# Laptop won't boot up fully - gray screen



## Babycakes444

Hello all,

Went to start up my laptop this morning - began booting as normal, showed the opening Windows screen with "Press F..." etc. but then it turns to a gray screen and does nothing more and does not move past the gray screen. I shut it down using the power button and tried to start it up a couple more times with same result. It sounds like along with this action, the fan starts up as normal but sounds like it's turning off simultaneously with the gray screen appearing and the fan then stays off. That was all I was able to do as I was on my way out to work. The computer was working totally fine up until this point, I have not had any issues, received any errors, etc. I also keep up with virus software/maintenance, etc.
I tend to turn into a noob when encountering sudden computer issues like this, so I'll do my best to do my part here and following along to any suggestions/guidance I may receive.

I don't have the laptop on me so...what I can provide as far as description is it's a one or two year old Toshiba Satellite L505D-S5983/AMD Athlon II Dual Core M300/running Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit.

Thanks in advance and please let me know any other info I can provide.


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## makinu1der2

When you have access to the laptop perform the following steps:

-Remove the battery and Power adapter
-Press and hold the power button for 30-45 seconds (with battery and power still removed)
-Insert just the battery and attempt to boot the laptop.
-Insert just the power adapter and attempt to boot the laptop.


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## Babycakes444

I performed the indicated steps and each had same results as above - starts up as normal but screen goes gray after seeing boot screen and the fan powers off.


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## makinu1der2

I would suggest try removing the components to see if there is any changes.

Remove memory modules and test individually
Remove hard drive and optical drive and test

http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f108/black-screen-issues-and-troubleshooting-498132.html


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## Babycakes444

Ok...of course this occurred at the start of a busy week, so I may not have the opportunity of free time to perform those steps until the weekend. Thank you very much for the link, that will be very helpful to me and I can start familiarizing myself with the procedures before actually getting to check out the components. I will report back when able. Thanks again!


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## makinu1der2

Okay keep us posted. You can use the guide below to assist.

How to take apart and remove motherboard from a Toshiba Satellite L505 or Satellite L505D laptop


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## Babycakes444

Sure will. Thanks a lot!


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## Babycakes444

Ok...MUCH longer than I had anticipated to get to this, but back with an update. I went through all the steps suggested in the guide the best I could. Swapping around and reseating the RAM, etc. etc. all continued to produce the same results as originally presented - Windows starting up but then staying put at the gray screen. Upon attempting a system repair, however, did produce the error message of "A hard disk problem is preventing Windows from starting up". I did not attempt a full reinstall after getting that error. My obvious first question would be - does this mean my HD has definitely failed? I learned my lesson the hard (and dumb) way more than once in the past with losing everything with no backup and can say that fortunately since then I have had an online backup through idrive that I had actively backing up daily, so all of my data/files are elsewhere. Not going to be fun or fast restoring all said data, but I suppose it could be worse. Any other steps I should take at this point or is a new HD the solution here?
Thanks


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## Babycakes444

Well duh, forgot to check the diagnosis details: root cause found: bad hard disk. Guess that answers that!


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## makinu1der2

It seems you have found the problem.

For further confirmation you can test the hard drive using the manufacturer diagnostics.

I would recommend replacing the hard drive since you have current back-ups.


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## Babycakes444

Thanks a lot for all the help/guidance and for the helpful links. Much appreciated!


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