Windows 10: Toshiba Laptop locked into Hibernate during boot

My Toshiba C55 wont boot. As soon as I push the power button it goes directly to the black 'hibernating' screen with the rotating circles and that is all it will do.
This is the first time I have had any problem with this computer in over 4 years. One day its operating as normal and the next morning, when I booted it, I got the Windows screen just before the password screen and it would not go any further in the boot sequence than that. I got it into safe mode, and chose diagnostics ( or something similar) and it went right to the hibernation screen and has stayed there no matter what I do.
I unplugged the charger, took the battery out, discharged the power ( for 10 seconds or more), rebooted and the same 'hibernating' screen is still there. I did the same, only I discharged it 3x, let it sit overnight, same result. I scoured Google for advice and tried a few things, but no matter what I do, the screen does not change. As soon as I push the power button, up pops the black screen with the rotating circle and 'hibernating'. No safe mode.*Shock. After a week of trying to fix it, I went and bought another laptop, but I would still like to fix my trusty old Toshiba.

:)

 

My computer wont start after windows 10 upgrade stuck in boot loop

I experienced the identical issues with the continuous boot restart loop on my Toshiba Satellite laptop. It was frozen at 64% during resetting. Pressing and or tapping the "0" key continuously during a restart did bring me to a blue Toshiba Recovery page
where I was able to follow the simple prompts to reset my laptop-which showed the partition Windows 10 was on.

 

Windows reinstalling itself

HI,

I am trying to fix a friends laptop and i fixed a boot error but now whenever the laptop boots

it says installing windows 64% then restarts and does the same thing. Just so u know I cannot boot

onto anything else cause the bios is locked by toshiba (laptop manufacturer) any ideas?

***Post moved by the moderator to the appropriate forum category.***

 

Welcome to TenForums @Meacenas

This problem has been occurring for years, this is the same fault in XP....

https://www.cnet.com/forums/discussi...nation-337838/

If taking the battery out, holding down the power button then putting the battery back doesn't work it suggests that the battery may have died. Try taking it out and leaving it out. Run the laptop from just the power cord and see it that helps, it did for several of those in that XP thread. If so, buy a new battery.

As a fellow Toshiba owner I can understand that *Smile

 

Thanks Bree, ( I was excited to try something new,*Biggrin so I grabbed the ol Toshiba and...) took the battery out and powered it up and the hibernation screen has been replaced by a similar screen that says 'Windows is resuming', so your advice seems to have taken me in the right direction.
However, this screen seems to be locked into the same routine of the little circle spinning around and around and around and...I am wondering about trying to get into safe mode ( of many tries, it only made it there one time so far with the win key + X key I think it was). However before I do that, there is obviously a problem in the boot sequence so I am inclined to think that some sort of boot usb or CD should be prepared first? I have never used one of those and I see there seems to be a few different ways/styles/thingies to choose from. *sarc
At this point I am leaving the next step up to people that know more than I so any advice on how to proceed with resurrecting trusty ol Toshiba is welcomed.

 

Well, that's a (small) step in the right direction. Maybe there's a bad hiberfil.sys left over from your earlier problems?

For a boot USB with all the repair tools, there are two MS ones you could use. Make an install USB using Microsoft's Media Creation Tool, or make a Recovery Drive USB on another PC (no need to include system files) with the same version and bits (64/32) as the Toshiba.

The install usb has a small 'repair this pc' option near the bottom of the Setup screen that take you to the Advanced Startup options, and the Recovery Drive boots straight to them. There are TenForums tutorial on this...

*Arrow Boot to Advanced Startup Options in Windows 10

*Arrow Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10

*Arrow Create Recovery Drive in Windows 10


But the easiest way to get to Advanced Startup doesn't require any usb, you just do a hard reboot three time in a row. That's Option Six in that first tutorial.

I suspect if you can get it to boot to Safe Mode it should have cleared the 'problem' hibernation file and you'll be able to boot normally again.

 

"I got it into safe mode, and chose diagnostics ( or something similar) and it went right to the hibernation screen and has stayed there no matter what I do."

Next time in safe mode, run Command Prompt/Windows Powershell in Admin and type- powercfg -h off This will turn off hibernation and Fast startup and delete the hiberfil.sys file which should eliminate all traces of hibernation even trying to load. Good Luck

 

Thanks Bree and Mr. Geek for the advice. This boot up problem has been vexing me for a couple weeks *Huh. It will probably take me a couple or three days to study and work on all this stuff you suggest as I have to work for a living too and the Toshiba will get attention in my spare time, but stay tuned and I will keep you updated as I work through the processes. To be honest, I stumbled across this forum looking for answers for the Toshiba and after 'cruising' the forums I see that its not just a dry technical advice forum, but it seems that many people are active and having some fun too, think I will stick around and join in as I enjoy the advanced ( for me) education. Thanks again, have a good day! *Biggrin

 

That's pretty much how I found TenForums too. I considered myself as reasonably proficient before I joined (IT support, retired) but I've learned so much more since registering *Smile

Take your time, we can subscribe to this thread and get an alert when you come back to tell us how you're getting on.

