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Oh noooo!
Two nights ago I was shutting down my laptop Shadow (a Toshiba Satellite L-300) and suddenly the screen went wonky and then a page like this showed up asking me for a password. Except I don’t use a password for Shadow. And then I remembered that the same thing happened to my friend Flor a couple of years ago with her almost new Toshiba. Apparently there is a company-set password that exists in each Toshiba computer and sometimes something sets it off – have never been sure what. Anyhow, Flor had to have her laptop memory replaced and lost all her data, photos, etc. because she hadn’t made a back up. Disaster.
I have no idea what happened the other night but it could be the very stupid shut-down process on Windows Vista. As you can see, there are various options given, the first three being “change user”, “close session” and “block”. Block?? Who the hell would want to block their own computer? In any case, ever since hearing about Flor’s problem I have been very careful when signing out, but I must have hit block instead of close session and then got the scary screen above asking me for my password.
I tried one of my usual passwords (even though I knew I hadn’t set one – panic!) and then remembered that when Flor tried doing this, after about three tries her computer shut down totally. Aack. So then I tried rebooting by holding down the off button and turning it back on again and … phew! It worked! But later when I tried shutting down by closing my session I got the scary password screen again. So I did the same re-start thing and haven’t dared turn my laptop off since. It has a sleep button, so I’ve been using that.
Luckily I had just reorganised all my photos and had done a back-up of all my important files on my external HD. But now what do I do?
casa azahar 
I recently had to unlock someone’s computer running Windows 7 because they forgot their password. It is possible using free software downloaded to a CDRom, but I’m not sure you have the same issue. Maybe contact Toshiba first? Is there a FAQ section on their website?
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It’s a totally different problem as I never had a password. I believe this is specific to Toshiba computers, and there was some sort of FAQ page. Just too weary to try and find it again.
I wonder if I contact Toshiba they’ll send me a shiny new Satellite as compensation…
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I found this which may be practical for you to try as you have backed up your data; http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-58528-reset-toshiba-laptop-to-factory-settings
1. Copy all your files and documents to an external storage device.
2. Shut down the computer.
3. Turn the PC back on and hit the F8 key repeatedly until the Advanced Boot Option Screen appears.
4. Click “Repair Your Computer” if you are not already on it and then press ENTER
5. choose your country and click OK
6. On the “System Recovery Options Screen” click “Restore Application” which is the last option.
7. Follow the on-screen instructions
8. When prompted, click on “Full Factory Recovery”
9. “Next”
10. Click “Yes”
11. you will notice for a while it seems like nothing is happening, give it some time.
12. After some minutes, recovery will complete and you click “Finish”
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I tried googling it, this answer seems to work – or is claimed to, but not certain if it is your problem! I take no responsibility š
http://www.edugeek.net/forums/hardware/29249-toshiba-satellite-pro-bios-pwd.html
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Yep, that looks like the one. But hecked if I’m going to do that by myself!
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The main problem now is that when I try to close my session I get the page asking for a password. And while putting it on “sleep” (which is different than “hibernate”) is a good temporary solution, it’s not ideal. Sometimes the laptop doesn’t actually sleep – while the screen goes blank I can still hear the fan whirring away. Which means there is a chance of Shadow overheating – this laptop gets REALLY hot when it’s on, even too hot to touch at times. Also, when the laptop is jostled or moved, it “wakes up”, meaning I can’t travel with it on “sleep” because of the same overheating problem, especially if it’s in a carry bag and can’t get any cool air.
I could try putting it on “hibernate” but that option has never worked very well on this computer. When I wake it up again I usually have to reboot because it’s lost the internet connection, which clearly isn’t a good option as I can’t reboot properly.
Oh my…
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I would call the company first and see if they can walk you through it…and if that doesn’t work, I’d find some hacker I can do anything geek to use voodoo magic on it.
