it is supposed to do, whatever that is?

Unless you come up with another plan by tomorrow, I shall leave it doing whatever it is not doing all night, then switch off, find the drive and disconnect it. I have an anti-static wristband somewhere. I wonder what will happen then?

Michael

Sorry Bruce, "ESD-USB" is the name of the drive (both of them). Somewhere between reading it and typing it memory failed me, but ESD-USB is it what it says in the drive listing when I plug it in to the old desktop.

I have already brought up the boot order order menu and changed it (see what I wrote previously) so that USB is at the top. I thought we did want recovery mode, I should have known better than to think that anyone who designs these things would actually use a term that described what you want to do (ie "recover") and actually mean recover. I thought that was going to do what you described in your first post.

Can you please give me an example of what the menu you want me to find looks like and say exactly what option on it I should be selecting if I find it? And should I be doing this frantic clicking of F keys with the USB stick in or not? I have tried them all both ways, and I only get the screens I have described. As I said, I need clear unambiguous instructions. Thank you.

Michael

Hi Bruce

I have tried all the F keys, TAB etc again and again. Three actually produce a screen and all are variations on the first picture below.

The screen I found several days ago is below. It's the same as the the last picture I sent, except that that one has a sub-screen superimposed from pressing the HDD Recovery button. As you can see, USB is at the top of the list. I had already successfully changed the boot order as I told you before. What no-one has told me is what I have to do next.

Taking a leap in the dark and clicking the USB bar (this was an inspired guess, as it just looks like a label, not a button) did actually do something but not much. The light in the USB stick flashed for about half a minute, so clearly it was being accessed. But then the flashing stopped. After a while I got what you see in the second photo, whether or not the screwed up words are different from before, I can't tell. The whirling dots stayed whirling all night, next morning I gave up and switched off.

Could it be that the HDD is simply dead/inaccessible, so the program on the USB stick can't do anything with it? What I find extremely irritating is the lack of any indication from anything as to what is going on. If it can't do what it wants, where's the error report? The machine doesn't even have any LEDS to indicate drive action so I can't tell you if it was doing anything apart from the initial flashes from the USB stick. Certainly nothing was happening sufficient to get the fan whirring.

Any ideas, please?

Michael

I'm happy to tinker inside the laptop. Actually the whole bottom has to be taken off on this particular model - see YouTube. I have several laptop drives I could repurpose, albeit much smaller than the Toshiba's in terms of megabytes, in the pile of junk in my loft that I mentioned earlier. They aren't that expensive to buy, and I might even investigate an SSD. Can Win 10 be imported to a new drive by using the USB stick? And will there be problems about Toshiba-specific drivers? Sorry, too many questions, getting ahead of myself...

I'm not sure if the old Win10 desktop - which works - has a bay for a 2.5" drive but I can look and report back. Presumably adapters are not very expensive. I presume the point of that exercise would be to see if Explorer can see anything on the drive, not to attempt to start from it? Maybe format it?

Is the 'ol gal worth it? Well yes , it's worth trying. My time comes free, my pension is limited, and I'm an inveterate fixer of broken items, I enjoy it. If I carefully photograph each stage of disassembly I can reassemble. I may break stuff along the way but if the alternative is landfill, it's worth the chance to save it. Also, if I was to buy yet another laptop, I would really want a MacBook and I can't afford it at the moment! I long to escape from the devil's spawn that Windows has become, with its constant time-wasting and system-wrecking updates and complexities. This laptop has been fine up to now physically, even the original battery still has a good half an hour in it.

Is it time for a helping hand or a visit to the repair shop? Well, if I could find either that would be useful. Since the COVID crisis the local fixers have disappeared. No-one answers their 'phone or replies to emails. I live in a small town and my mobility is limited. That's why I am talking to you, everything is done online now!

So first thing tomorrow, off comes the bottom of the laptop as per the YouTube video I mentioned earlier, and I shall report back after attempting to start up with the HDD disconnected. If I get time I shall also take the case off the old desktop and seek out the drive bays. It's an HP Pavilion with loads of room inside, I know because I replaced two extremely noisy fans in it and was surprised at all the empty space. You could keep a hamster in a wheel in there instead of the fans

Michael

First stage done, the back is off the Toshiba - see photo. Having watched the video I referred to, with the BIOS battery clearly labelled, I was thinking that maybe replacing it would be a good idea. But then I was quite surprised to see that I don't have one. Huh? The usual googling produced a note that later Toshibas powered the CMOS from the main battery. Next stage, I thought head for the loft, then dismantle another laptop. But before that, see what happens if I try starting it from the USB stick. I reattached the battery without putting the underside of the case back on, turned the machine right side up, plugged in the USB stick and switched on. This got me an instant BIOS prompt to set the date and time, then save and exit. When I exited I got flashing USB stick, the same old Toshiba and hieroglyphics screen and then, wait for it, the second photo below. It was supposed to be the second photo, but first is where it has somehow ended up. I didn't attempt to install Windows or repair as there is nothing yet to install it to or repair. But it is such a relief to see something different!

The presence of the HDD seems to be what is preventing "normal" operation. Next stage is an adventure up the ladder into the loft to see what I can find.

Michael.

Now I have three 2.5" HDDs and three dismantled laptops from the loft . The first two are tiny and the connection the wrong shape, but the third, on the right, looks to be just the job - it's 640 GB.

It actually has Windows 10 on it from an Asus machine with a stuck fan assembly I can't yet source a replacement for. Should I stick it in and see what happens without the USB stick first? And then with the USB stick?

Thanks.

Michael

Anand here's the photo of the drives...