Toshiba Satellite M35X, A70 or A75 locks up, freezes up or reboots when you touch the laptop speakers
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?
Entry Filed under: Toshiba Laptop Problems
109 Responses to “Toshiba Satellite M35X, A70 or A75 locks up, freezes up or reboots when you touch the laptop speakers”
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Pages: « 11 10 9 8 [7] 6 5 4 3 2 1 » Show All
June 11th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
I am trying to make a hard drive to hard drive copy of my laptop to upgrade from my 40gig to a120gig drive using my tower computer to do the job. When I first got the new drive I did the copy successfully, but in trying things to correct my freezing and rebooting problems I wiped the 120gig drive and did a complete recovery disk procedure to see if it was driver or software issues. Now that the bios upgrade fixed the problems, now I can’t get my tower computers, either one, to recognize the laptop drives so I can do the drive-to drive copy procedure again. Is there some way to get the tower computers to recognize them? Both laptop drives work in the Toshiba M35X-S109, I just can’t get the small 40gig drive to copy to the large 120gig drive, they are not recognized by the towers.
June 11th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Thanks for a great fix! I ended up fixing my freeze up and reboot problems with a bios upgrade. Works great now!
June 10th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Claude,
First of all, I would run the memory test and the hard drive test utility (links in Resources in the sidebar). Make sure both passes test.
June 8th, 2007 at 7:49 am
I have a very strange problem with my Toshiba M35X-S109. I’ve had all the power plug problems as well, and resolved them by solder the circuit board points and soldering a wire from the center post of the power plug socket on the top of the motherboard to a component lead that is connected to it through the circuitboard foil. The power plug problem has now worked fine for months, and still does. My problem now is that it freezes up or reboots either during boot up or within a minute after it fully boots. When I could not get control either with the mouse or the keyboard I tried an outboard USB mouse and rebooted. To my surprise it works fine as long as I leave the USB mouse connected to the back USB sockets. Both the mouse pad on the computer and the USB mouse work. The slow speed side USB socket does not have any effect on this problem. Just for an experiment I tried replacing the USB mouse with a removable “stick” drive and it works fine with it as well. My conclusion is that something HAS to be plugged into the USB ports on the back to complete some sort of connection that has either broken or come loose and the USB component, what ever you plug in there, is completeing the circuit that it needs to run with stability. By the way, it runs just fine without the USB device plugged in if you run Windows XP in “safe” mode. Suspecting a driver or software problem, I did a complete recovery disk procedure and wiped the hard drive and put it back the way it came from the store….same problem. So….the issue must be a problem with a bad connection with the hardware,….motherboard, grounding problem with the USB ports on the back? If you can help me with some suggestions of what to look for or check I would certainly appreciate it. Please reply to my e-mail address because I may not be able to find the reply on the Website.
June 7th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
LoOner,
Maybe the memory module is not making a good connection with the motherboard? Try reseating RAM modules.
June 6th, 2007 at 11:21 am
I disassembled my M35X down to the motherboard. I re-soldered a DC (with a wire externally). I put it back together. It worked and I was proud. Left it in hybernation THE NEXT DAY while I ran some errands. WHen I came home it wouldnot turn on.
-Power & Battery lights register
-Side CD Player turns on, but no power or noises from the Computer.
ANy ideas?????
April 28th, 2007 at 3:40 am
Hmm. It was silly of me not to say what kind of computer it is. It’s an HP Pavilion laptop, and I think it’s about 4 years old. It probably won’t cost much if HP won’t do it for free if I find an HP repair center. The place we bought it at (a local COMPUSA) went out of business, so we can’t take it there. I suppose it’d be better to have them repair it incase I can get a discount or free repairs if i haven’t tried working on it myself.
April 24th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
Brend,
If it’s a Satellite M30X, M35X, A70, A75 laptop and you purchased the laptop in the USA, take it to an authorized repair center and they will replace the top cover assembly at no charge.
April 24th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
I’ve been having a problem with my own laptop like this. Every time i move my feet, the computer freezes or simply shuts down (completely, as if in a blackout without a battery). It seems that it’s exactly as you describe this toshiba’s problem: whenever i touch the speakers without touching something metal first, it gives me trouble. How should I go about fixing this?
April 23rd, 2007 at 5:46 am
HI All , I’ve got a similar problem , battery et AC adaptator are okay , I can start laptop one time ( even start OS ) , once warm (40 to 60s) , it reset , then nothing append …… , led light on and then off as pressing on PowerOn.
I search plan of the motherboard to see if I can find a defective thermal sensor and cut it.