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I just love it when technogeeks come up with what they thing is a “great idea” but simply haven’t thought it through. and then put the onus on the user to jump through hoops in order to bypass the problem. I won’t use Norton Antivirus because of their stupidity making me print out 35 pages of instructions in order to remove the product and then re install it… or even to fix something caused by a virus when I paid THEM good money to do it for me.
“But why would you WANT to uninstall Norton? It is God’s gift to humankind!”
And then, of course, they refused to admit that they had a bug that caused it to fail and let in a virus.
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Norton is the suckiest antivirus program out there; it was designed for US government computers running at lightspeed and can’t do what it is supposed to do with the resources of a home PC. Hence the 35 pages of instructions.
I use Zone Alarm and have been pretty happy with it.
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I use AVG. I have to use a paid anitvirus as a requirement of my work and have always been pleased with AVG. I’ve used it for quite a number of years, now,ever since the Norton fiasco. And forget about Mcafee.
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I found this, which looks straightforward and maybe worth a try;
http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/bios-password-reset
From a 305 Manual.
Deleting a user password
To cancel the power-on password function:
1 Click Start, All Programs, Toshiba, Utilities, and then TOSHIBA Password Utility.
The TOSHIBA Password Utility window appears.
2 Click Not Registered.
3 Follow the on-screen instructions to remove the user password.
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Az, did you try to set a password while the laptop is on? You can ‘add’ a user and set a password for that ‘new’ user. I don’t have a pw on my PC, but the first time it went into ‘energy saving mode’, when it came up again it showed me the same surface yours did and asked for a pw. I have to admit that I panicked a bit, but then just hit return, as I knew I didn’t have a pw. All went well.
My son recently had something similar, though, and nothing worked. He had to re-install windows.
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I’m fairly sure it’s the same Toshiba problem that happened to my friend Flor, as it has happened in exactly the same way.
Thing is, I LOVE Toshiba products, have bought several, and always recommend them to friends… like Flor. So imagine how badly I felt when hers went tits up and she was told by the technicians – beyond doubt – that it was a Toshiba BIOS problem.
Well, now I am having the same thing happen and Toshiba is washing their hands of it, trying to pass off the blame elsewhere.
That really sucks.
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In the end I am left not really knowing what to do, and not daring to shut down my laptop.
Toshiba insists it is a Windows problem, and say that if I have any doubts I should call the really expensive Spanish “help” line and have someone pretend they can’t understand me and ramble off a bunch of stuff too fast for me to understand…
I know it’s not a Windows problem, because it’s the same thing that happened to Flor.
Shit.
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Did you try the July 20th reply I made? It looks simple…
To cancel the power-on password function:
1 Click Start, All Programs, Toshiba, Utilities, and then TOSHIBA Password Utility.
The TOSHIBA Password Utility window appears.
2 Click Not Registered.
3 Follow the on-screen instructions to remove the user password.
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I am very nervous about trying anything, as Toshiba tells me it’s one problem and I think it’s another. If I try to fix the wrong problem I might end up with a dead laptop, and it’s my lifeline … I cannot work without it. This is why it is so important to me to find out what is wrong and fix it. The only other option is buying a new laptop…
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Have you tried the Sevilla support guys here?
http://es.computers.toshiba-europe.com/innovation/generic/sat/
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Update! After almost two weeks of being afraid to shut down my laptop (just putting it on “sleep” at nights) I decided to close my session and shut down properly tonight because one of my programmes wasn’t working properly and I thought this might be why. I waited with baited breath and fingers crossed… and it was fine!
So I wonder WTF that was all about.
Still miffed that Toshiba didn’t give me a shiny new replacement… š
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Dear orange person,
We know all (mostly) about you. How you pretend to be a searcher of the disgusting Tapas and take twitters around bars, then moan about your hot and coldness. But we hold hands around ears, never fearing the scream. Now we also hear other things more worse. To be clear on this. Your laptop. Enough said. Now please, for the sake of barbeque harmony, cat safety and quiet pukes in the alley below, shut up.
Yours true,
Laptopshutdownsoftware
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