Windows BRICKED my X205 flashing the 1.60 BIOS

Guys...today i was flashing my X205 with the new 1.60 Bios within Windows. It was half way through and then suddenly appeared a BLUESCREEN of death. lol you should have seen my face in that situation. I was shocked, i was utterly shocked. Then I tried everything to get back into Windows but it didn't work. I had to shut down my laptop and i had hopes that it would still start somehow, but it DIDN'T. The screen is blank when i push the power button. There is no sign of activity, my X205 doesn't react anymore.
DAMN IT! Damn Windows

Is there probably anything that i could still do to recover my laptop? Damn i don't want to send it back to Toshiba, that's going to take ages. I'm so sad..

 

i doubt there is much you can do at this point man, sorry to hear your misfortune .
i would try the usual stuff like remove battery for abit then try powering back on with the battery in and out using the wall adapter. usually when system bios updates go bad its hosed if it were a video card bios update you maybe would have been able to blind flash it back, but system bios is a whole nother
matter.
again sorry to hear .

 

hmmm.... I'm not sure, but you may be able to use the bios utility on another computer to make a cd-r flash disk. I'm not sure if a corupted bios would even let you run the drive, but its worth a shot.

 

Have you tried:
-Create a boot CDR with the BIOS flash set to automatically run
(you will have to use another computer to make this at this point)
-put the new boot CDR in the drive and press the button holding down the "c" key. (you are forcing to boot to CD)
-give it a few minutes

What you are hoping is that Toshiba had the foresight to put in a default BIOS capable of flashing damaged ones and that it is activateable through the "force CD boot" option.

Note that if it isn't "c", there might still be a default BIOS somewhere in the machine for just this case. Run a support query on "BIOS flash failed" or similar on their site.

I always flash from bootable CD for this reason as the very process creates a recovery flash and windows and murphy are the best of friends.

 

I think he mentioned that there is no response to power button.
Or at do it at least switch on (ie do "satellite" lamp lights up)?

I dont know about US support site, but all BIOS updates for X200 (old and recent) suddenly disappeared from European downloads during the last week. Something fishy there.

 

Nope, they are still up on the American site.

 

"ACPI Flash BIOS version 1.60 for Satellite P205/P200"
Is this some sort of typo, or they've really put P200 bios in X200 downloads section?

 

Note that the laptop must be doing something. He didn't destroy the power systems... he biffed a BIOS flash.

It is likely turning ON and power is reaching the devices, but failing to properly read the BIOS in the flash.

Having no other choice, it just sits there.

If Toshiba stored away a BIOS somewhere, it would require an action at bootup to make it work this way, and possibly even something sneaky like a switch.

This cannot be the first time a BIOS has been corrupted.

Granted, Toshiba is not required to do something like this... but it would be in their best interest.

 

Join the club ColdSoul, I did the BIOS update last week and it just hung Vista, mouse and keyboard where unresponsive. I left it on for 20mins, but nothing happened. I couldn’t turn it off with the power button, so resorted in taking the battery out.
When I pressed the power button, the fans start up, but nothing appears on screen, then fans stop and it becomes silent, no hard drive activity either.

I have done hundreds of BIOS updates on many computers and laptops and never had one fail on me.

My Advice is DO NOT UPDATE THE BIOS WITH THIS UPDATE it is 100 % guaranteed that it will turn your X200/X205 into a expensive paper weight.

The Bios update on the uk website has been taken off, looks like Toshiba havent done proper testing of the bios update.

 

Actually I've updated my X200 with update from Europe support site before it was taken off, and it went ok.
But I guess percentage of failures is high, so I was really lucky...

 

Hey guys, thanks for your helpful answers. I tried the methods you mentioned, but the laptop doesn't seem to react at all. Neither pushing the power button and waiting for activity nor flashing a new bios with a boot cd works.
I called toshiba today on the issue, and the rep said that the bios is most likely corrupted (o rly? as if i wouldn't know that lol).
Tomorrow they're going to pick up my notebook and repair it. Now the happy news is that they will repair it in estimated 5-7 days. Wow, that's actually pretty fast. My brother once had to wait 1 1/2 month for his hp laptop to be repaired. I guess i can live without my notebook for 10 days.

Anyways, there is one thing I've learned from this: I will never flash a bios within windows again.

 

How best ways to flash the bio safely? what precautions to take...Thanks.

 

The safest way is not to flash, unless you exactly know that you *need* it.

 

not sure if I'm lucky or what, but when I flashed my BIOS, through Windows, it worked out fine, after an initial issue. The first time I rebooted, Windows wanted to do a disk check, I skipped it. Bad idea. The internet was acting wacky and the internet light went out too, frantically moving the switch back and forth wouldn't turn the light back on. So, I rebooted again, and this time when prompted, I let Windows do a disk check, in a DOS like screen, it cleaned up a bunch of files, and my X205-S9349 has been running fine since. But, other than the revised Toshiba/Intel logos at startup, I don't really notice anything. The one thing in the list of BIOS updates that I hope does some good, is in regards to the HD-DVD player: "Updated ATI M76 VBIOS to correct a Toshiba HD-DVD problem." I haven't noticed a problem on my HD-DVD before, but hopefully I won't now with the BIOS update.

