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.
If you find this article useful, please consider making a donation to the author. Thank you!
May 2nd, 2006 at 9:35 am
Hey, I’m currently trying to fix a M35X. Basically the main issue is that when turned on, it was booting up and there was video right up to before the XP splash screen appears. The video stops appearing right before the splash screen. And now, it doesn’t even turn on at all. I tried moving the ram stick from one slot to the other, and I also tested the memory slots by putting in another test working memory that I had. I can’t even get external video now. I’m guessing it’s the video card onboard or it’s the motherboard. But I also have one more question, I noticed when I removed the LCD cable from the motherboard, that the ground plug was loose. Where does that normally screw down or get held down? Thank you. If you can contact me at work AT supz dot NET I’d truly appreciate it.
May 2nd, 2006 at 7:09 pm
Nocturnal,
Toshiba Satellite M35X has a video chip integrated into the system board. So, if the video is bad, the entire system board has to be replaced. Are you getting any LED activity at all when you turn on the laptop? May be the power jack on the system board is bad and the laptop doesn’t get any power.
The video harness in this model has a ground cable located close to the connector that plugs into the system board. You do not have to connect it to anything, just place it alone with the harness when you assemble the laptop.
May 6th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
Try to boot into safe mode, then remove your video adapter. I have had this issue before. The XP is defaulting to your S-Video as the output.
OR
Try Function F5 That will change output devices,
I’m leaning more towards the XP Problem since you see the XP Splash screen.
Since you get video on boot it is probably not a bad video adapter
I would try the Function F5 first since its the easiest,
Then Try it with an external monitor, or external S-Video
Try to boot to safemode
If none of that works you probably have a bad LCD Inverter. I had one at 3 months after purchase, and now that I think about the symptoms you describe that may be it, Right before mine died I would get video, see the bios splash, then NOTHING, Take a flashlight and shine it at the screen. If you see the screen, Its your inverter.
Also try holding down the little white button that tells the laptop that the screen is closed. Hold it and release…If you see the screen for a second then nothing, its definately your invertor, The good news is that the invertor is about $50.
I hope this helps
Hack
May 6th, 2006 at 1:14 pm
How to replace your inverter
Your Inverter is located behind the “Toshiba” on your LCD. You will have to remove the LCD.
Here’s How to do it.
Right above your keyboard is the first piece to be removed. Open your laptop as wide as it goes, then pry something thin and flat right above the “F” Keys. The silver piece and the two black plastic pieces that curve around the monitor hinges is one big piece and only pops into place. Start at one side and pop it, then work your way towards the other side. There is approx 4-5 places where it snaps in.
Once that is removed their will be 2 screws that hold the keyboard in place. Remove them and then flip the keyboard towards you to give room to work. Under the keyboard there are two access panels each with one screw. The one on the left hides the modem. The one on the right with the white and black wires coming out is your atheros internal wireless adapter. Remove that screw, then you will see your atheros card. The card pops out like a stick of ram. Once that is free there are 4 screws that hold the LCD in place. 2 on the top, and 2 on the back. Next Unplug the video plug to the monitor and it will be free from the laptop.
Now that the LCD has been separated from the laptop you can now take it apart to access the Inverter. Behind the 6 flat rubber discs along the edge of the LCD are screws. The little rubber discs are adhesive, so just pry underneath them,
Once those screws are out, the black trim can be removed around the LCD exposing the inverter. Replace it, and reverse the disassembly process to put it back together.
Good Luck
Hack
May 9th, 2006 at 2:19 am
For the most part, I’m happy with the M35X. My only complaint is that not only does the fan turn on quite often, it’s also quite loud. Any suggestions as to how/if I can minimize the fan?
May 9th, 2006 at 10:17 pm
Lara,
Usually the fan turns on more often then before because the heatsink is clogged. May be it’s a time to clean up the heatsink in your laptop. Here is a fast solution. When the fan spins, a heat from the CPU is coming out from an opening on the right side of your laptop. Buy a can of compressed air and blow inside the opening on the side. It will help you to clean up the heatsink.
If the fan is making a grinding sound when it spins, then the fan must be replaced.
May 14th, 2006 at 9:11 pm
What a piece of junk! I am so frustrated with Toshiba it is insane! Not only my M35X — their customer service alone will make never want to buy one of their products.
