For all “happy” Toshiba Satellite M35X laptop owners.
I just received a very interesting comment for one of my posts. I think that this comment would be very useful for many Toshiba Satellite M35X laptop users and deserves to be published as a standalone post. The comment was submitted by user Hack.
In the following article the author mentions the picture posted here: Toshiba Satellite 1900. Laptop loses power and shuts down without warning.
Here it is:
Well I have arrived with the same problem as the rest of you. I bought a M35X-S149, my first mistake. Let me say that I think Toshiba robbed us all. What a LEMON. My LCD backlight inverter burnt out at 3 months, and now at 12 months and 2 weeks my laptop won’t charge. I called Toshiba and they WILL NOT SEND ME A #041011, nor will anyone who will repair the board for $150-$200. The spring in the audio out jack that holds a plug snug is shot, all output is crackling and worthless.
Talk about pissed. Oh yea I almost forgot, the recall too. The idiots forgot to install proper shielding for the motherboard causing freezing and reboots; of course Toshiba never notified me about the problem. Anyway my anger is causing me to loose my focus.
The author is 95% correct, resolder the circled points in the picture and you should be back in business. Although if the jack itself has problems like mine did, all resoldering the jack will do is PISS YOU OFF. The way that the jack is designed provides a poor connection. There is only one tiny piece of metal that makes contact to the outer negative part of the plug.
Don’t be fooled by looking at the jack from the outside. All of those daisy petals that look like they hug the outside of the plug don’t do anything electrically; they just attempt to hold in the plug in place against a tiny contact at the bottom of the jack in between the daisy petals. The power connection was gradually getting harder and harder to get the orange light to stay lit so it would charge. That was my jack slowly wearing out or quickly wearing out. It took about a month or two. Then finally the jack was noticeably loose, that was the day that the solder point on the positive connection broke loose. It didn’t break loose from the board; the metal pin broke loose inside the solder itself. The craptop would no longer show any lights at all except the blinking orange light of rage. Someone please call Toshiba and tell them to USE FLUX!In the photo, the two solder points on the left and the right hold the outer shielding over the jack and hold it in place. At no point does the outer shielding make contact with the inside of the jack, even though on the board they are all connected. The top center solder point is the negative connection, and the bottom center is the positive. That tip is for those who want to do what I did to fix my craptop.
A new Motherboard is $250 F That
I soldered the wires from an adapt plug [part #64-026] from Radio Shack directly to the board, and then the male version [part #273-1742] to the freshly beheaded power cord. Make sure to only cut the end off, just the plug. If you attempt this you will need some solder wick and at least a 25w iron to pull the jack from the board. Use a 15w iron to solder the new wires in place. Make sure you don’t plug the wires in backwards. The + on the male must line up with the “tip” stamped on the female side, that is the only point of caution. Don’t leave your fixed craptop alone in the presence of useful idiots.
I would just recommend going with the pig tail method for the simple fact that the jack itself is cheap and will stretch and stretch until your craptop no longer charges. So really, who wants to take their laptop apart 2x. The first time my laptop wouldn’t charge unless I slightly pulled it to one side or the other I took the board out only to find only the solder points on the board were solid. The temp fix for that was to make a tiny L shape with a paper clip, crimp it flat, then get it inside the jack and bend out the daisy petals a little bit so it holds the plug in a little better. That fix lasted for a month, the second time 3 weeks, and it wasn’t worth a third attempt, because at this point the wiggle made it obvious that the jack was now loose on the board.
If you want some solid laptop advice, buy a HP/Compaq I Image laptops and desktops in a 3,000+ workstation environment day in and day out. All the machines are HP. I can’t speak for the new models, but the N610c is a nice. I have seen at least 200 of them after 3 years of abuse in the field, and not a single one with a power problem.
Related posts:
Toshiba Satellite M35X, A70 or A75 locks up, freezes up or reboots when you touch the laptop speakers.
Toshiba Satellite 1900. Laptop loses power and shuts down without warning.
Toshiba Satellite M35X and Satellite A75 power jack and battery charge problem.
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August 14th, 2011 at 6:14 pm
I must say Hack offers a compelling argument regarding his Toshiba 35x “craptop” and I feel equally compelled to state my experience (…and no I do not have any Toshiba affiliation nor am I getting paid for any endorsements, (unless they offer of course)).
I’ve owned several computer brands and no other has withstood the stand of time…It started with a Dell desktop that conveniently crashed 2 weeks after warranty and an HP Laptop that also did the same (as a side note I also had a HP 4-in-1 printer that didn’t last long either). Currently have a new Dell laptop that was a gift but ironically doesn’t run several applications. I brought the HP after its crash for repair, but to no avail. It was literally a $900 paper weight and I learned from the repair tech that HP is 60% of his overall business and Toshiba products were less than 2%.
