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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April 20th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
[...] About 3 weeks ago I received a comment from a user who described his experience with Toshiba Satellite M35X. Today I got one more for Toshiba Satellite A75. Even though these are completely different models, they have very similar problems: laptop heatsink gets clogged and the laptop overheats, improperly grounded top cover causes the laptop to freeze up and reboot, badly designed DC jack causes the power failure. May be your experience is more positive? [...]
April 13th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
hi from Spain! I am trying to fix a m35x-s149. My problem is that bios doesn’t recognize the hard drive. I try the hard drive on other computer, with an adaptor, and it works. I think that the hard drive doesn’t make contact with the socket on the motherboard, because the dvdrom is detected by bios, so motherboard should be good. i try to connect the hard drive without the caddy with no succes. What should I do? Maybe someone could send me a photo of the correct position of the hard drive. Or could you explain how the hard drive makes contact with the socket? Thanks in advice!
April 11th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
I was working on a customer’s laptop (toshiba m35x) and had that freezing problem. I found out that if I have an optical usb mouse plug in on the right side, the laptop would be running fine and I could even use the touchpad with no problem. The moment I unplugged the usb mouse I would get the freezing problem again. I’ve tried this several times and the usb mouse seems to make the problem go away. It works for me, might work for some of you out there with the same problem.
March 10th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
Henry,
Did you remove the CPU during the disassembly? Make sure the CPU is seated properly and it’s LOCKED in the socket. Try reconnecting the memory module, make sure it’s seated properly.
March 8th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
I had a DC power jack issue with my m35X so I took it apart and resoldered the power jack since it had come loose. After reassembling everything, and powering on, the cpu fan comes on for a couple seconds, and the leds come on (both the power and plugged in) but the screen stays blank…
any ideas?
February 27th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
I have an M35X. After repairing the power jack, I recharged without issue. Unfortunately, after one recharge and discharge, I plug in the charger and get a flahing yellow light on the front. I have plenty of power at the motherboard…good connections, etc.
Is the motherboard history? Any help is appreciated…
February 5th, 2007 at 12:10 am
Wes,
May be you can repair your Satellite A70 at no charge? Check out this post.
February 1st, 2007 at 8:45 am
I had a similar problem with an M35X. You may want to try taking out the RAM and then putting it back in… I still don’t know why it worked but it did…
January 31st, 2007 at 12:40 pm
I have an A70. The power lights come on but the power button will not work. I have had the original fix done by Toshiba but now I cannot get the computer to work at all, with or without the battery in.
Please help.
January 27th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
I have Toshiba A 70 Satellite laptop. Since purchasing it two years ago, I have gotten my laptop fixed three times, one was to replace something on the hard drive and the last few times was replacing the AC adaptor on the rear of the computer and cleaning the cooling fans. Be aware of your laptop shutting down and not working. I couldn’t shut down my computer because if I did, it would beep and say UBS error and then beep. I would have to shake my computer to try and get it running. Right now my AC adaptor is acting up again and luckly I bought the performance plan with Best buy and I hope they either fix it or give me a new computer.