I don’t understand how a company like this can stay in business! Thank god they don’t just make laptops… I don’t think they would have lasted this long if they did!
I am refusing to purchase a new motherboard for this laptop and have ordered an HP instead. Does anyone know where, or if there is a market for, a used laptop with a bad board? I’m thinking it might be able to be sold for parts? I don’t know… I just want it out of my house!
May 23rd, 2006 at 11:15 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? [...]
May 29th, 2006 at 11:21 am
in my quest to gain more power from an older Toshiba 1675CDS, i removed the Cel 550 cpu to install an 850 (both mobile cpu’s). Well the 850 didn’t boot so i decided to re-install the Cel 550 and now it won’t boot either. I did do some damage to the top half of the socket and it’s hard to get the cpu locked in, but i think it is locked in. Would swapping the cpu’s do irreversible damage to the m’board? would clearing the cmos help? do I scrap the laptop? It also needs a keyboard, but i found a replacement on ebay. help please so i know whether or not to purchase the replacement keyboard or not.
May 30th, 2006 at 9:58 am
OMG!! I’m also having problems with my M35X!! It will not charge at all.. and now I’m stuck using the home computer !! the bad part…I was thinking that the problem was the adapter..sooo…. .I had just ordered a new adapter in hope that it will work.. Now that I have read all the comments.. I’m assuming it will not work at all..awwwhh crap!! I’m SO MADDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 30th, 2006 at 11:08 pm
Ho-made,
I’ve never heard that swapping CPUs would cause system board damage. If the CPU installed is not recognized by the BIOS, the worst scenario – laptop will not boot. You mentioned that you damaged the top half of the socket. I guess it might be your problem. If you are sure that the damage is not critical, then check if the CPU is seated correctly and actually LOCKED. The laptop will not boot if the CPU is unlocked or not seated properly. Do not buy the keyboard until you can boot the laptop.
July 1st, 2006 at 7:36 pm
Well let me begin, I brought my Toshiba Satellite M35x-S111 18 months ago. In between that time I had to wiggle,unplug/replug the power jack to get the charge light to come on. I never thought anything of it. Then it happen, one day I turned it on and it ran strictly on battery power even after I plugged the power cord. The computer charge light won’t come and it beeped until it shut off. I took it back to Best Buy(where I have a two year warranty), they told me I need an new hard drive. Well they replaced it for free and it worked for two/three weeks and now the same problems are happening again. I plug it in and no charge light comes on and the puter shuts off after beeping. So I went on line to find out why this is happening and found this site. I’ll be off to Best Buy with my new found info,thanks. Sincerely,
Derrick
July 10th, 2006 at 3:31 am
I purchased the M30X/M35X 111 in February 2005. I used it only at my summer camp, maybe around 20 tmes. The other day I had it on at home to check on something and then shut it down. About an hour later I heard this ear piercing alarm sound. Well, the computer will not do anything now. I can’t get it to even turn on. The alarm and fan and the power light in the front are the only thing that comes on. I have to take the battery out in order to stop the alarms sound. It is not the adapter as it was checked.
Does anyone know what the problem could be? HELP!!!
July 10th, 2006 at 10:50 am
Kate,
It might be the system board problem. Apparently, your laptop is still under Toshiba warranty, so ship it to them for repair or take it to an authorize service repair center.
July 17th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
I Too am frustrated with my Toshiba Laptop M35X!! This was a Christams Gift bought on 12-21-04., Shy of being 19 months old and used very seldom. It is now on the way for repair # THREE. First the back light went out while under a one year warantee and Less than 7 months old, then the same problem with the power jack not charging came three months later. I went to a computer service center who sold me a new battery pack for $168.00, thinking that would correct the problem which became worse. Spent $118.00 for shipping to an authorized service center and for diagnostic fee to find out that it was my lucky day. I’m not under warantee but I get a new system board at no charge. Received it back and now it locks up and shuts down. NO ONE TOLED me or INFORMED me that this was a call back and in a class action lawsuit. How dumb do I feel??? I find out by filing a complaint at Toshiba customer relations. Very dissatified with my first laptop purchase. I too feel like it is a lemon.
July 18th, 2006 at 7:28 am
Wow! I too have had the same problem SINCE I purchased my laptop back in December of 2004. Thanks to a good friend of mine that is a technical professional, he did research to see why I had the same problems. He was the one that found this site for me.
