Let’s talk about problems typical for Toshiba Satellite A60 and A65 notebooks. Do you own one of these laptops? Is it working fine for you?
Here are some typical issues I’ve notices with this model.
1. First of all – overheating
Does your laptop shuts down without any reason when you ran CPU intensive programs? If yes, then most likely it happens because the laptop overheats. It happens because overtime the heatsink gets clogged with dust. A layer of dust collects between the cooling fan and the heat sink (dashed line on the picture) and heat produces by the processor gets trapped inside the laptop. As a result of that, the processor overheats and the laptop shuts down.
There are two different way to clean the heat sink and fan in these models:
- Buy a can of compressed air or find an air compressor and blow off the heat sink through the air intakes on the bottom of the laptop.
- Remove the keyboard (steps 5-9) and you’ll get an access to the cooling fan. Blow off dust from the fan and the heat sink.
In some cases the laptop overheats because of defective cooling fan. The fan should start working as soon as you power up the laptop. If the fan will not star, most likely it’s bad and must be replaced. You can find a new heat sink cooling fan for Satellite A60 and A65 notebooks by the following part number: V000042110.
2. Defective onboard memory
Here’s another common problem – bad onboard memory. This memory is integrated into the motherboard and if it goes bad you’ll have to replace the entire motherboard.
If your laptop starts with some weird characters or lines of dots on the screen, most likely you have a faulty onboard memory. If you test the laptop with an external monitor, you’ll see the same defective video on the external monitor too. You can test the onboard memory with Memtest86+ utility. Remove any external RAM modules and run the memory test. If the onboard memory fails, you’ll have to replace the motherboard.
The integrated memory module is located close by the memory extension slot, under the foil.
UPDATE: If you have bad memory, you should read comment 93 submitted by Daniel on September 28th, 2007.
3. Last but not least – power jack issue.
With Satellite A60 and A65 notebooks this problem is not as common as with Satellite M30X, M35X, A70 and A75, but it’s still a problem. Overtime, the power jack might get loose and the positive pin stops making a good contact with the motherboard anymore. As a result, the laptop switches to the battery power even though the power adapter is still plugged in. Usually you can temporally fix the problem by adjusting the power adapter plug on the back of the laptop, but after some time the problem reappears.
In this case you’ll have to disassemble the laptop, remove the motherboard and resolder the power jack. I’m buying new power jacks here.
Do you experience the same problems or you have another issue with your Satellite A60 or A65 notebook? Please share your experience.
Instructions for replacing laptop power jack yourself
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January 4th, 2008 at 11:47 am
On my Toshiba A65 there are two leads coming from the top cover. Black and white.One goes to aux and the other to main. The sheet I had it written down on got destroyed. Which lead goes where? Thanks
January 2nd, 2008 at 7:45 am
Just Read the thread, Have a A60-155. Memtest finds Fault with the Onboard Memory, Have stripped the Laptop & am now down to the MOBO. Would like to “remove” the Onboard 8 Memory Chips and put in a 1mb as per post 81/93. The Pin connections look really small…..How Easy is it to desolder the Memory Chips?? Has NEI got any personnel Expierences to Share.
Any Info would be greatly received…..
December 29th, 2007 at 12:18 am
ashok patel,
It’s impossible to troubleshoot these kind of problems without looking at the laptop.
Most likely this is just a software related problem.
Backup all personal files and reimage the hard drive back to factory defaults using the recovery disc.
December 28th, 2007 at 2:39 am
i have prob in my laptop satelite A65 I CANT HERED VOICE I WILL TRY TO PLAY MASSAGE APPEARD YR DEVICE WITOUT AUDIO
I SEE IN DEVICE MANAGE I FOUND HERE ? MAK
ON
?ETHERNET CONTROLLER
?AUDIO DRIVER
?MODEM
?VGA DRIVER
CAN U TELL ME SOME SOLUTION
December 23rd, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Jim Avery,
Could be a problem with the power jack as it described in the example 3.
What if you unplug the AC adapter plug from the back while the laptop is running and then plug it back in? Will the battery charge LED light up for a while and then go off?
Will it start charging the battery if you wiggle the power plug inside the power jack while the laptop is running?
December 23rd, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Steve,
this could be memory related issue. Try reseating the RAM stick, move it from one slot to another. If you have two RAM sticks installed, remove the one by one and test the laptop with each one separately.
December 21st, 2007 at 10:13 pm
i m using a laptop Dell Inspiron 5160, From last 2 weeks it is not working,
December 21st, 2007 at 9:54 pm
I have an A65. Everything will be working but the battery discharges when the computer is on and plugged in to AC. It takes about an hour to go dead. The battery charges to 100% when the computer is off or hibernating. The computer runs for about 1 hour on battery power only. Why would the battery go dead with the AC ON??
December 21st, 2007 at 12:35 pm
HELP!!! I have a M35X lap top, the power button lights up when I turn on the PC, the fan kicks in then after a few seconds the the fan shuts off and the PC is silent with the exception of the power button light remaining on. I do not hear any processing and the screen remains blank. What can be causing this problem? Thank you for the advice. Steve
December 18th, 2007 at 1:22 am
Firstly, what a great site. After reading all the comments here I decided to have a go at taking the on-board memory out of a broken A60. I used the craft knife method and it took a while, you have to be very careful not to slice the board. Once all 8 chips are out I rebuilt most of the laptop for a test. Switched it on but just got a high pitch whining sound and then it turned itself off after a few seconds. I then cleaned up the connections where the 8 chips had been, using a soldering iron and some soldermop. Once reassembled it worked great. Its been up and running for a day now with no problems so far! Thanks very much for all the info.