About 6 weeks ago, I am working away on my laptop. For some unknown reason, the computer locks up. I could not exit normally, so I had to shut down manually. When I re-booted, I get a screen that calls for a bios password. I do not have, nor have I ever had a bios password. Well, I tried everything I could find on the internet about how to bypass this thing. I worked and worked and finally decided I would call Toshiba and see what I could learn. Well, I explain the situation and the "tech", (who is in Indonesia) tells me he has a solution. He says the bios password thing is an issue with this particular Toshiba machine and they will fix it for "free". Hooray! So, he makes the necessary arrangements and they ship me a prepaid box to send it to their repair depot in Louisville, Ky. OK, a few days later the box arrives, I pack it up and ship it off to them. They have this internet site you can go to and check the status. After a few days I check and it says for me to call and warns me some repairs not be covered! Hummmm..well here it comes I think. So I call up and the woman on the phone informs me it is going to be $175 to fix it. Well, I say let me think about it and I'll let them know. So after mulling this over, I think well I really need that machine and think of all the stuff that's on it that I am going to lose. So, I call them up the next day to pay my $175, only to be told a mistake was made in the quote and it would be $375!!!! What??? Her story is that "when the techs opened the case, they see evidence of "spillage". No such thing, as it had nothing spilled in it, but no repairs are covered. So I go off on the messenger and tell her to ship the machine back to me.
A few days later, it arrives back here. In the meantime, I have done some more research on a fix for it. I find a YouTube video that describes the exact problem and walks through the steps to fix it. It involved opening the case, removing the memory and locating a tiny little jumper that is hidden under some plastic tape. Take a paper clip (high tech device) and put it on the jumper and a ground, count to 20 and put it back together. Today I tried it, figuring I had nothing to lose. I was totally delighted when the computer booted up with the bios screen. Went in, changed the time and date, saved it and Windows started right up.
Now you see why I am getting the feeling that Toshiba tried to rip me off. That is probably the same thing they would have done. Is no one to be trusted anymore????
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