My toshiba satellite laptop turns on, but turns off in a few seconds!!!!?

Sounds like you have a bad video card or graphics interface is not set-up. Try to get to the boot menu and if you can't get there, see if your laptop has a dedicated video card.

I'm dealing with this same problem now; after disassembling and finding nothing amiss, I put it back together, but having the power cord attached (as I was testing the power button with the case apart, and didn't bother unplugging it to put everything back together), I noticed the machine was on for a longer time, actually starting into the boot process.

It was then that I realized it was related to the lid being open; I attached an external monitor, turned on the power, immediately shut the lid, and am able to use the computer via the external monitor. I still don't know the full fix, but this is a temporary work-around and points me toward an eventual solution, maybe.

So there are a few possibilities when dealing with a power failure and some steps can be taken to work out the cause:

Try removing the battery and start with just the power cord.

Wiggle the power lead at the device or wall socket or power block to see if this helps it start, also double check the fuse in the plug but be cautious, if the fuse is blown it might be for a good reason and the device could be a hazard! Also make sure there are no power switches on the device that are switched to off (unusual on laptops but is most often on the back of a PC for example)

Try using just the battery, does wiggling this cause any problems?

If this doesn't make any difference there is likely something internal shutting the device off.

If it restarts within literally 1 or 2 seconds read this, else skip to the next paragraph:

Listen out for system bleeps or if the fans are working or not. If its either of these failures then it will cut power or reboot within a few seconds and there is some serious fault inside. You can often determine what the beeps mean by looking at the manufactures manual or the motherboard manufactures manual. If your prepared to open the device, check the fans are working and that the main components like RAM and CPU are seated properly and the heat sink is attached properly. Note these things are unlikely to go wrong unless the device has recently been moved/dropped. The fan is probably the most likely culprit here, try clearing dust from them.

If it is taking longer before rebooting then it can be a less serious fault and may be logged in the windows event viewer system logs, if it never reaches windows you can try pressing F8 repeatedly and choose 'disable automatic restart on system failures'. The computer will still not start normally but will freeze on an error message (blue screen) rather than restarting. However avoid leaving it on this screen for a long time as there is a reason windows restarts the pc normally! See this image for what I mean:

http://0.tqn.com/d/pcsupport/1/0/z/7/-/-/disable-a...

You can also try safe mode from that list to try and get into windows, if you do get into windows, check out the system logs, see:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427

It should look similar to this - look out for errors under the system tab:

http://www.simulationexams.com/tutorials/aplus/ope...

They might give some insight to the problem.

Lastly, think carefully on this problem, what was the last thing you did before it started happening this might be the cause!

Laptop Turns On Then Off

Have you removed and reinserted battery properly? If so, please remove battery, plug in charger. If it works the battery is incompatible, You should ask for replacement and find the compatible model.

When problem still exists, You should remove hard drive too and turn on laptop by using power from charger directly. If going well. I think the hard drive is broken too. Otherwise, The motherboard is the problem. Hope it is helpful

Heavy masses on the energy give without a battery to help it could purpose shutdowns. Tune and video each create a particularly heavy load. And Toshiba are inclined to overheating, be certain the vents underneath usually are not blocked.

Sounds like a hard drive fault.

Try putting another hard drive in, and see if it works