Why Toshiba Tecra TE2100 laptop locks up or will not boot at all?
One of our biggest customers use a lot of different Toshiba laptops and one of the models is Toshiba Tecra TE2100. We repaired many of these units and we noticed that some of them had very similar problems:
- Laptop locks up when you move it or sometimes freezes by itself. The video is still on, but the acupoint (keyboard mouse) and the keyboard itself do not work anymore.
- You can start the laptop, but you see CMOS (RTC) battery error on start up. After you clear the error, the laptop boots fine. After you reboot the laptop, you get the same error.
- Laptop will not boot at all. There is no power or power LED blinking. There is no hard drive activity. There is no external or internal video.
- When you press power button, laptop shows some activity, but there is no video on LCD screen.
At the beginning, when we just started working on this model, we tried to fix CMOS (RTC) battery error by replacing the RTC battery. Unfortunately, it didn’t help to fix the problem at all. We found that the main culprit of the problem is a poor connection between the system board and the power board (CMOS battery is connected to the power board). In some cases you can fix the problem by reseating the power board. Carefully disconnect if from the system board and connect it back. Turn on the laptop and see if it fixed your problem. If it didn’t help, most likely you have to replace the system board and the power board. Unfortunately, I cannot say exactly which one is causing the problem, the system board or the power board. The same story with laptop lock ups, try to reseat the power board.
You can fix a video problem by reseating the video card. We noticed, that over time the video board pops up from its connector on the system board and you can get video if you push it back in place.
Conclusion: before you start replacing parts, disassemble the laptop and try to fix the problem by reseating the power board and the VGA board. My disassembly guide for Toshiba Tecra TE2100 can help you to take apart the laptop.
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September 14th, 2006 at 6:39 pm
Aung,
It’s hard to say from your description. It could be a hard drive issue (test hard drive), an overheating problem (check if the fan spins), a bad connection between the system board and the power board (read the post), a software issue, etc…
September 14th, 2006 at 2:41 am
What might be the system hang problems after a few minutes of the system start up? It seems like the overheat issue. I even applied the new thermal compounds but still it wasn’t the solution. Does it still the issue of the connector problem between the motherboard and the powerboard?
September 10th, 2006 at 8:53 pm
Amanda,
In order to successfully start, any laptop needs 3 main components – motherboard, processor and memory. From these three components, the memory module fails more often then others and when it fails a laptop can experience an intermittent start up problem as you mentioned in your comment.
Try to reseat the memory module, move it into another slot. Test the memory module with Memtest 86+ utility and if it fails the test for a few times, replace it. That’s what I would try first.
September 8th, 2006 at 7:05 pm
hi there. my laptop is not running like it should be or to be more specific, it’s not running at all! i try to turn it on and then it turns on for like.. 5 seconds and turns back off. it’ll turn on every once in a blue moon! and when it does turn on.. it turns back off sometimes so i have to keep pressing the on button over and over again until it turns on without shutting off. what’s wrong with my laptop??
September 8th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
Thanks cj2600.
My TE2100 also has the problem of shutting down suddenly without any warning. Its not very frequent though.
Guess I have to clean the heatsink.
September 8th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
Wayne,
The video card in TE2100 is a removable separate module but I don’t think that you can upgrade it. From my knowledge, there is only one type of the video card for TE2100.
September 8th, 2006 at 11:58 am
cj2600, is it possible to upgrade the graphics card on the TE2100?
Does it come in mini AGP or something like that?
September 2nd, 2006 at 10:37 pm
Hey Aung,
When you disassemble the laptop, take a closer look at the connectors on the power board and the system board. You should use a magnifying glass. Check the pins. I believe that the problem with the connection happens because some pins are not connected properly to the motherboard, there could be a microcrack in the solder between the pin and the motherboard. In the latest motherboard revisions Toshiba fortified the connector on the motherboard by applying some kind of glue on it.
September 2nd, 2006 at 10:24 pm
Nope,
You don’t have to remove all the screws. All you have to do is slide the DVD drive lock into UNLOCKED position and remove the drive. If the lock doesn’t move, remove one screw securing the lock (the screw is located on the left side).
September 2nd, 2006 at 10:08 pm
I can’t get the DVD-ROM drive out. Any tips? Do you just remove all the screws and tug like hell?