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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January 24th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
JB,
You can remove the hard drive and start the laptop without HDD installed. The cooling fans on this model start rotating as soon as you turn on the laptop. If the laptop still makes the same loud rattling noise, probably you’ll have to replace the fan. I’m not sure about a very high pitched whining noise.
Here’s some help for people who want to replace the cooling fan themselves. You can find a new fan for Satellite A70 and A75 notebooks by the following part number: K000016310
Toshiba Satellite A70/A75 notebook disassembly guide also will be helpful.
January 24th, 2007 at 4:18 am
I have had an A70 for a year and a half and it was purchased from best buy in Vancouver. Computer started overheating and shutting down so i vacuumed the fans out and it fixed it for a bit. but now it It makes a loud rattling noise when running and sometimes it will make a very high pitched whining noise for several seconds then stop. Before i take it in for expensive service anyone have any ideas? Is it a problem with the fans or the hard drive? The computer works fine other wise. The noise is really irritating and after reading all the complaints about this model i feel ripped off! Noticed the lawsuit settlement doesn’ apply to canadians…..
Thanks in advanced!
January 21st, 2007 at 11:06 pm
In response to “18 Polina Says”
I had exactly the same problem, but got mine fixed for free of charge!
January 17th, 2007 at 11:40 pm
Telegrapher,
Toshiba Satellite M35X uses a regular 2.5” ATA notebook hard drive. I don’t know witch Dell you plan to buy. Some new notebooks still come with ATA hard drives and some with SATA hard drives. Toshiba HDD will work in a Dell Inspiron laptop if it supports ATA drives.
It doesn’t mean that you can install your old drive into a new Dell notebook and boot it to Windows. Before you can use the old drive you have to reinstall the operating system and device drivers, but the drive itself should work in this laptop without any problem.
January 17th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Andre,
Test memory and hard drive first, you’ll find links to the testing utilities in “Links” on the right pane. Try reimage the hard drive with a factory restore DVD. If the hard drive freezes up in Windows, but not when you run it in safe mode, it could be a device driver related issue or you might have a defective hardware device.
I would start taking the laptop apart piece by piece, removing device one by one and test the laptop after each removed device. Remove battery, DVD drive, wireless card, modem, etc… Following this route you can find witch device is causing the problem.
January 15th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Thank you for submitting the information about the Toshiba Laptop law suit. We recently had our (m35x) crash and searching for a solution I found this. I am still researching, but atleast there is something out there to help me. Thanks again.
January 15th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
I have an m35x-149s and it is now a huge paperweight. Just died on Saturday. I’m guessing it was the static issue, but I can’t be sure.
I was using it as I normally do, and all of a sudden, the screen went black, the fan turned off, but the blue power light was still on. Now, when I turn it back on, after about 3 seconds, everything shuts down, but the blue power light still remains on. Once, I was able to get it to where I could choose to boot in safe mode, but it hung up and then went black after several minutes.
I took it apart to check if there was excess dust in the fan, and it was clean. I replaced the thermal compound on both the CPU and video chip prior to putting it back together. I still get the same thing, powers up, shuts down within a few seconds, but the power light continues to glow.
I took the hard disk out and put it in a MadDog sleeve, hooked it up to my Desktop’s USB so I could at least access the hard disk, but I discovered that a good portion of my photos and video clips were corrupted and couldn’t be viewed. I also couldn’t access My Documents because I made it unsharable as a security precaution.
I guess I’m going to have to send it in to get fixed, is there anything else I can do to bring it back to life on my own? Thanks.
January 15th, 2007 at 4:06 am
Thanks for this website. About a week ago I took a spill. My knee did a trick that really showed me who I am! Of course, I could not fall without knocking over the table containing my
M35x S1492. It worked for a couple days after that. Then, Thursday night, as I was logging onto AOL, it suddenly went blank. The power switch glowed blue, but nothing else happened.
I held it in until it shut off, then tried to restart. The fan came on, then shut off after a few seconds. The HDD LED just below the power switch only flashed for a moment.
I read some of the entries here and did some experimenting last night. I removed the HDD, and turned it on. The Toshiba screen came on, then it began the POST. It kept repeating
a system failure message–I wish I had noted down the specific message. I stupidly tried to reinstall the HDD without shutting it off and the screen went blank again.
Since then I have tried to start it with and without the HDD
and I get nothing. I just tried moving the memory module to the other side of the socket. But I’m getting no response, except for the blue light special. Later today, I’m going to buy an HDD enclosure to see if I can read the drive on my desktop.
Do you know if a 2.5″ Toshiba HDD will work in an Dell Inspiron laptop? I am thinking about buying one. Or, can you recommend any further troubleshooting or tricks, or should I go back to typewriters and sliderules?
January 11th, 2007 at 6:37 am
HI, I have a Toshiba Satellite A105-S2101 which freezes up but runs ok in safe mode, i format it, then while without any drivers it still freezes, but still not in safe mode, i am now clueless on how to proceed, can somebody help me
December 26th, 2006 at 11:26 pm
I’m not suprised that I’m not the only one with these problems. My A75 just shuts down when it wants (did it twice tonight within 2 hours), or if I move it to stand up, it’ll freeze. Guess I’ll be calling the dealer I bought this from tomorrow.