Hi guys, I'm new here so I don't know if this really fits here or somewhere else. Here's the problem I'm having with my laptop Packard Bell TK85 PEW91 (Acer motherboard): - Laptop boots into Windows, automatically shutdowns after 5 minutes. It's not due to high temperature but I think it might be related to a bad chip. - I found a way to make it not shutdown after 5 minutes, it involves running a DOS application to program a parameter in its BIOS (EC Pull GPIO 33 to Low) then rebooting the laptop, it will not have any problems after that. - Problem is it's not very practical to boot first into FreeDOS then having to reboot again, program does not seem to work under Windows NT (I've tried Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8). Any suggestions on what I can do here to automatize this or just find a way to run the application under NT environment? Any help is much appreciated!
Why don't you just download a diagnostic boot disk iso like hiren.info / pages / bootcd (Hiren's BootCD) and then diagnose the real problem that way?
Thank you for that idea, I know about Hiren's boot. The real problem is hardware related. Bad BIOS chip I think. From what I've been reading it's common on these models, the BIOS thinks the computer is too hot, when in fact temperatures are normal, and shuts down the system automatically. I've tried re-flashing, resetting BIOS nothing works. My only solution is to replace the BIOS chip, I'm ordering one for eBay. But in the meantime I would like to continue using this computer without having to reboot it twice every time I need to use it.
I understand. You should perhaps try to fiddle with the Windows startup and boot options. Personally, I would just try to reinstall the OS first to see if it is really hardware related. What diagnostic software have you used on the laptop thus far too pinpoint that the problem is hardware related? Also see what happens if you turn off automatic restart under system failure option in advanced system settings in control panel.
I've reinstalled and tried a couple of OS's, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows XP. All behave the same. It is really hardware related, faulty BIOS from what I've read from others with same problem. So far no software to test this, only temperature monitoring. It doesn't BSOD, only shuts down instantly after 5 minutes if tha SPROM.exe is not ran first under DOS. And now I think I foobared it, loaded a custom BIOS in it with more options, rebooted it and fiddled with some options in BIOS. Laptop dead, will not boot BIOS.
risky maybe, but if u know the cpu isn't running too hot why not try raising the warning temp in the bios. not a permanent solution, but it may help you diagnose the problem.