The real odd/stupid thing now, Toshiba just released BIOS 1.80 last night!

 

I hear ya. i tried updating my bios from the toshiba site, vista didnt like the program anc closed it while it was running and effectively killed the laptop.

I am having it repaired under warranty, only hope it works as well as it used to, since i think they are replacing the main board, if I am reading the RMA stats correctly. However, they did tell me it would be a couple of days but from looking at the rma, it may take longer if they have to order parts and tubes of goo in. I thought they would just reflash the bios, I thought wrong. I REALLY hope this doesn't cost me anything, as I am very broke.

 

Always make a bootable CD and flash BIOS via the baseline (DOS) flash program, preferably via non-attended methods.
This is the safest way to flash a BIOS on any machine as it removes the majority of things that can crash as it is the only program running.

BTW their fast tunraround is more fuel for the fire that there is a way to redo the BIOS via another hidden copy.

 

Here is the notes on the 1.80 release:

Version 1.80 2007-10-12
Corrected: An HDD password is requested after finger print log on.
Corrected: Can not boot and enter the Operating System after connecting the TOSHIBA Dynadock via USB cable.
Corrected: 3Com and emboot PXE boot failure on SLi models.
Corrected: Can not boot from USB flash memory.
Added: Penryn ES2 CPU micro code.
Corrected: Garbage on the display when LCD CRT mode is selected and the CRT resolution is 1440x900 or higher. (ATI M72 VBIOS)

I bolded that section.....I thought Penryn wasn't released yet.

 

Is there an actual way to flash X200/X205 bios not from Windows?
Like a DOS flash utility (for X200) or flash-from-BIOS key?

 

Yes, get the Toshiba package, install it and choose the CDROM install version which creates an auto-execute CDROM from an ISO.
Then you reboot holding down the "c" key (or choose to boot from CD) and it does it automatically in the DOS version they give you.

 

Man I feel lucky, I did this update through windows as well with no problems, but I usually do my bios updates with a usb floppy which I opted not to use but next time I will do it with the floppy or bootable cd.

 

In this BIOS .zip file there are three files:

setup.exe
setup64.exe
.rom file with bios

When I execute setup.exe it instantly starts the flash process

 

1.80 bios just got published to the site.

 

Every Toshiba update I have for BIOS comes in an *.exe which when you run it extracts itself to a directory you pick.
(sp205v180.exe would be the latest 1.8 BIOS)

When it extracts you get 16 more files including launcher.exe which gives you a choice of what to do next including creating a CD or just reading the instructions.

I don't see a *.zip file anywhere.
Where did you get this file?

 

Here - http://eu.computers.toshiba-europe.com/cgi-bin/ToshibaCSG/download_bios.jsp?service=EU

 

Wow, the Euros are getting boned IMHO.

The US support site gives a much more robust BIOS update download with many more options.

no idea if it will work for you, but the us version is at:
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/su/su_sc_home.jsp

 

Yeah, I've already flashed 1.8 safe and sound using the US distro CD burned

The actual BIOS file is same in both, no idea why they dont use same distro on European support site.

 

Hey guys,

toshiba called me back today (huh!? that was pretty fast, eh?) and they told me one part on the motherboard was defective and that they changed it. Well I guess just the bios was corrupt and not the flash-rom defective, but It's easier just to change the whole mainboard, eh toshiba? Well anyways, I can't complain. They repaired my laptop damn fast, I didn't expect they would repair it this fast. I mean they needed only 5 days to repair it. If I remember hp.... shivers are running down my spine, they needed 1 1/2 month to repair my brother's laptop. That's unacceptable.
Toshiba is actually 8 times faster and i except my notebook to be delivered on friday.
So far i can definitely say that toshiba's support is amazingly fast.

I will report back when i get my laptop. And I will certainly do some benchmarks with the new v167.26 drivers. I can hardly wait

 

It all depends on who you get to do the "<insert company name here> laptop service".

Some of their contracted shops do an amazing job...
Some of them make the average stone you find in your yard look smart.

I am glad to hear you will be back up and running soon!

 

i just flashed 1.80 bios

when i enter to "setup bios (F2)"

it ask me a password for enter ? i didnt set a password, i only updated the bios.. do you have any idea for this ?

sorry for my english

 

Don't type anything, just hit enter

 

no it says "invalid password" when i just hit enter..

 

PLS HELP ME

i dont know how i did this. but now my computer is not opening... now it always asks me a password please how can i reset this password

please help

 

Can you go into the bios settings and disable password?

 

i cant go anything because i dont know the password. i only updated the bios to 1.80 then it asks me a password. now it is opening because i dont know the password

is it possible to reset this or reset bios or go back old bios ? please help

 

Have you tried like 12345 as the password or like 00000?

 

try removing the battery + power supply + cmos battery and wait a day , then plug back in the battery and power supply then the cmos battery and try to boot it...

 

Well Idon't remember but I think the battery is hidden inder one of the covers but I don't remember, well I just looked at my disassembly guide and the battery is soldered to the motherboard and I do not see a swithch to clear the cmos either so I don't know what to tell him at this point but call tech support.

 

Got my laptop back today. Everything is working fine and also the new v1.80 bios was preinstalled.