If anyone out there can tell me how to get included in that class action lawsuit, would you please contact me or place it on this website?
Thank you and let’s not let this people get away with it!
September 29th, 2006 at 9:23 am
I thouhgt I was the only one suffering with this piece of crap. I called the customer service number, and after some 20 minutes on I hold. I finally talked to the rep., who in turn told me there is a pending class- acton lawsuit. Does anybody know to sign up?
October 10th, 2006 at 5:14 pm
I have the toshiba m35x and it wont boot. when you press the power button, the blue power lite lites up, the fan starts then stops after 5 seconds, the cd rom spins, the screen shows “in touch with toshiba” on the bottom it says “press f2 for setup” and “press f12 for boot device selection” If you press f2 it says please wait… and hangs there forever. Has anybody else seen this and if so what was the fix ? Thanks
October 11th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
Vince,
Remove the hard drive and see if it can help you to enter the setup (F2).
October 11th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
Thanks for the reponse. I did remove the hard drive… same symptoms. I also removed the DVD drive and memory. Also I removed memory and installed known good memeory. Any other ideas would be helpful. I cannot understand why it is not even completing the POST.
October 13th, 2006 at 9:02 am
I have the same problem.
My Toshiba Satellite M35x s349 shut down suddenly. I bought it two years ago and I have had a lot of problems.
I bought it on December 04, six months later the jack started to fail, and the dvd/cd didn´t work properly. Toshiba fixed (after two months!!!).
When I was out of warranty, more problems, again! the cd/dvd didn´t read some films, it shut down when it wants, and if you touch the speakers you can feel what electricity is.
So, if you want to lose your money buy a toshiba.
October 15th, 2006 at 11:21 am
Vince,
I would also try removing the wireless card. The card is located under the keyboard as it shown on the step 9 of this disassembly guide. It’s not necessary to unplug the wireless card antenna cables, just remove the card from the slot and see if you can complete the POST. A bad wireless card sometimes causes very strange problems. That’s just a guess. I cannot say exactly why your laptop will not complete the POST.
October 26th, 2006 at 3:55 am
My Toshiba Laptop M35X has almost two years and it has the same problems everybody describes. It doesn’t charge the battery properly while says “online, discharging”. I was also fooled and bough a new AC adapter, from Toshiba of course!
Also, the screen turns turquoise blue from time to time!, and at least a couple of times, the laptop has turned off itself with no provocation at all.
I am very interested in any action taken against Toshiba. I think this is really unacceptable!
Thanks! Olga
October 31st, 2006 at 6:25 am
My roommate and I both have toshiba satellite M35X laptops. Both laptops started shutting themselves down without warning. He took his to a repair service center and had the clogged fan cleaned for $ 200. I decided to save the money after finding this site and cleaned it myself. The notebook keeps shutting itself down (not if the air conditioning is on). The fan does not seem to make any grinding noise and sounds fine. Also, the base is not so hot either. I installed Notebook Hardware Control to see if there was any alarm before it shuts down but nothing. Any help would be appreciated.
October 31st, 2006 at 4:18 pm
Alexis,
Did you disassemble the laptop for cleaning? If you disassembled the laptop, did you apply thermal grease on the CPU? One guy had a similar situation not long ago. He removed the heatsink, cleaned up old thermal grease but never applied new grease. His problem was fixed after the put some grease on the processor.
When you turn on the laptop can you see if the fan starts spinning?
November 2nd, 2006 at 8:54 am
It works nice now after I applied the thermal grease. Thank you.
November 17th, 2006 at 3:08 am
i have lap top toshiba satellite m35x-s329
when i need to open it
its go on bios after about half hour !
pleas help me to repear
tks
November 20th, 2006 at 7:08 am
I am very frustrated with my purchase of the M35X!!! I purchased this at a morning after Thanksgiving sale in 2004 @ Best Buy… after standing in line for 5 hours to get one, you’d think that you were getting a good product?!
1.) A couple of months after using it, the mouse started freezing up and the buttons wouldn’t work. I took it in for the warrenty and they sent it away, I got it back 4 weeks later and they told me that it was a software problem and that my warrenty only covers hardware problems!! I treat it very well it still has the plastic cover on the lid! I figured out that I could buy and external mouse and it would work just fine.
