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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March 31st, 2006 at 4:07 pm
CJ you rock man.
Thanks a bunch. I totally missed the read backwards thing.
So I did disassemble the unit and tried your disconnecting the power card connectors and then reconnecting them solution. Then after reassembly. It worked and I used it 2 times, then the software locked and didn’t respond to the cont alt del commard interrupt. Then I bumped the laptop and it did the power crash again. With the same code.
Do you have any other suggestion in light of the error code?
March 30th, 2006 at 7:12 pm
Hi Tamsey,
When you translate the power LED flashing code you have to read it backward. If it flashes 01001111 you should read 11110010 or F2 in hex.
Here is what Toshiba says about F2h error for Toshiba Tecra TE2100 laptop: CPUVCC voltage is 1.08 V or less with the power turned on.
March 30th, 2006 at 3:05 pm
I have a TE2100 with the power in light flashing orange it turns out to be a hex code of 4F or 79 in decimal the binary is 01001111. I tried to find a service manual to translate this message, but the manual I found wasn’t for the Tecra TE2100 and the code wasn’t listed. The laptop is having a power problem of some sort. It charges the battery and I can reset the computer only to get the same non booting behavior and the error code flashes again. I would like to pin point the problem before trial and error disassembly. I haven’t had the best of luck with disassembly. Do you have a lead on the error codes?
)
Cool manual. Looks like a fun job.
March 25th, 2006 at 10:25 am
Reseating the power board helped but did not fix it completely. But I did find another way to make it work ***flawlessly***. The solution for me was to put something underneath the laptop- to make it sit at a slight incline. Position a wedge on the right hand side, somewhere below the HD at an angle around 15 derees. After considerable efforts – I don’t believe it has to do with straining the motherboard in any way. A buddy told me maybe a capacitor has fluid in it and it has been ‘draining’ over the last few years, the slight angle would help. Sounds a little crazy to me, but like I said – I don’t think it has anything to do with straining the mother board. I’ve tried to emulate it without gravity by pushing on it – for hours – and couldn’t get it to be as stable as a small incline. Anyways, I hope someone out there finds this useful.
March 21st, 2006 at 6:10 pm
On the bottom of the laptop there is a latch for the CD-ROM drive. On the left side from the latch there is a screw. Remove the screw, open the latch and slide the CD-ROM drive away from the computer.
March 19th, 2006 at 6:07 pm
I just wanted to thank you for explaining how to fix the boot problem. For me my laptop slowly degraded to the point where it was useless. Now, it works! it still will randomly reboot and lock on start up but atleast it works!!! Usually I find removing the hard drive or disconnctiong the keyboard helps it get started. Then again I could be crazy. I carry a set of screwdrivers around with my laptop now
On problem I did have.. how to get the cdrom drive out? I couldn’t pull it out from the side.
March 16th, 2006 at 9:45 pm
Hi Dee,
Most likely the battery is bad and should be replaced. Last week I had to troubleshoot a laptop with the same problem. After I charged the battery 100%, I remove the power jack and left the laptop to run off the battery. After about 15-20 minutes the battery level dropped to 75%. 1-2 minutes the low battery level message popped up and the laptop turned off. There shouldn’t be a problem if you run Windows XP without Service Pack.
You can also try to download and reinstall Toshiba Power Management software. It is possible the software was corrupted and causing the problem.
March 16th, 2006 at 6:14 am
Hi cj2600,
I have checked the Power Options settings and the Critical Battery Alarm is set to even 2%. And the laptop still hibernates at about 54%. What usually happens is when it is about 54% it brings on the Critical Battery Alarm message and by then the battery level is reading 3% and it hibernates shortly afterwards. The laptop runs XP with no Service Pack installed. I am wondering if that could be the problem
March 9th, 2006 at 11:48 am
Hi Dee,
Check your Power Option settings in Control Panel.
Open Control Panel, click on Power Options tab, click on Alarms tab.
You will see to sliders for Low Battery Alarm and Critical Battery Alarm. Normally first one is set to 10% and second one set to 4%. I guess in your case it is set to 54%. Apparently your laptop is set up to go to hibernation after the battery level riches 54%.
March 9th, 2006 at 11:32 am
I have a toshiba te2100. The problem i get with it is when the battery gets to about 54%, it says the battery level is critical and hibernates immediately. I changed the battery amd still experience the same problem what could be the problem