I bought my Toshiba M35x in 2005 while serving in Iraq and to give you an idea of the conditions, the box it was in was covered in dust when I purchased it. I used it daily for games and DVD’s (Internet was not available at that time). After returning home I bought a Hp Pavilion thinking I was upgrading, and it is the one that crashed. In the meantime I stored my Toshiba M35x in a box that ended up in our non-climate controlled shed for about a year. Let me add I’m now stationed at Ft Bliss in the desert.
After our other pc’s limited survival rates the Toshiba has been recovered from the shed and the harsh climate (guess which pc I’m using right now to add my experience?) I recently opened my Toshiba’s circuitry to give it a thorough cleaning and discovered enough dirt and sand to create my own beach. Outside of the “W” key coming loose and upgrading the RAM, it has been our only consistent goto computer.
The moral of the story is stay as far away from Dell and especially HP products…Personally, I hope my story can serve for some purpose as I’ve spent countless hours searching for hopeless remedies to salvage our Dell and HP products, to only discover that the old Toshiba is durable and reliable…
January 4th, 2011 at 5:57 pm
I got a M35X-S111 as a gift, and after 2 months lap top refuses to work. The problem was corrected with another “Motherboard”, I think they pretend for a new one, but most likely refurbished it.
After two years same problem, start up, fan works for seconds, and after nothing happen. Plugging and unplugging the power cord sometimes helped, or starting with battery removed had 10 percent success. The support for BIOS and drivers is ridiculous.
One more thing you need do not know. If a real virus modifies the HD sectors, you cannot format or write on this HD. Boot & Nuke cannot perform a HD wipe out process. You have to rewrite the sectors with a specific program, for you specific Hard Drive and computer. It happen to me, many times with COMPAQ and rewriting sector process vent smooth.
At this web side ONLY TOSHIBA REFUSES TO PROVIDE THE SOFTWARE TO WRITE HARD DRIVE SECTORS. SO DO NOT BUY TOSHIBA.
I bought a HP Compaq computer. Dell, Sony are good too, but do not buy TOSHIBA.
December 15th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
I had same problem. I turned it off, and I beat the crap out of it by pounding it with my hand. i turned it back on, and its been working for a week now.
this tells me something MUST be loose. So, i plan to takeit apart ad check ALL connections, prolly just gettingold and something worked loose.
July 18th, 2009 at 12:26 am
I need help to remove the back cover of a Toshiba laptop, Satellite M35X-S161 to access the hard drive. Does some one know which screws I need to work on in the back and the front(if needed) or any hidden ones? There are just too many of them in the back cover.I need to access the hard drive to retrieve the data since I cannot boot the system because of an error message “windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\windows\system32\config\system
Using the recovery disk that came with Toshiba would erase the data per the message on the screen. Many many thanks in advance.
Also, how can we mass advertise, after reading all the comments here at the site, to let the public know, to stay away from Toshiba laptops?
June 17th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
I totally agree with this person. Toshiba doesn’t even have any service manual on their site. Any company that hides critical info from its customers should not be given any sale and should be forced to release those info. same goes for sony! they all suck!
February 20th, 2009 at 10:15 am
I have toshiba Satellite m35x laptop. It worked fine for about 4 years . now it is getting hanged say abt after 2 or 3 min after starting it. and when I press power button it will start. I have to do it 3 or 4 times then it comes up.
Can any help me out in this regard
Thanks in advance for your help
August 25th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Matt DeHaven,
You can remove the hard drive, install it into an external USB enclosure and access all personal data from another computer. Of course if there is nothing wrong with the hard drive. I explained this process in more details in this post: Accessing notebook hard drive using USB enclosure.
August 21st, 2008 at 6:17 pm
I have a Toshiba Satellite M35-S114, ive had for a couple years now and it was fine until recently. I pressed the power button and it turned on. so i left it alone, then came back later to find it was still starting up. so i watched for a few minutes and found that it just keeps rebooting itself and windows will not start up.. i dont know what to do with the thing.. i want to purchase a better computer but i have my iTunes memory on my toshiba.. so i need to get this thing fixed, or jus take the memory out of this computer and put it on another (if thats possible?) so any help is greatly appreciated, you can e-mail me at Mrdhavn@aol.com.. Thanks
May 18th, 2008 at 11:01 am
speedyplastic,
You have a Satellite M35X, right?
When you remove memory from a working Satellite M35X and turn it on, it beeps (three short and one long beep). When you remove memory and start your laptop, will it give you a beep error message?
If not, apparently you have a problem with the motherboard and it has to be replaced.
May 17th, 2008 at 8:35 am
I’m in the same boat as you Kyle Smith. i tried removing the memory, HDD, still nothing. its getting power but its not even getting to POST. i’m kinda stumped there was no warning it just one day shut down and now it wont boot.