Laptop freezes on startup

[Peter780]

I have an old Toshiba Satellite laptop A205. I am using it from about 5-6 years but recently it started having problems on startup. When i power on the laptop it doesn't start from the first time. I hear how the cd-rom is turning and then it freezes with black screen showing on the display. Sometimes it passes the black screen and reaches the bios screen and then it freezes on the bios screen loading. I have to power off the laptop and start it again and the second time it boots normally.
It started having this problem recently. What does it mean? Is it something related to the BIOS? I hope it is not a symptom of some serious malfunction coming, because right now i can't afford to buy a new laptop.

 

[Gunbuster]

Old laptop, my first guess is the moving parts. Probably HDD going bad.

 

[Peter780]

I think the problem is in the usb ports. The laptop has two usb 2.0 ports and when i unplug the keyboard and the mouse from them it boots normally. But i am not sure how to fix this. The Device Manager doesn't show any problems with the usb drivers.

 

[LTC8K6]

What's wrong with the built in keyboard and mousepad?

 

[Peter780]

What's wrong with the built in keyboard and mousepad?

Nothing, using external keyboard and a mouse is more convenient for me.

 

[Ketchup]

Good detective work. Have you narrowed down to specific ports or specific keyboards/mice?

 

[Peter780]

I am not sure if the usb ports are the problem. Is it possible the bios cmos battery to be going dead. Is there any tests that i can run to see if the cmos battery is the problem?

 

[Ketchup]

You time and date will be way off if the battery is dead. A test would be to turn the computer completely (maybe even remove the power source), then turn it back on and go directly to the BIOS. If the time and data are correct, the cmos battery is not your problem.

 

[Burpo]

It's not the laptop usb ports. It's most likely a Keyboard bios clash (starting to be a problem with newer keyboards).
Try a different keyboard.