 

So here is the latest....back in hibernation screen with the spinning dots and no safe mode.*cry I tried the hard reboot, shutting it off by holding the power button down until it shut off and then restarting 4 times and it just went right back to the hibernation screen each time. ( The battery is still out, so its plugged in). I also tried to boot into safe mode with Win+R twice but no dice. I also tried the shift+ restart and it sat on the Toshiba screen until I lifted my finger off the shift button and it was instantly in hibernation screen. Next on the list was a new install of Win 10, but I would need a product license key for that and of course 4 years ago, the computer came with Win 8 and I got the free upgrade to 10 ( forced actually). So....next would be a usb recovery and I only took a look at how its done so far....I am not sure, but wouldn't the computer need to be able to boot from a usb in safe mode or some sort of dual boot setup that I cannot do, ( yet)? *Confused

 

No. You don't need a key to do a clean install. When you upgraded from 8 to 10 your PCD was awarded a digital license tied to the unique hardware ID of your PC and stored on Microsoft's activation servers.

You can wipe the disk and do a clean install without using a key (you click 'I don't have one' if asked). As soon as the PC can contact the activation servers it will automatically activate from the digital license.

The license is only valid for one edition (Home or Pro) so you must install the same edition as you got in the upgrade. You probably won't be asked which edition to install, a PC built for Windows 8 will have had the key embedded in its firmware. Setup can detect this to determine the correct edition to install.

In fact, the HDD doesn't form part of the hardware ID, so you could swap out the drive and put another one in then do a clean install on that.

You start a clean install by booting from the install media. For a Toshiba when you turn it on you hit F12 at the Toshiba logo to get the boot choice menu so you can choose to boot from a usb. This tutorial tells you how to make the install media.

Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10

There is an alternative to doing a clean install that may well repair the existing system. That is to use the install media to upgrade the current system. To do that you need to be able to get Windows running one more time, in Safe Mode will do. Then you use File Explorer to find Setup.exe on the install usb and run it to start the upgrade. See this tutorial...

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

 

Hello Bree, thank for the new information. There is a couple things I was wondering about, mainly so I can save the files I have, ( business) if at all possible, before I do a new install. I did a full backup to a external hard drive about two months ago, but time and business march on and the new work .......First...I was reading a week or so back that hibernation requires a certain amount of ram and by removing ram chips, ( 1 of 2) it will force the computer to reject the hibernate because there is not enough ram. Is this possible? The second item I saw was removing the coin battery to reset the bios to default and supposedly that will reset the computer boot sequence. ( I am not entirely sure, but there was mention of a jumper that when removed and reset also resets the bios to default .I have tools and have done work like this in the past so I can do these things if you think there is some validity to them. Other than that it looks like I will begin the 'refresh your PC' and hope it dont go up in flames,

 

The ram idea sounds like it should work, though I've not tried it. The hiberfil.sys stores the active contents of ram and if the installed ram is too small I would expect it to invalidate the hibernation file.

I'm not sure that resetting the bios would have any effect. Whether it resumes from hibernation or does a cold boot is determined by what's on the HDD, not any bios setting. I have in the past hibernated a laptop, swapped out its drive for another to do tests (like a clean install). When I returned the original HDD and powered up it resumed from hibernation as if nothing had happened.

There is a very useful tool here on this forum....

Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk

This is a bootable Windows environment that can be put on a usb. You could boot from that as a way to copy your important files off the PC onto another usb. You could also use a Linux Live usb for the same purpose if you prefer.

If you use the built-in 'Refresh this PC' function you'll loose all installed apps, including any OEM utilities. A better approach would be an in-place repair install which keeps all installed apps and files.

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

 

Hi there. Everything so far is the same with the computer in hibernation mode and unable to boot into any safe modes. *Sad Truly, I have been in computers since I had my first Timex Sinclair, ( remember those ?) and I have never heard of a (modern) computer that will not at least go into safe mode. They are either dead, ( a bsod etc) or they have some life, enough to play safe and be rescued. I am guessing that the more complex the technologies, the more complex the problems. Sort of like that old saw about if you don't understand the tech, it must be magic. *Eek
Anyways I digress, It will take a me a day or so to gently coerce the screws and chips out, power up, see what happens and get back here to let you know. I have disassembled this comuter a couple times for cleaning so.... ( been there) I am at this point, (since I have another computer) contemplating just removing the Toshibas harddrive, recovering my files, then formatting the drive and starting over. Would the win 10 license still apply if I just did a fresh install?
Thanks again, have a good day and all !*Smile

 

Yes. the digital license is stored on Microsoft's activation servers and tied to the unique hardware ID of the PC. Crucially, the HDD plays no part in the hardware ID (you could swap in another HDD or even put in an SSD if you like).

Providing you install the edition the PC has a license for (Home or Pro) it will activate automatically as soon as it contacts the activation servers.