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.
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April 16th, 2006 at 9:32 am
Hi Shane,
Very strange problem. When you turn on the laptop and see no activity, no video on the LCD or the external monitor I would recommend to test the memory. If you have 2 memory sticks installed, try to remove them one by one and start the laptop.
I cannot understand how connecting the external monitor can help your laptop to boot. The only thing I can guess is a bad connection somewhere inside the laptop. When you connect the external monitor you press on the system board or the video card and make the laptop to boot.
April 14th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
Hello, my questions pretains to the same as listed but my problem is slightly different. I have a toshiba satellite laptop, when you turn the power on it the light just comes on. No post or hardrive, or cd-rom action. When I plug it into a external monitor it comes up fine and the hard drive and cd-rom start working. I can then switch it back to the laptop and it shows on the screen. It will work fine for a couple days, I can leave it on or turn it off and it the laptop will work like normal, but then out of the blue, it will freeze up and once it restarts same thing happens no screen, sometimes when i plug the external in it still wont work and acts like it does’nt see the monitor. Let it sit for a day then it works again. Any Ideas??
Thanks
Shane
March 23rd, 2006 at 11:27 am
Hi Rita,
To be able to type in Portuguese, you have to do next:
Go to Control Panel – Regional and Language Options – Languages Tab – Details Button – Click Add Button and select your language. Click OK.
Now you can use Left Alt+Shift (default settings) to switch between languages.
I hope I answered your question.
March 23rd, 2006 at 11:13 am
Eu formatei meu satellite a85-s107 TOSHIBA mas eu nao estou conseguindo obter a configuracao do keiboard em portugues. como devo proceder para que meu teclado aceite os sinais graficos da lingua portuguesa.
grata,
Rita
March 16th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
I just took pictures for Toshiba Satellite A85 laptop disassembly guide. Now I need some time to put everything together. Pretty soon you’ll see the guide on http://www.irisvista.com
March 5th, 2006 at 10:48 am
You are right Abby,
There is an error code 72h listed for Toshiba Tecra 9100.
Toshiba recommends next steps to fix the problem:
1. Check the AC adapter. Replace the AC adapter if it is bad.
2. Disassemble the laptop and check the connection between the AC adapter and the system board. Here is Toshiba Tecra 9100 disassembly guide . Check if the system board is getting power from the AC adapter. I guess you have to use a multimeter.
3. Check if the fuses on the system board are not blown. (I am not sure witch fuses you have to check, never done it myself).
4. Replace the system board.
Good luck.
March 5th, 2006 at 1:56 am
I finally found some time to try this out.
I took out everything except for the system, I/O, CPU and memory and now I get an error code 72h from the LED. From what I found out on the web, 72h error means:
“PPV voltage is not more than 0.68V when the computer is booting up.”
I guess something must have blown. I am thinking of investing $80 on a system board to see if this is going to save the laptop. What do you think?
Thanks alot!
February 26th, 2006 at 12:40 am
You tried to take out the memory but did you try to install a known good memory? You will not get any video without at lease one memory stick installed into the laptop. I would try to minimize the system – remove the DVD drive, the modem, the hard drive, the battery etc. and start the laptop to see if you can get any video. If it doesn’t help I would try to reseat all internal connectors, I was able to fix some dead units just by reseating internal cables. Also I know that this laptop model often fails because a bad connection between the I/O board (upper board) and the system board (lower board). You can try to disconnect the I/O board from the system board and connect it back. If it doesn’t help, minimize the system completely and leave just the system board, I/O board, CPU and memory. Connect it to an external monitor and try to see if you can get any video. If it doesn’t help then most likely the system board or the I/O board is bad. I cannot narrow it down and usually we replace both boards for these laptops. From my experience I know that a system board fails much more often than a CPU does.
February 26th, 2006 at 12:16 am
Thanks for putting up the guides and information. It has been really helpful.
I have a similar problem with my Tecra 9100. When I press the power on button, the power LED just turns green but the screen reminds black, nothing shows up and there no fan noise or anything. Same thing happens if I uses AC only or Battery only. The LEDs for the AC and battery are working properly. I tried taking out the add-on memory but it didn’t help either. And I also tried pluggin in to an external monitor but still nothing comes up. I am losing faith. Do you think it is a bad system board or CPU?
Thanks in advance.
February 13th, 2006 at 5:10 pm
Great information. Really usefull. I just came accross your site today. I’ll be sure to bookmark it. Take it easy.