2.) About 8 months after getting it back I was using the laptop with the ac plugged in and it was still losing charge. I wiggled the cord then it would charge again. I put up with that for about a week then I took it in again and also re-reported the problem with the mouse. I was without my computer for another 4 weeks. I received it back and everything was fixed this time.
3.) I now use my computer for business with a wireless aircard so that we can use the net while on the road. One day the PCMCIA card slot stopped reading with the aircard and my wireless card. I sent the computer in yet the third time although this time I got smart… I bought a different laptop and I am just waiting for the old one to come back from repair so that I may sell it!!
I have not been happy with this model nor do I have faith in Toshiba anymore. It has cost me a lot of time and money; paying for a ISP when I have no computer to connect with!
November 25th, 2006 at 11:24 am
My toshiba satellite M35X S161 keeps shutting down by itself or freezes up. It’s not a clogged heatsink or any problem with the fan. I took it to several repair shops and they all agreed it’s the motherboard. Can I fix it? If not, where can I get a new motherboard?
November 26th, 2006 at 6:03 pm
I am very aggravated with my M35X-S163 notebook. A while back it would not turn on at all, so I took it to the warranty repair center in Pittsburgh. They said they fixed it and it seemed to be working o.k. for a while but now it still takes about 5 minutes to start up the windows operating system. I hope Toshiba loses the class action and hopefully offers a recall or fix for the problem.
December 3rd, 2006 at 6:56 am
to cj2600: how did you remove password on toshiba satellite m105? at least tell me how to reset it.
December 13th, 2006 at 8:30 pm
to the guy above you if you can get in to the biso set up ther is a place to reset pw
1 i have just got this mx35 s149 and so far have no problems toshiba gave it a 1 year warr. any way dose up gradeing the ram help the video lagg
and i claen my fan out 1 time a week is the any thing i can do to possably extend the life of this
thing for 1 more year
December 26th, 2006 at 7:22 pm
im so glad you are on here.I have a toshiba p35 series and it keeps sutting down.I took your advice and cleand the fans it seems to be working.I had called the toshiba warrenty center and they wanted thirty five dollars to answer a question.After this labtop i would never recommend another toshiba to anyone.There customer service sucks
December 28th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
Nocturnal back again. Any ideas how I can remove a BIOS password for a M35X? Thank you!
December 29th, 2006 at 7:59 pm
i have a m35x-s163. i had it for a while and this is the first problem i had with it. The screen has no backlight. if you look at it really good or shine a light on it, you can see that the screen comes on. What can i do to fix it
December 30th, 2006 at 6:55 pm
Hi, Wes, I had the same problem since September this year. I had to shine a light to see the desktop. Mine is M35X-S161. Actually I bought this for my parents. They use it as a desktop and don’t use it very often. I don’t understand how the screen could get burned out so easily.
I am not quite clear about the extended warranty thing. Say I bought it in March 2005. The standard warranty expired in March 2006. Now the crappy laptop is already out of warranty. According to the pdf file, they give me a 12-Month Warranty Extension of the “Toshiba Standard Limited Warranty” for repairs, effective November 7, 2006. But the Court Fairness Hearing won’t be held until February 8, 2007. My question is if I take my laptop to a Toshiba authorized repair shop today, will it be covered with any warranty?
December 30th, 2006 at 8:05 pm
I just did a lot of research on this problem and it seems like 95% it could be the FL inverter which is bad. Someone on some other site spent $35 to get a new one. It didn’t help though. The wesite he mentioned does not exist any more. Where can I buy a part for this laptop? I can afford fooling around with $35. I don’t want to have the laptop sit in the closet forever.
December 30th, 2006 at 8:58 pm
One more thought. Have any of you guys tried the up to 1 year extended warranty from the credit card you used, like Citi or AMEX? I paid $909.49 in total. $809.49 with my Citi Dividend Platinum Select Card, which I vaguely remember has the extended warranty feature, plus $100 circuitcity gift card. I don’t know how hard it is to get the citi involved. Never used that feature before.
I really wish Toshiba loses the lawsuite and have an official recall. Even with half of the money I paid, I can buy a good laptop nowadays easily.
