[skydancer]

Older woman retired and living in Mexico. 4.5 months ago, during a visit to the US I bought a Toshiba Satellite M105-S322 laptop for my husband. Did not take the time to go out and search for updates. He uses it for hours every day. Last week he turned it on and got a checksum error. There were options to go into settings or ignore and continue. He chose to continue. The next time he turned on the notebook it asked for a bios password. We have never set one.

I called Toshiba and they said this issue is not covered under warranty and our only option is to send the notebook to an authorized repair center in the US. Shipping a computer to/from Mexico is not an option.

In my former lifetime I worked in IT shops and have reset the bios on countless desktops. I have worked on notebooks but not this model and have been hesitant to take it apart. I removed a few screws and peeked around but my skills are dated. I decided it would be better to ask for help.

I read that there is a known bios password issue with the version of bios I suspect is on this notebook. Toshiba still says they won't assist me and even if it was covered by warranty, they won't tell a user how to reset the bios over the phone (grrrr).

I got all excited when I found a solution building a plug for the parallel port but after I found a parallel cable and my old soldering iron I realized this notebook doesn't have a parallel port.

I found a solution by creating a specialized boot diskette but this laptop doesn't have a diskette drive and if my memory serves me correctly, the bios password screen will appear before the drives are found, hence a boot diskette or CD wouldn't help.

I live in a small town and only speak a few words of Spanish. I could hire an interpreter, drive to a larger town and find a computer technician but want to reserve that for a last resort.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[skydancer]

Information update. Out of desperation I used Skype to call the US and speak with an authorized Toshiba notebook repair center. The tech told me that this is a KNOWN issue and even though I used to do hardware repairs he didn't feel comfortable talking me through it over the phone. He said the fix is to short jumpers on the system board (MOB) but wouldn't tell me which ones because he didn't want to get in trouble if I messed up and fried the MOB.

OK, I found a very detailed site showing me how to disassemble the notebook and since I've done other models before I am going to go for it. Before I get my screwdriver out I need information as to which jumpers I need to mess with.

Does anyone have any information for me?