Why Toshiba Tecra TE2100 laptop locks up or will not boot at all?
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.
Entry Filed under: Toshiba Laptop Problems
247 Responses to “Why Toshiba Tecra TE2100 laptop locks up or will not boot at all?”
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Pages: « 25 … 12 11 10 9 8 [7] 6 5 4 3 2 … 1 » Show All
June 25th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
Hi CJ2600, I am having the boot up issue on my TE2000 (starts intermittently). Not having found any mention of the TE2000 on this site, I am wondering how close the TE2000 and TE2100 are in terms of design, assembly and hence disassembly. In particular the reseating the power board seems like it could fix the symptoms my laptop is displaying.
June 24th, 2006 at 12:09 am
It is just a generic Broadcom mini pci wlan card. You don’t have to buy a toshiba branded one (i.e. selling an arm to get one). It is $189 for a Toshiba 11b one, and I bought my 11g one for $65. Just make sure you find a place that will let you try the card in your notebook first so you can verify that it works. Also its easier if your notebook has the antenna there already, saves you having to wire that up.
June 21st, 2006 at 1:41 pm
Congratulations John,
I didn’t know that you can fix this problem for FREE.
BTW, I found that Toshiba lists only 802.11b wireless card for this model. Did you get your 11g working? Did you find correct drivers?
June 20th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
Hi. I’ve just had my 2yr out of wty TE2100 had the pcb replaced for FREE! The service shop diagnosed it and if it matched their criteria for the rtc ‘fault’ they would replace the pcb for free, but if it wasn’t the ‘fault’ they would charge me $75 just for looking at it or $450 if I wanted to replace the PCB. Luckily it matched their ‘fault’. Now I’ve just bought a Broadcom mini-pci 11g wlan for it, still good enough to run xp sp2, office, ie, etc.
June 19th, 2006 at 3:03 am
Ty CJ thats a pretty cheap fix…i will give it a shot
June 18th, 2006 at 9:14 pm
Smokie,
Check if the keyboard is connected properly to the motherboard. A bad connection might cause the mouse not to work. Also check if it is not disabled in software settings. Check if you can use a combination of keyboard keys to disable/enable the mouse (something like Fn+F9). I think that the video cable in your laptop is bad and video card is OK, because you have a normal video on the external monitor.
June 18th, 2006 at 5:43 am
I have a te2100 with some probs, the LCD flickers back and forth from crystal clear to what looks like safe mode colors? then the screen starts to jump around then it clears up like nothing is wrong then a few minutes later it starts up again this thing had been nothing but a headache i used the step by step instructions to take the cover off and check and see if the monitor ribbon was loose but it wasnt when i put it back together the mouse buttons on the laptop didnt work anymore? and the screen kept freaking out, Now when i plug in my monitor in to it its great, works just fine no probs at all does anyone have a guess on whats wrong with this thing and maybe a solution other than buy a new laptop… Thanks for any help, Smokie
June 17th, 2006 at 5:27 am
my te 2100 (purchased new) had a HD failure (travelstar) and then the flashing power light (apparently syndrome),i replaced the motherboard not knowing about the power board contact issue,and it has worked fine for my son for the last 6 months,it now suddenly displays the same flashing power light issue,i will try the suggested fix from this valuable resource,then i think ill cut my costs and bin it thankyou for the efforts o this site,regards.lee in Australia
June 17th, 2006 at 2:47 am
Hi. My TE2100 is facing one of the problems you guys have mentioned — the most left LED keeps on flashing (orange in colour) after I have pluged it out from the sockets (when someone expeled me from a room few days ago. yes it has been flashing for a few days). I read some of your comments and said it was due to a poor connection of blah blah blah board and blah blah blah board. Sorry I ain’t really sure how to fix it. Can anyone give me some advise?
June 5th, 2006 at 11:13 pm
Hey Adam,
First of all, thanks for your comments. I didn’t really intent to say that ALL TE2100 laptops are bad. I just wanted to share my observations based on my experience. I’ve changed “several sweeping statements” so people will not assume that ALL TE2100 laptops have inherent faults.
I didn’t quantify “my statement” because we do not sell laptops, we repair them. We see only failed laptops. I cannot give you a ratio of failed laptops to not failed laptops. From my own observation, about 80% of all TE2100 laptops I had to repair had one of the above listed problems and laptops were 2-3 years old. I guess this number is high because our customer has their own technicians and they can handle simple stuff like failed memory or failed hard drive themselves. They gave us only laptops that they were not able to repair.