The customer brought his Toshiba Satellite A85-S107 and complained that the laptop will not boot. First of all, I tried to start the laptop with a known good AC adapter, to make sure that the customers AC adapter is not a problem. The laptop didn’t start and there were no LED activity, the unit was “dead”. The good AC adapter wasn’t able to start the laptop. I started removing the laptop components one by one trying to eliminate the problem. I removed the battery, the memory module, the wireless card, the DVD drive and it didn’t fix the problem. I had just very few parts left: the system board, the CPU and the switch board. I remove the keyboard to check the power switch board and found that the switch board cable wasn’t properly connected to the system board, it was half way out. I reseated the cable on the system board and the laptop started properly.
BTW, the system board has 2 memory slots and by default the memory stick is located in the slot hidden under the keyboard. BUT, it is not enough to remove the keyboard if you want to replace the original memory module. After you remove the keyboard, you still will not be able to remove the memory because it is hidden under the top cover. To replace the original memory stick in Toshiba Satellite A85 you have to remove the entire top cover!!! It sucks!
Here’s a disassembly guide that shows how to replace a memory module on Toshiba Satellite A85.
If you find this article useful, please consider making a donation to the author. Thank you!
October 14th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
The Toshiba A85-s107 has a design and manufacturing error that causes the mainboard to have errors and eventually fail. The board design itself is ok, but the underside of the top of the case has gold colored metal particles sprayed on with a glue to control EM emissions from the electronic components, which is required by the FCC. Unfortunately, the glue fails and the particles begin to fall off into the mainboard, shorting the on board components. The fix is to disassemble the laptop completely, carefully cleaning all the particles off the mainboard (I use canned air and cotton swabs with 91% isopropol alcohol. Be careful not to leave any cotton strands behind.), AND using a good quality plastic bonding spray paint, spray 2 or 3 very light coats of paint onto the part of the case with the metal particles. Be sure to tape all the metal grounding contacts attached to the case so that they will make contact with the mainboard’s contacts. Otherwise further damage could result to the mainboard.
Good luck!
August 12th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
I have a Tohiba Satellite A85-s107.. I cannot get past the CMOS boot password.. It started not allowing our previous password.. where is the CMOS battery? what would you recommed to fix it?
February 11th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
have a a85-s107 gives me an error at bootup resource conflict-pci on motherboard bus:02,device:03,function:00
if i turn the lan off in the bios it will boot with no error but will not recognize my pcmia or internal wireless help please
December 18th, 2008 at 10:34 am
To remove the memory module uner the keyboard, I just cut off te strip of plastic above it. Be careful.
November 15th, 2008 at 12:07 am
The solution works, thanks a lot. My laptop now turns on by pressing the keys [X,C,V] and the power button. The switch board cable is just underneath those keys.