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.
If you find this article useful, please consider making a donation to the author. Thank you!
March 8th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
It won’t boot without a video card. TE2100 has a geforce4 video card that gets really hot. Mine got so hot it un-soldered the pins on the card. Had it repaired but it lasted just a couple of weeks. Got a replacement instead. Now I use it with an electric fan pointed at it all the time.
March 8th, 2008 at 11:42 am
My TE2100 doesn’t recognize the sound card. I restarted but same result. The first time it did it I updated the sound drivers and the sound came back. Today it has lost the card again. No sound. Should I try to reseat the card ?
March 6th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Wow, it seems that I’,m not the only one with a TE2100 problem…maybe there’s someone out there who can give me a clue on the following: My unit decided all of a sudden not to boot anymore (that’s how I found this execellent website). If I plug the power cable in the LED indicating power is “green” and the LED indicating charging is “yellow”. After a while (a couple of hours in fact) the charging LED turns “green”. As soon as I hit the “power on ” button the harddisk tries to fire up, stops and the power indicator LED gives the following sequence (I chose Morse code – I’m not to sure if ‘.’ or ‘-’ stands for ’0′ or ’1′): .-…..- (could read 01000001 or 10111110). Has anybody any idea what this means? Any help is greatly appreciated…..
February 26th, 2008 at 7:19 am
I have a Toshiba A25-S207. It is going from battery to A/C and blinks at the bottom then shuts off. I bought a new battery and it’s taking forever to charge and is now doing the same thing. I have NO idea what the problem is. Any help would be great!
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:53 pm
hi,
thanks for the detailed pull apart guide! super stuff!
my TE2100 power led flashes 10000011 and sometimes 01111111, i cant find any reference to lookup the error codes though, can you help?
-joseph
February 18th, 2008 at 2:45 am
Hi.
I have a little “standard” problem. If I want to turn on my Tosh S P 6100 the right LED is lighting green and then permanantly the famous “orange LED” is blinking.
So I opened my Notebook and took alllll components out of it.
I think its really my power board. But if I put my main battery in it the battery will be loaded till I press the power button.
And then many hours later I got very boring and tried to make a “short” on the power board. And then that thing starts to burn and “dusting”. Then the LED´s turnd of… But 3 seconds later the LED´s turn on again. But it is still not working. ^-^
Do you have any solutions to repair it or I must buy a new power poard?
Thanks! -M!ndbyte
February 13th, 2008 at 4:29 am
Marcus,
I don’t know.
Do you know if the keyboard works in BIOS? Enter the BIOS setup menu (if you can) and see if you can use function keys in there. If keys work in BIOS, it’s possible that you have software related issue, try reinstalling the operating system.
February 13th, 2008 at 4:26 am
Javi,
For some reason translating error codes never helped me before because it doesn’t really tell you what is wrong. It gives you some technical explanation but doesn’t tell you witch part to replace or what is wrong.
I assume the new power adapter is good but just in case you can test it with a voltmeter, make sure the adapter outputs correct voltage and amperage labeled on the adapter is the same (or higher) then required by the laptop.
Try minimizing the laptop. Remove DVD drive, hard drive, battery and try turning it on from the AC adapter again. If you still have the same blinking LED, most likely there is a problem with the motherboard and you’ll have to replace it.
February 13th, 2008 at 2:44 am
hi guys…my laptop’s key borad wont work at all. by replacing it do u thnk its gonna work?
February 7th, 2008 at 11:55 am
hello.
My tecra M1 is dead. It didnt boot and there is no lights.
I have replaced the main power supply and now I have
the orange light ( power light ) blinking.
The secuence is:
10100010 — reversed : 01000101 – 0×45
Could you help me with this toshiba error code ? could you traslate it to get any tip ?
Thanks a lot.