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 … 14 13 12 11 10 [9] 8 7 6 5 4 … 1 » Show All
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?
August 31st, 2006 at 3:42 am
I am quite amazed to find that weird TE2100 models have same symptons. I have bought a secondhand one last two weeks ago. It was working fine for the first week except it had a lock up problem when moved and that stupid RTC battery issue. And I am experiencing more crazy problems starting from the second week.
1.) DVD/CDRW drive is working (spinning) constantly without any discs in it. I can see the led light on the drive is lit and when ejected the drive, I can see the motor was spinning until it was ejected.
2.) Occasionally, the LCD’s backlight was off an on every two or three hours at first. And later, it is happening every minute and then constantly off and on.
I was quite annoyed with the issues and tried to figure out what is happening by taking the laptop part’s apart and disconnect/reconnect every modules, connectors and boards. It didn’t work on the first attempt. But the LCD’s backlight flickering issue is no more happening after a few disconnect/reconnect to the ribbons and the boards again. The DVD/CDRW drive spinning without any disc mystery also ended.
However, the CMOS RTC issue still exists. On top of that, my laptop hang every few hours or so. Even worst, it hangs every few minutes after the first hang. I had removed the CPU’s heatsinks and reapply the new thermal compound. But it is still happening. And it is quite strange to notice that the heat generating is not much from the CPU itself but from the location where the gaphic board is located (just above the main memory’s location.) There is a chip there underneath the graphic board too covered by a heat cover. (I think it is a northbridge but not sure). I removed the heat cover from that chip and reapplied the new thermal compoud there too. But it didn’t help either.
And I started searching on the internet for those mysteries and found this site. Quite amaze to know about how similar problems with this stupid TE2100 models. I really liked Toshiba laptops before. But with this model I really dissapointed with TOSHIBA products now. Especailly, this particular TE2100. It really sucks. I can say that, the good name of TOSHIBA models are only back in the history of it’s old pentium series with gray solid books. I like them really much and I still have Satellite 220CDS with me which is still working. Well, anyway, that was just off topic and I really in need of a help for the current problems which I am facing with the devil TE2100 of mine.
I will try to reseat back the power board again to check whether it fix for the frequent lockup issue. Will post here again if it works. (But actually, I already did that just a few minutes ago before getting to this website and notice about that stupid mysteries with TE2100.) Now, I can pay more attention to this particular power board and check.
August 30th, 2006 at 1:54 am
Re: posts #7 & #8
I have the same problem with the vertical lines, etc. I connected an external monitor and it had the same problem so I assume the cause is the video card. I will dismantle it tonight and let you know how I go.
Thanks.
July 7th, 2006 at 2:47 am
Thanks cj2600, I think I will just disassemble the laptop and sell all the parts. It’s no point to spend the money again to fix the RTC battery as the LCD screen is already damaged and I am using a LCD monitor previously before it become unbootable.