December 31st, 2006 at 5:51 pm
Wes,
Probably you have a faulty FL inverter board. Here’s a disassembly guide for a Toshiba Satellite M35X display, the FL inverter board is pictured on the step 9. Try reseating inverter cables shown on the step 10. If it doesn’t help, I would replace the inverter board next.
December 31st, 2006 at 8:18 pm
Smokefly,
It should be covered. Find an authorized service center in your location and just call them to find out if they can fix it for free. By the way, there’s a part number for your laptop inverter board: K000018860 (WXGA displays) and K000019440 (XGA displays). Search on the internet by the part number for the best deal.
January 5th, 2007 at 11:16 am
I have the satellite m35x-s161. Everything had been working fine until I was downloading some stuff today and I was working away from my desk and I hear a click-click. I come back and there is a read disk error. I hit a button and it says:
PXE-E61:Media Test Failure
PXE-MOF:Exiting PXE ROM
and won’t boot. It seems the hard drive is clicking too and it won’t boot up. Is my hard drive shot on this 18 month old machine. Help!!
January 8th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
IS THERE A PASSWORD RESET ON A SATELITE M55 – S1001
I CANT GET PAST OR EVEN INTO THE BIOS,IVE TRIED JUST ABOUT EVERYTHNG.??????
January 10th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
I had the same thing happen on my M35X. Everything internal pretty much had to be replaced, and my machine just happens to be 18 months old. Believe it or not I think it was actually an elecro-whatever that caused it (which was the basis of the lawsuit). Thank God for the warranty extension that resulted from the lawsuit. Of course, I hadn’t backed my system up, and I suffered serious set backs. Good Luck!
January 14th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Lonmower,
Yep, sounds like a bad hard drive. You’ll find a discussion about “PXE-E61 media test failure error” message on laptop startup here.
January 16th, 2007 at 1:58 am
Hi,
I have bought M35X-S161 Laptop (Big Big Mistake) on Feb 2005 (in USA) with 1 yr warranty. It got expired now. When i switch on the Laptop, it will be ON for 5-10 secs (sometimes) and after sometime the screen got completely black (black out). Also, it has static near the speakers and the back and to add on to that it heats up very quickly. I took it to the authorised service center (in india) and got a reply that i need to change the mother board. The cost for the repair they are coming up is more than the cost of the laptop. I got a mail saying that there is a class action law suit and the warranty will automatically extended to 1 more year effective Nov 2006. Will it true? If yes, i can wait till Feb 8, 2007. Do i get any mail from toshiba that my warranty will be extended till Nov 2007…Please help me..
January 17th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
I purchased an M35X-149S in October 2004 and the only problem I had seen was that the battery life was really horrible. Fast forward to last Saturday, and I was using it as I normally do, on my lap in the living room, and then… black screen. The blue power light was still on, but everything else was off. I removed the battery and unplugged it, waited a bit, plugged it back in and turned on the power. After about 5 seconds, the fan shuts down and the power light remains on. I left it off for about a half hour, turned it on again, and at least got to the part where I can boot in safe mode, but it hung up at the 440agp.sys part and then after a minute, it turned to black again, power light still on.
I took it apart to see if it could be the fan, it wasn’t. I applied the thermal compound to both the CPU and video chip, and the same thing happens, 5 seconds after turning it on, black.
I purchased a device called a MadDog from CompUSA ($30 bucks) where you can place the 2.5″ HDD into the sleeve, connect it to the USB ports on a desktop (that I fortunately have) and I could at least access the drive like it was an external HD. Unfortunately, I could only recover some of my data. Some of it was corrupted (like photos and videos), others could not be accessed due to the fact that I removed sharing on the Owner folder.
I guess I’ll be taking it to a Toshiba service center (I had purchased the extended warranty so I would be covered even without the 12month extension from the lawsuit). The thing is, I didn’t do anything to generate a static shock, but even so, would that cause corruption in the HD? I’m glad (and I’m not glad) that other people are having a similar problem with it. Even after it’s fixed, I’d still be leery of using it. I’m probably going to move to Mac, especially with the new Core 2 Duo MacBook Pros and being able to run XP natively if necessary.
January 18th, 2007 at 12:25 am
Moorthy,
I’m not sure if you will get a mail from Toshiba but until November 2007 they will fix your laptop for free, it’s true.
