Have a toshiba a135-s2276 that crashed, was originally loaded with vista, am now trying to format and install with win 98, then upgrade to xp pro, but computer stops formatting and says "line a20 error". Toshiba tech support says memory failure, but the memory is literally 5 minutes old, just upgraded from 512k to 2gb. any ideas on how to get this drive to format so I can start loading windows again?
Wow - at this point, call Toshiba anyways, if it has to go in for anything, they have a pretty fast turn around time since they outsourced their repair center to America now. It should not freeze, could be as simple as a stick of bad ram at this point into the troubleshooting. Could also be anything from a CMOS battery too.
Memory is most likely not bad and Toshiba has a pretty good quality control on their laptops. Format it with the XP CD using the compatible but classic FAT 32 format then try installing 98 again. Possible that Win 98 doesn't know how to read that new of memory right in the format part of the installer. If it has a SATA hard drive, you might run into some trouble with SATA support when formatting down the road.
Yup - Win XP has a formatting utility built in, but the steps after you format and ready to install XP itself will probably pop up an error saying that there was no previous OS installed.Â
Yes, you can format your computer using the xp disk, but if you're going to put 98 on it, you must format it as FAT 32. When formatted, simply eject the disk and start over with the 98. I'm just still not sure how 98 will react on this kind of new hardware.
Anytime! - Good luck with it
Congrats on the success so far! Hope all comes out right in the end!
The speaker crackle might be a call to Toshiba. It could be as simple as a driver upgrade or it the sound card picking up interference from something else in the computer. Also check you're master volumes to see if any other media volumes are up that don't need to be and see if there is one other volume control that takes the static out of the line.Â
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It is possible that the memory itself is bad. Did you purchase it from a store or individual?
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No, it was bought from toshiba direct, brand new out of the box, 2 - 1gb sticks of ddr 4200 ram.
the win xp cd we have is only an upgrade disk....will that be able to format the hard drive?
The xp cd we have is only an upgrade cd....will that allow me to formay prior to installing win xp?
ok...I'll give it a shot. I also have a new copy of vista to try out, but can't get it until tomorrow. I'll post up whatever outcome I find...thanks for the help
Ok, so vista wouldn't allow me the option to format, and in fact only wanted us to install once we were in windows already. REAL convient as it wouldn't even start up lol.
ANYWAY, I just got it to format using win xp pro, and it is installing xp pro now. HOPEFULLY we don't run into any other problems. I'll continue to keep you posted, but thanks for all your help thus far!
ok, so we got vista running and it seems to still have a few glitches, but am trying to work through them. One thing is that the speakers crackle, even when there should be no sound. It acts as though whenever the computer is thinking, it projects sound out of the speakers. any ideas on a fix or what the problem is here?
hey....thanks for all your help. so far, I have completed the reload of vista and things seem to be running better. Right after I upgrade to vista, is was still freezing. I reflashed bios, and as soon as I did the aux fan kicked in and stayed on for about 5 minutes, and since then we haven't had any problems and things seem to be running smooth. (fingers crossed). could it be that the virus attacked my current bios and was making the computer overheat? thus explaining why if we shut the computer down for a while, then started it back up it would run great for a while, then start locking up no matter how many times we restarted it?. Thanks again for your help
ah ****...spoke too soon. STILL locking up. any other guesses? seems to be random, and it freezes RIGHT when the speakers start to crackle.
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