If you own a Toshiba Satellite M35X, A70 or A75 laptop then you can experience the following problem. You laptop might lock up, freeze up or even reboot by itself when you touch the palm rest around the speakers area. It happens because of a static electricity discharge when your touch the laptop speakers. In some cases you will not even fill that discharge. The problem occurs because of improperly grounded top cover assembly. To fix the problem, it is necessary to install a new modified top cover assembly. If you laptop was made before January 2005 then most likely you have unmodified top cover. For example, I made some pictures from a Toshiba Satellite A75 top cover assembly. The top cover for Toshiba Satellite M35X is almost identical.
On these pictures you see unmodified top cover assembly for Toshiba Satellite A75. The foil runs from the speaker and from the touchpad to the metal chassis.
On these pictures you see a modified top cover assembly. The foil runs from the speaker and the touchpad, touches the metal chassis and ends on a screw stud.
On this picture I remove the metal bracket, so you can see where the foil tape is connected.
I think it is possible to make this modification yourself. All you need is to find a foil and run it as it shown on the pictures. I have never done it myself, so not sure about the result. 
Here are some other problems found in these models.
Power jack issues: Toshiba Satellite M35X and Satellite A75 power jack and battery charge problem
Overheating: Why my Toshiba laptop suddenly shuts down by itself without warning?
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December 26th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
My a70 is a crap computer is there anyplace i can go to get it re called or fixed by toshiba or anything?
battery life sucks, blanks out, doesnt start half the time and has electroshocks. Over heats too.
meh.
December 25th, 2006 at 9:14 pm
Vishal,
Here’s what you can try. Buy an external USB enclosure for laptop hard drives. It’s relatively cheap and you can find one in a local computer store. Remove the hard drive from your laptop and install it inside the USB enclosure. Connect the enclosure to a working computer via USB interface. If you are lucky and the hard drive is still in a good condition, it will be recognized by another computer and you can access the files and transfer them to a safe location.
December 22nd, 2006 at 12:12 pm
Hi
Does anyone have any advice on how to resurect an M35X after it’s done its black screen of death – I think the cause was static at the side usb when a printer was plugged in.
If I get a new BIOS from Toshiba; how can I run it – is it just a case of putting it on a cd and getting the thing to run it.
Do all computers die at the point of maximum inconvenience or is it just Toshibas…
December 22nd, 2006 at 6:48 am
I have been having a lot of problems w/ my Toshiba A70 laptop, lockups, shutdowns, blue screen of death and so on, sent it in three times for repair and they say there is nothing wrong w/ it.
I came across your website and took your advise on grounding the top cover. When I took the unit apart I could see that it had already been modified as per your pics, I added more grounding tape all over the top cover, every where there was some i added more on top or beside, and made sure the tape ended on a screw hole. This fix has worked great, the laptop has been working steady for 3 days now w/ no problems. Thank you very much for the advise and pictures.
December 21st, 2006 at 8:00 pm
A70 Issues
when i start the computer it says this:
SMART failure predicted on HARD DISK 0: Toshiba MK4025GAS- (PM)
WARNING: Immediatetly backup your data and replace your hard disk drive. A Failure may be imminent.
Press F1 to continue.
(and beeps in 15sec intervals)
when i press F1 this is what shows up:
We apologize for the inconvieniecne but windows did not start successfully. A Recent hardware of software chanemight have caused this.
If You computer stopped….. (and so on)
SAFE MODE
SAFE MODE WITH NETWORKING
SAFE MODE WITH COMMAND PROMPT
LAST KNOWN GOOD CONFIGURATION
START WINDOWS NORMALLY
then when i pick one this shows up on a BLUE SCREEN with WHITE FONT:
A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.
If this is the first time you seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:
Check for viruses on you computer.
Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers.
Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated.
Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer.
TECHNICAL INFO:
*** STOP: 0×0000007B (0xF7A70528, 0XC0000034, 0X00000000, 0X00000000)
CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TEL ME WHAT I CAN DO TO GET SOME FILES OFF MY COMPUTER AND SOME FONTS. THIS LAPTOP SUCKS!
November 30th, 2006 at 2:35 pm
Kal,
I had the same problem when I worked on my lap or briefly laid it on the bed to get up for a while. It seems the lack of air to the fans on the bottom of the laptop causes an immediate shut down.
Actually, the fans have been replaced with stronger ones due to a lack of airflow causing shutdowns. Overheating has been a problem.
Maybe you had the same experience.
Charles
November 30th, 2006 at 2:30 pm
Steven,
I am having the same problem. I took cj2600’s advice and re-installed the Power Saver Software and drives. After a reboot, no change.
Let me know if you have a solution. I sure would hate to reformat the hard drive with so many applications (ans updates and servie packs) to reinstall.
Charles
Atlanta
October 30th, 2006 at 9:06 pm
Lee,
Make sure that your generic AC adapter provides enough power for the laptop. For Toshiba Satellite A70 and A75 the voltage output should be exactly 19V and amperage 6.3A or higher (not less then 6.3A). The original AC adapter provides 19V-6.3A. That’s could be your problem.
Both fans should start spinning when you turn on the laptop. After that, I believe, it’s normal if only one fan is working. The second fan might start up later, when the CPU temperature gets higher. To see if both fans can spin, turn on the laptop and look at the fans through the openings on the bottom of the laptop.
October 28th, 2006 at 10:57 pm
Hi,
cj2600, I’m not sure if you remember me, but I had a problem with my Toshiba A70, where the charger would stop charging when I would do something hardware extensive (watch a move/play a game). I actually have a generic charger that has a light indicator to show that it was working. I went through one of them where I would use it on low processor mode and I burned it out when I tried to put it on high processor mode (you told me before you thought it was the charger that was the problem). So I got a replacement and it worked fine for several months.. until a couple of days ago. It would work fine for a period of time until I do something hardware extensive, the green light on my charger would turn off, the charger itself become really hot and it would stop charging. So I assumed it was a faulty charger. But then I noticed that one of the bottom fans on my unit doesn’t turn on.
My questions:
Are both fans suppose to be on all the time?
Can overheating because of broken fan stop the charger from charging?
I know you belive it’s a faulty AC jack, but then how come it works fine when I don’t do things hardware extensive?
I have a friend who has the same laptop, but I’m not sure if I want to test his authentic charger with the risk of burning it out.
I thank you in advance for any advice you can give.
October 23rd, 2006 at 6:12 pm
Brian,
May be it’s just a software issue? I would probably try reimaging the drive back to factory defaults using a recovery DVD. Before you run the restore process, backup all personal data.