January 18th, 2007 at 2:36 am
Thanks CJ2600 for the response. I took it to the Authorised service centre in INDIA and got the repsonse that my warranty is expired. I showed the class action lawsuit email and even then it didn’t help much. They need a mail from toshiba directly saying that my warranty is extended till Nov 2007. How can i get that mail from Toshiba? Thanks once again and very much appreciate your response for this.
January 18th, 2007 at 8:27 am
I have an M35X, and had the loose DC-jack problem. Toshiba was actually very helpful, and although it wasn’t supposed to be covered under the warranty, they fixed it for free. I got it fixed at an authorized repair center (in which I was severely dissapointed with). I got it back yesterday, and they had replaced the system board. I turned it on, and all worked well for about 20 minutes, when it suddenly just kept restarting itself. When it stopped that, the screen went out. I just kept turning it on and off, trying to figure out what was making it do what it was doing. I finally put it on the desk (rather than my lap), and it stayed on for some time, until I went to move it. In addition, it began locking up. I know that it’s the electrostatic discharge issue, because that describes it precisely. I just wonder if when the repair center put in the new system board, they didn’t screw something up? After being out of a computer for almost 2 months, I have to send it back out again. Not happy.
As for anybody asking about the warranty, just call Toshiba for a case number. They were extremely helpful and gave me one, and when I had problems with the repair center trying to tell me it wasn’t covered, Toshiba called them directly and said it was.
I’m looking to buy a new laptop now, because as a student, I can’t afford not having my computer–and it’s worth the money to me if I can stop the frustration this no-good hunk of machine has been causing me since I’ve had it.
January 18th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Chris,
The system board is not new, it’s refurbished. For an experienced technician it’s really hard to screw something up because this model is very simple, there is nothing to screw up. Probably you just got a bad motherboard.
January 18th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Moorthy,
I think this warranty extension is good only inside the United States. Not sure though. You’ll have to contact Toshiba.
March 16th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
I to am a lucky owner of a M35x, when it boots up it doesn,t make it to Windows but comes up with a blue screen saying that ole32.dll is corrupt and just stays there, can anyone suggest a fix. thank you guys
March 19th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Ron Usher,
Did you try reimaging the hard drive with the recovery DVD? If not, try it first because it might be just a software issue. NOTE: the recovery process erases everything from the hard drive and loads original factory image.
If it doesn’t help probably there is something wrong with hard ware, try this solution.
April 10th, 2007 at 9:52 am
I’ve just sent my M35X back for the second time in two months. I went for almost a year without using it because of the bad power cord connection. I finally got that fixed and now it continues to shut down at random.
How many times does it have to go back before they will replace it? I am a writer and need a reliable computer for my business. Is there a “lemon law” for these machines? I need something that works and I’ve already paid a fortune for updated software, etc… I can’t afford to purchase another computer…
April 10th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
I bought a Toshiba M35X-S149 two years ago. I assumed there should be no major differences among the brands, as long as it allows me to browse online. I couldn’t be more wrong!
Toshiba laptop is a piece of junk!!! Even though I had problem with the stupid thing during the two year time I owned it. I finally arrived at the conclusion only yesterday. Because I opened it up and saw exactly why!!!
I experienced charging problem the first month I bought the junk. Warranty covered it. Now my 2 year warranty expired. The charging stopped again. I figured the piece of junk no longer worthes anything, so I tried to open it up by myself…
Two things shocked me: there were a dozen screws on the back cover, I removed all and still couldn’t open the darn thing. Then a I realized there were a piece above the keyboard need be removed. THEN there were many screws inside need be removed to open the stupid thing. Whoever designed the stupid thing deserves needs a brain!
Once I opened it up, Lo and behold, I know exactly why the charging was not working. It uses a small connector that has two tiny alumium feet planted on the to motherboard. When you plugin the charger day in day out, you’ll nudge this piece out of place. That’s exactly what happened. What a briliant design!!! I told my kid, I could use super glue to fix the piece. Then I decided to forget it. Why? Why even bother with the junk!!! I pushed the piece snuggly in, then put the cover back on. A few wiggles after plugging in the charger, the piece fell off from the motherboard all togather!
This is the only Toshiba laptop I bought. It’s last in my life and I’m warning everybody in the world, if you can, do yourself a favour, save some troubles and moeny, STAY AWAY FROM THE STUPID TOSHIBA LAPTOP!
