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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July 30th, 2006 at 10:27 pm
Laptop is getting power from the AC adapter or from the battery. That’s it. Just in case try to remove the battery, connect the adapter and turn on the laptop (without the battery installed).
Now, when you mentioned that that the power LED on the front lights up but button LED doesn’t, I think that you might have a bigger problem then just a failed memory. The power button LED should light up when you press on the button even with the failed memory module. It might be the system board issue.
You can check if your laptop is still under warranty on the Toshiba website.
July 30th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
Yeah I’m definitely going to go get it checked out tomorrow..I hope it’s still under warranty. But I was just curious as to what the problem was. Basically the computer doesn’t turn on at all – the LED that I was referring to that lights up is the one in the very front (one of four small lights), but when you open the laptop up and push the big power on button, absolutely nothing happens – essentially the computer is “dead”. Like the big LED around the power button doesn’t turn green when I push the on button. I feel like it might have something to do with the battery – is there some other source of power aside from just AC power or the removable battery that works to turn the laptop on?
July 30th, 2006 at 9:56 pm
If I understand right, you do not get any video when you turn on the laptop. To boot the laptop with video, you need 3 main components – motherboard, CPU and memory. If you get no video, then very likely one of these components is bad.
Satellite A85 is a new model and most likely your laptop is still under warranty. If it is, take the laptop to a repair shop and let them fix it.
July 30th, 2006 at 9:22 pm
Basically I’m asking if there’s anything else that might be causing the problem – something that wouldn’t require me to take the whole top cover off to fix? Thanks man, I appreciate the help.
July 30th, 2006 at 9:20 pm
Given that there’s no opening in the top cover for memory access, this will inevitably require me to take apart the whole lap top then..?
July 29th, 2006 at 7:29 pm
Even though you left your laptop in the car, it shouldn’t damage the laptop (unless it was very cold outside). If a laptop doesn’t do anything when you turn it on, I would try to install a test memory first. There is a good chance that it’ll fix the problem.
July 29th, 2006 at 7:17 pm
Hey. I’m having a problem with my Toshiba Satellite A85 series laptop. Basically it hasn’t had any major problems in the past, but just a few days ago it stopped booting up. When I plug the AC adapter in, the small LED on the front of the laptop that shows it’s connected to AC power lights up. However, when I open the laptop up and press the power button, nothing happens. What do you think is the problem here? I left it in the car all day by accident a day or so before it happened so I feel like that had something to do it, be it the heat or whatnot. Could this have caused something? Thanks a lot for your help.
July 17th, 2006 at 10:50 pm
Fazalu,
I attached a link at the end of the post. The link will take you to a Toshiba Satellite A85 memory replacement guide. Steps 6-9 show how to remove the laptop keyboard.
July 17th, 2006 at 2:19 am
how to remove the keyboard is not working model is toshiba satellitev a85-s107
June 19th, 2006 at 10:47 pm
Elroy,
For Toshiba Satellite A65 it doesn’t make a big difference if onboard memory is bad or the system board itself is bad. In both cases the motherboard must be replaced because you cannot replace the onboard memory yourself – it’s a few chips permanently soldered to the system board.