Problems with toshiba laptop after repair

[dai_katana]

Hello all,

My toshiba laptop broke down 7 months ago and I sent it for repair. The repair service could not find spare parts and kept the laptop in storage waiting for the parts to become available (old laptop, out of warranty so I was not given another laptop of equal value after 30 days unfortunately). I was returned the laptop 4 days ago after a part became available and the repair was complete. However, I noticed 3 things: 1) the laptop's performance was significantly reduced (in terms of speed), 2) I kept getting a notification from the programs tray saying my copy of windows did not pass genuine validation and 3) my date time setting was wrong (the computer thought it was 2001 for some reason) and although I corrected it manually, I keep getting an error when updating my antivirus (saying my date/time is wrong) and attempts to update the time from the online serves results in an error about failed synchronization due to security concerns of my date/time being wrong.

I am going to run the programs that are mentioned in the forums about removing malware to see if it helps, however I am not sure what I can do about the two other items... I read somewhere that if the CMOS battery dies, the computer may loose track of time (but that only occurred once to me; most forums mention frequent resets to wrong times), so maybe this is the issue? Would that explain why my copy of windows failed to pass genuine validation?

It would be prudent to note that, although some repair centers install some sort of clone windows when fixing the computer which may result in such a trigger of genuine validation failure, I had my hard disk removed form the laptop because I needed access to the files on the disk (7 months is a long time and when all your files are on it, you need your data on the disk); so I attached this disk to an IDE to USB converter and copied the files onto another disk. (I did face some trouble when doing this; I was constantly given permission prompts and some access denied messages. I ended up using linux to complete the file copying). Could this have triggered this failure to validate my windows copy?

Appreciate the help.

 

[WR2]

Hello dai_katana;

1. Check the CPU temps. If it's running hot the system will run the CPU slow to prevent overheating. http/www.almico.com/speedfan.php
Also check that the laptop fan is running. http/www.almico.com/speedfan.php
You can use the CPU-z program to see what clock speeds your laptop's CPU is running at. http/www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

2. You're right about the repair centers using a cloned OS install.
You can manually correct the Windows License key to your original key.
How to Update your Windows product key

3. 'Forgetting the day and time' is the most common symptom of a CMOS battery needing replacement. As far as I can remember this is not related to the OS validation scheme.

I've seen the same symptoms of that IDE/SATA HDD to USB converter trouble.
What's worked better for me (and costs about the same) is putting the hard drive into an external drive housing and connecting via USB that way.
Nice move on using Linux to get around some Windows limitations. I use that trick myself.

 

[dai_katana]

Hello dai_katana;

1. Check the CPU temps. If it's running hot the system will run the CPU slow to prevent overheating. http/www.almico.com/speedfan.php
Also check that the laptop fan is running. http/www.almico.com/speedfan.php
You can use the CPU-z program to see what clock speeds your laptop's CPU is running at. http/www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

2. You're right about the repair centers using a cloned OS install.
You can manually correct the Windows License key to your original key.
How to Update your Windows product key

3. 'Forgetting the day and time' is the most common symptom of a CMOS battery needing replacement. As far as I can remember this is not related to the OS validation scheme.

I've seen the same symptoms of that IDE/SATA HDD to USB converter trouble.
What's worked better for me (and costs about the same) is putting the hard drive into an external drive housing and connecting via USB that way.
Nice move on using Linux to get around some Windows limitations. I use that trick myself.

Thanks for the quick reply and the many suggestions. I will try your suggestions and get back to you (I will not close the thread yet to reply back with the results). I did use an external hard drive enclosure (I didn't know there was a separate device called IDE/SATA HDD to USB that could do this though) which brings me to this question: do you think it s possible that my windows is not being validated because I accessed it on another windows (and later Linux) system (to take the files)?
Could some of the other system's hardware signatures, for example, be transferred to HDD in the enclosure from the old system when I plugged the USB in? I do not know how windows validation works and since my HDD was not available to the repair center, they could not have cloned it- there must be another issue then?

 

[WR2]

do you think it s possible that my windows is not being validated because I accessed it on another windows (and later Linux) system (to take the files)?

Could some of the other system's hardware signatures, for example, be transferred to HDD in the enclosure from the old system when I plugged the USB in?

I do not know how windows validation works and since my HDD was not available to the repair center, they could not have cloned it- there must be another issue then?

Reading files from another OS (Windows or Linux) would not cause validation problems.
Using the laptop HDD as an external drive on another PC would not cause validation problems.

-> A hardware change during the repair service would cause validation problems. Mostly notably the motherboard. The validation scheme is tied to the major components, most closely the motherboard.
Follow the Genuine warning notice links and you should be given a chance to contract Microsoft. Explain that your laptop went in for major repairs and they will give you a new license key that should solve that issue.

 

[dai_katana]

Reading files from another OS (Windows or Linux) would not cause validation problems.
Using the laptop HDD as an external drive on another PC would not cause validation problems.

-> A hardware change during the repair service would cause validation problems. Mostly notably the motherboard. The validation scheme is tied to the major components, most closely the motherboard.
Follow the Genuine warning notice links and you should be given a chance to contract Microsoft. Explain that your laptop went in for major repairs and they will give you a new license key that should solve that issue.

Ok, I tried following the validation steps, but the screen keeps freezing and nothing happens after that. the browser keeps going to "not responding" and so does the other validation tool I downloaded after the browser one gave this issue. It has to do with the CPU slowing down due to heating I suppose. I am going to use those two tools you mentioned in your post yesterday (do they work on Pentium 4 processors?) and give the details.

You are probably right about the motherbpard though; they replaced the power button on the motherboard. This probably triggered the validation thingy...

Would getting a 1 gb ram module speed up the system or do you think my system being bottlenecked by my CPU and the heat issue?

 

[dextermat]

Hi, What part has been replaced ?

From what i think, they probably had to replace the motherboard and now you need to go in the bios to set up the time and date.

Did you go in Bios to set it ?

If you did and it doesn't stick, the motherboard or battery has problems

Most likely your windows problem comes from the bad date/time because if you want to update/register windows, you need the correct time and date.

Good luck

 

[dai_katana]

Hi, What part has been replaced ?

From what i think, they probably had to replace the motherboard and now you need to go in the bios to set up the time and date.

Did you go in Bios to set it ?

If you did and it doesn't stick, the motherboard or battery has problems

Most likely your windows problem comes from the bad date/time because if you want to update/register windows, you need the correct time and date.

Good luck

I doubt that the motherboard was replaced? I only paid $70 for it (although they may have put in a motherboard from another scrapped laptop)... I don't know... how can I find out and if this is the case (i.e. motherboard has been replaced) how can I solve the validation issues?

 

[Daave12]

I think software repairs are usually less expensive than hardware in most cases. Computer repair facility scans the computer for potential problems such as viruses and bad software drivers.