BTW, I have no problem with Toshiba TV sets, I have two at home, 27′ and 41′. They have been great!
April 10th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
Kim,
It’s very unlikely that Toshiba (as any other manufacturer) will replace your laptop. They are going to repair the laptop until the problem is fixed or you run out of warranty.
April 20th, 2007 at 9:41 am
I have a toshiba satellite m35x-s3112
the mother board is defected can you help me
find out if toshiba is obligated to replaced the mother board. it is exactly 2 years old
thank you henry punzi
in hallandale fla.
April 21st, 2007 at 8:45 am
Hi,
I bought my Satellite M35X three-four years ago, and apart for that funny feeling on my arms touching the speakers (which I now know as common) I’ve never had any big issues till last night.
It has two OS -WXP & Debian- and I’ve been installing different Linux distributions for nearly a year with no trouble.
It has fallen twice, the first after a few days I had bought it, the other one four days ago.
Last night it wouldn’t turn on and when it did for the last time, the booting options were mispelled, as it couldn’t recognise letters as ‘a’, ‘x’ and so on.
It’s dead, isn’t it?
April 21st, 2007 at 9:31 am
Forgot to add that a few times it had been switched off in a rather heavy way -slippery power cable-, but that was probably taken as granted, and to thank whoever can tell me what I could do to fix my laptop.
April 24th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Hi. I’ve owned a Toshiba M45-S351 for a little over 2 years and have been generally satisfied with it. The only real problem I’ve encountered was sometimes when I’d plug in the AC adaptor when the battery was almost spent, the laptop would hang. About 2 or 3 months ago I started getting a “Bad or missing OSB logo” message at the Toshiba startup screen. I would just reboot it (sometimes more than once) and the laptop would boot up fine. Finally, about 2 weeks ago, the laptop would suddenly freeze–no cursor movement, no keyboard input. Sometimes, this would happen right away after login, sometimes it would happen 1 or 2 hours later. At first I thought it was some software that I installed so I started uninstalling software. Same problem. I got so frustrated, I decided to reinstall the OS and software that originally came with the laptop. Same problem. What’s weird is the laptop doesn’t hang at all if its in Safe Mode. What should I do?
April 24th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Henry Punzi,
I think you can get a free repair from Toshiba, they extended warranty for Satellite M30X, M35X, A70 and A75 notebooks. Call Toshiba customer service line (800)457-7777 or call your local authorized repair center and ask them about the warranty extension for your laptop. I believe it’s only for laptops sold in the United States.
April 24th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
Davide,
If booting options are misspelled, you see some weird characters in there, it’s possible that you have a problem with the video card (integrated into the motherboard) or the memory is bad. This model has shared video memory – a part of the main memory is used for video purposes.
If you still can start the laptop, run a memory test. You can use Memtest86+. If the memory fails the test, replace it. If the memory passes the test, most likely you have a problem with the video card and have to replace the motherboard.
May 1st, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Well, my laptop was still covered under the Best Buy warranty, and they had to replace a defective motherboard. The hard drive was corrupted (still don’t know why that happened) so I had to start over and rescue it using the Toshiba CD. This was back in January and I’ve been waiting for the shoe to drop ever since I got it back (which was 4 weeks).
Well, I come home from work tonight, and low and behold, I press the power button and it turns on for a few seconds, and then shuts off. Same problem I had before!!!! This sucks.
Naturally, it’s still covered under the BB warranty (it expires in October) but even after its fixed (for the second time), it’s probably going to sit on the shelf (at this point it would do more sitting in the trash creating I nice non-biodegradable footprint). To hell with it, I’m getting a Mac. And that $35 refund from the class action suit will go along way in covering the cost of a new laptop.
May 2nd, 2007 at 9:48 pm
Willie,
The laptop is still under warranty, right? Why don’t you send it back for repair again. Let them fix the laptop, then sell it and buy a new one.
