Question:
I just bought a Toshiba satellite L300-17l without an operating system on it. I tried to install xp , but after initilizing the setup told me that it does not found any hard…and press F3 to quit the setup. And now I can’t install anything because when I turn on the laptop it appears just a black screen 
NEED HELP…PLEASE…
Tags: Install | L300-17l | laptop | Operating System | Satellite | screen | Setup | Toshiba | XP
It sounds like the XP install didn’t recognize your notebook’s hard drive for some reason, and now a second problem has popped up that’s causing the machine not to POST. That notebook has an Intel chipset though, which should be recognized by the XP installation without pre-loading any drivers, so something is amiss. I’d try removing the battery from your machine and unplugging the power adapter to make sure it has completely shut down and not gone into hibernation. Then reconnect both and try to power up the machine again. If you still get a blank screen, there’s likely an issue with the notebook’s hardware. I tried to find a clear CMOS procedure for your machine, but couldn’t, so I recommend contacting Toshiba support to see if there is a way to do so without pulling apart the machine. I’d also try removing the hard drive to see if the system boots. If it does, shut down again, and re-seat the drive to make sure its making proper contact and try again. If the machine stops booting with the hard drive installed, it’s likely the culprit and may need to be replaced.
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expert reponse by: Marco Chiappetta of Hot Hardware | November 11th, 2008
I have same problem. I must instal Vista instead of XP.
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response by: sani | November 30th, 2008
Once you get your laptop to boot again (this should go for you too Sani), you’ll need to download the SATA drivers for your notebook. Your laptop uses a SATA hard drive, which Windows XP doesn’t have native drivers for. You’ll need to download the SATA drivers and load them onto a USB flash drive. When the installation disc is starting up, you should have an option to load 3rd party drivers. Do this and select the SATA drivers on your flash drive. After that, you should be able to install Windows XP on your system
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expert reponse by: luke.anderson | December 14th, 2008
Go to bios and change sata mode to compatibility and IT WORKS. After installing xp DO NOT change your sata mode, keep it compatibility. Simple as that.
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response by: Timo Kannisto | December 26th, 2008
You will need to download the 32 bit floppy configuration utility file from this link:
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df/Product_Filter.asp?ProductID=2101
Copy the files to a floppy disk, attach to the notebook an USB Floppy Drive with this disk. Press F6 in Windows Setup when promted, select Intel(R) 82801HBM SATA AHCI Controller (Mobile ICH8M)
and Windows XP Setup will recognize your hard drive.
That’s all.
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response by: Anonymous | December 27th, 2008