HELP - Toshiba Satellite A550 DEAD after BIOS Update

[Varyamo]

Hello everyone and thank you in advance. I'll tell you:

I made the big mistake of formatting my Toshiba Satellite A550 laptop normally and downloading all the original drivers from its own website, installing the new version of the BIOS from Windows 7. The computer got stuck in the middle of the installation and when I forced a restart it only shows me the black screen, nothing more.

After diving to the point of suffocation in various forums I have found more users with these problems. I have tried various solutions; first of all I downloaded the previous version of the BIOS from the official website and created a BOOT DVD with the official application, but the laptop does not read said DVD. I have tried to create a BOOT USB with the BIOS, I suppose with some error or other, but I have not obtained a response either. Finally I read the solution of a USB FLOPPY, an old-fashioned floppy disk drive, which I do not have at the moment, to create the same BOOT but this time in the old format.

Right now I only have a paperweight as a laptop. Thank you for your time.

[fjavi]

@Varyamo:

Hello everyone and thanks in advance. Here's my story:

I made the big mistake of formatting my Toshiba Satellite A550 laptop normally and downloading all the original drivers from its own website, installing the new BIOS version from Windows 7. The computer got stuck in the middle of the installation and when I forced a restart it only shows a black screen, nothing more.

After diving to the point of suffocation in various forums I found more users with these problems. I tried several solutions; first I downloaded the previous version of the BIOS from the official website and created a BOOT DVD with the official application, but the laptop doesn't read that DVD. I tried creating a BOOT USB - I suppose with some errors - with the BIOS but I didn't get a response either. Finally I read about the solution of a USB FLOPPY, an old-fashioned floppy disk drive, which I don't have at the moment, to create the same BOOT but this time in the old format.

Right now I only have a paperweight as a laptop. Thanks for your time.

Which BIOS is AMI or AWARD?
here they explain something to recover and identify the bios
• aWEBa •: Recover BIOS
the bad thing about laptops is that they are very difficult to disassemble and it's a big mess to see if the chip is soldered, if it were extractable you could take it out and have it reprogrammed at an electronics store, it's just going with the chip and a BIOS on a diskette or maybe a USB would work, because laptops don't have a diskette drive.
with a diskette drive you could edit the autoexec to flash it alone, also depending on the motherboard it may have recovery routines, Asus has a BIOS on the driver CD, but in laptops many motherboards are custom, although Asus or any other brand can manufacture them, they make them cut to reduce costs.
Maybe something like this works but with the time that has passed since diskette were used, they should have already made boards that can be recovered by a USB drive or CD.

Portable external USB 1.44 Mb 3.5 "floppy disk drive FDD for laptop PC on eBay!

regards

[Varyamo]

Thanks fjavi, very kind of you to reply.

I have no idea if it's AMI or AWARD, no matter how much I search for it in the specifications on the Internet, I can't find that information. I have taken apart the RAM slot trying to find a way to bump into the battery, but it's not there. I have seen on YouTube that in some Toshiba laptop models, with the help of a jumper, you can reset the BIOS, but the Satellite A550 does not have that option or at least I can't find it.

My next option will be to disassemble the laptop completely and pray to God that the battery is not soldered to the board. I have not tried the USB floppy option, but it makes me very doubt its functionality if it doesn't work with a USB BOOT or a DVD BOOT.

Thanks.

[torquis]

Hello fellow users:

I recently bought a USB floppy drive, they still have to bring it to me and I have the same problem as you with another laptop, if you want, follow my thread and when I try it I'll tell you if it works.

I also have doubts about whether it will work with the USB disk or not, because in the end we are talking about a USB, I think. It's all about trying and trying again.

Best regards.

[fjavi]

@Varyamo:

Thanks fjavi, very kind to reply.

I have no idea if it's AMI or AWARD, no matter how much I search the specs on the internet, I can't find that information. I've taken apart the RAM slot trying to find a way to get to the battery, but it's not there. I've seen on YouTube that in some Toshiba laptop models, using a jumper, you can reset the BIOS, but the Satellite A550 doesn't have that option or at least I can't find it.

My next option is to take apart the whole laptop and pray to God that the battery isn't soldered to the motherboard. I haven't tried the USB floppy option, but it makes me very doubt its functionality if it doesn't work with a USB BOOT or a DVD BOOT.

Thanks.

You should look at the laptop underneath the label and put the exact model, even the serial number, as I read that it has a G45 chip and according to the manufacturer, you could recover it with the driver CD.

The battery won't do much if the BIOS is corrupted, the best thing is to get the model that says or the reference number to see if we can see what BIOS it has, check if it's this one.

Toshiba Support Forums: Satellite A550-14K: VT virtualization …

regards