May 22nd, 2007 at 7:16 pm
my x35 has been in the repair shop 4 times. It has spent more time in the repair shop then with me. It has been always the same thing. The power plug. It spent 8 months the first time, a month after I brought it home. there it set, while my warranty runs out. I have spent almost as much on repairs as I paid for this junk. But like most, I can’t just go out and replace it with a new other brand on a school teachers saliery So hear I sit, hope it works, for a few minutes at least. I read what others said. I really think most of all your problems is related in some way to the power supply
August 6th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Hi I have had my m35x-si49 for 2 or 3 years. Works great, droped it 5 or 6 times. Stumbled over it yesterday and dropkicked it 4 feet. It takes a licking and keeps on ticking as they say. But the new HP looks awfully tempting. It has as many goodies for the price as Toshiba, maybe even more. Don
August 17th, 2007 at 8:13 am
Toshiba is horrible. I have had to change the main boaed 5 times. The extended warrenty is going to be up in November 2007. The machine is worstless. I paid good money for garbage. Toshiba should do more, or we should let people know not to buy toshiba.
September 11th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Hi there,
I have been using /repairing/ configuring laptops for 3 years.
I have many minor problems with Toshiba which result to unusable machine. Costly to repair.
If you need the total solution for sturdy machine and flexible software solution. IBM is the first one you should think of, and HP the second. If you don’t mind another option, why not a MAC, all advanced features are in there before the PC gets there.
Cheers.
September 15th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Both of these links no longer exist.
http://www.a70m30xsettlement.com/notice.pdf
http://www.a70m30xsettlement.com
This is the link at the bottom of the “no longer available” page that comes up…http://www.gardencitygroup.com/
Is there a way to put in a different motherboard for this m35x confuser? would it make any difference?
November 25th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
M35X
Just got the Toshiba M35X back from Toshiba Repair. This is the third system board that Toshiba has replaced.
Warranty ran out Nov 7, 2007. I am not happy.
December 2nd, 2007 at 12:01 pm
I was wondering if anyone could help me with this issue I’m having with my M35X-S114. It won’t boot. When I power up, the fans go on for 5 seconds, then stop, and I get nothing on my screen. This happens no matter what: no battery with power cord, battery no power cord, no hard drive, different hard drive, recovery CD, no difference! Please help!
December 4th, 2007 at 12:03 am
Kyle Smith,
Check the memory. Try reseating the memory module. Try replacing it with a known good module.
You can try this. Remove the memory module/modules and try starting the laptop without them. Normally, this model will give you a beep error when memory is not installed. Does it beep when you remove the memory in your case?
If not, you might have a problem with the motherboard.
March 29th, 2008 at 7:55 am
Hi I am having the same problems as Kyle Smith, However after trying the memory diagnosis test, after trying to switch on, no beeps or anything, not a sausage! does anyone have any clues, sure the motherboard might be busted, but any idea to narrow down what might be gone? specifically?
April 30th, 2008 at 9:43 am
I had been able to defeat this problem on my Toshiba 35x-S149 for over a year by pressing briefly on the silver cover behind the keyboard just to the left of middle; the on-disk LED came on and away it went! I had the power jack replace under warranty after 5 months, and they changed the silver cover then. It had been getting harder and harder. Now it doesn’t work, and Kyle Smith and I are in the same boat.
But today I discovered that removing and replacing all power, then pressing the spot WHILE pressing the On button works, but I have to keep pressing the spot or it stops. Since I’m not much of a one-handed typist, and my hand gets tired, this is not a good solution. I will dig into the case & see what I can see, & get back to you all.
HP, you say? Sounds good right now.
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:36 am
I had to break in and see what was up, as the )_*(^) thing didn’t respond at all. I found a little oxidation on some of the ground contacts, noting major. (Also a loose and mismatched W2 screw, perhaps from when the power plug was resoldered under warranty. But it was trapped where it could have done no harm.) I treated the contacts with a pencil eraser & auto dielectric grease. Nothing else looked bad, fan was clean, I reassembled and found it was still dead.
Except.. I could now lift the keyboard and press directly on the metal shield covering the BIOS chip. That worked every time, but I had to keep pressing. Hard. A tab on that shield contacts the BIOS I took it apart again, and bent the tab to keep pressure on the BIOS chip. Now it boots every time, but will eventually shut down abruptly. The first time it was 15 minutes, but now I rarely finish the boot. Maybe I now have the overheating problem! If I ever get it up long enough, I will use Ultimate Boot CD to check the temp.
Anyway, seems to me it’s either a bad contact on the motherboard that flexing the board connects, or a badly mounted BIOS chip. Any ideas how to fix that? It seems permanently glued on the motherboard.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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!
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?