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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January 24th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Hello,
I’m trying to figure out how to diagnosis my laptop issue.
It a Toshiba Satellite 2410-S203
My girlfriend split some water on it.
I shut it down and disconnected the battery very quickly.
and put a fan on it for a few days.
I just tryed to boot it up and much to my amazement it turns on…
Well sort of, the Power LED lights up, the battery light lights up
The hard drive spins up for a second and that led goes out.
But it hangs on the toshiba banner.
I can’t get into bios and it just hangs there no errors, no BSD….
I took out the Hard drive and installed into an internal enclosure and that works fine. H.D’s O.K.
I removed the ram and tryed to reboot just to see if I could get an error message or a way into bios but it didnt boot at all.
I put the ram back, booted and it just hangs on that toshiba banner……..
What do you think? Did it fry the MOBO?
I wouldn’t think I would get the screen and LEDs to light up if It was fried right?
I wish I had a machine in the house with the same memory specs but I dont…Would shorted out memory make it hang?
I would think that it would act like it did when I removed all ram and not boot at all.
Oh BTW the CPU fan still works and I noticed it blowing hot air as I let it sit idle on that toshiba banner for a few minutes.
Can you give me any insight into these symptoms?
Do I need a back way into BIOS? a reset?
DId the CPU go?
did the RAM go?
Did it corrupt the BIOS?
Did I just fry part of the main board?
I’m lost here. Please respond with any input
Thanks,
Alex
January 19th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Anthony,
Did it work before? Could be software related issue. Backup personal files and reinstall factory software from the recovery disc.
Also check the BIOS version installed on your laptop. The latest BIOS is v1.30. Try upgrading the BIOS.
January 19th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
keno,
I’ve posted a bunch of Toshiba laptop disassembly guides at http://www.irisvista.com/tech/ and your laptop is one of them. Follow first 5 step in the disassembly guide for cleaning the heat sink. It’s not difficult at all.
January 14th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
hello my toshiba satellite a45-s250 shots down by it self can some one please tell me where can i find the disassembly manual for this model so i can clean up the heatsink. thanks
January 14th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
iI have a Toshiba satellite A215-S7422 and of course it has Windows Vista. Everything Works fine until i try to use the sound recorder. When I click on Sound Recorder my computer freezes up, and the only way for me to unfreeze it is to hold the power button down until it shutsdown the computer completely……..but thats not it, the other problem is this: I click on control panel, then i click on hardware and sounds, then i click on the sounds icon to configure my sounds, and everytime i try to click on the recording tab to configure my microphone it freezes up what should i do, i need help….im a dj and i need a way to record my voice without my Toshiba satellite A215-S7422 freezing up…email your comments and/or solutions to djpriestodii@yaho.com
January 3rd, 2008 at 2:47 am
I own laptop Toshiba TE 2100 Intel P4M, 512RAM 1.8ghz.
this laptop got a problem of not communicating with the monitor (any – her or out side minotor). it is showing strips on the screen. I communicated with a computer tecnician in Tanga Tanzania he noted a problem with a gadget later on told as Video card and data cable (I have a picture which I can send to you). data cabe has been detached from the place where it was soldered. Can you help me to get the part.
Could you please communicate with me using the above mention email. I am in tanzania.
Joseph Desideri
December 27th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Scott Devey,
Yes, it’s possible. I’ve seen that before.
December 27th, 2007 at 7:32 am
Toshiba Laptop issue. I have a M35-S359 which had a noisy cooling fan for some time. Over the past few weeks I was starting to get pixelation in the screen and menu screens were blank, wierd characters when typing, etc. It appeared to be an overheating problem and I found this site along with others discussing this problem. I ordered a new cooling fan, replaced it, cleaned the heatsink and used new paste. It worked fine for a few hours and then the problem started again. Now I see the issue with the onboard memory modules. Can this problem occur when the unit gets up to temperature and not occur when cold? It only seems to happen after the laptop has been on for several hours. I usually leave the thing on 24/7 for the past 4 years until this started to occur. Is it worth the effort to fix it?
December 23rd, 2007 at 2:01 pm
sreerama,
First of all run basic hardware diagnostic tests such as memory test and hard drive test. For memory you can use Memtest86+ and for the hard drive Hitachi’s drive fitness test. Links to both utilities you’ll find in Resources on the right side of the website.
Run both tests and find out if you have a faulty memory or a faulty hard drive. That’s would be the first thing to do.
December 22nd, 2007 at 10:18 am
I have a toshiba satellite p35-S609 (P4,1g RAM),ATI Mobility Radeon.(2004).
Recently i found out that after some time the screen saver freezes.And I am unable go to the desktop. But system shows some activity.I have to re start the system. Otherwise the system is working perfectly.
Any suggestion or key combination to go to the desktop, when the screen saver freezes. My power settings are monitor for 3 hours, HDD for 4 hrs.
Any suggestions, I am thankful
sreerama