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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July 22nd, 2008 at 9:20 am
Damon,
You should be able to use the laptop with an external USB keyboard.
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:11 am
Working on an A65-126 and the lcd was not working, opened it up reconnected the lcd and it works but on the screen when it starts up it says “check system. press [f1]key” Only problem is I hit the key and nothing. I tried all the keys and nothing is happening. I checked the connector and sure enough the little black clip that holds the keyboard ribbon in place is gone. I searched all over the net and nobody has had this issue. I tried using a piece of plastic straw to hold the ribbon in place but to no avail. Am I looking to replace the motherboard for this issue or will a usb keyboard work for it? Thanx in advanced
June 28th, 2008 at 8:22 am
hey i need help. i have 3 problems. my brother laptop (toshiba A65) is having power failuer. When i plug in the DC outlet the DC plug beebs and no charge light indicator turns on. 2 when i disasmeble the laptop, it had 100s of ants in it and the board is dirty with ant left overs, and last, a micro transister on top of the battery input terminal is compeltly fryed, and oh yeah hi laptop dosent haves a 2nd fan lmao what should I do. plz email me at ronnierabell@yahoo.com
June 24th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Loren,
In this model the CMOS battery is attached to the motherboard. You’ll have to remove the motherboard in order to access the CMOS battery. You’ll find my disassembly guide here. Take a look at the step/picture 17. You’ll see the CMOS battery on the left side from the ATI chip and the dial-up modem.
Unfortunately, I don’t know the part number just for the CMOS battery because Toshiba do not supply them separately from the motherboard. Take a closer look at your old CMOS battery, maybe it has some kind of part number or model number on it?
June 24th, 2008 at 10:23 am
PLEASE HELP! A65-S1067
I’m looking for not only detailed instructions on how to access my CMOS battery and replace it, but also the actual part # for the replacement CMOS battery. Maybe the best place to buy also.
Symtoms are that my system boots fine but when unplugged (and battery discharged) for a long period of time my computer asks for time and date and so forth. Thank you for reading!
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:09 am
Joao,
1. There could be a problem with the video card, witch is integrated into the motherboard. You cannot remove or replace the video card on a Satellite A60/A65 laptops because it’s a part of the motherboard. You’ll have to replace the whole motherboard. Are you ready for that?
2. It’s possible that there is nothing wrong with the laptop hardware and it’s a software related issue. Maybe corrupted video driver or something like that. In this case you can fix the problem by reinstalling the operating system or video driver.
I cannot tell you if the problem is software or hardware related without looking at the laptop.
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:06 am
Hi,
I am thinking to buy a second hand Tecra A60 to fix it myself. The owner said that the video seems not to be working well, I asked him if when he connects it to the external monitor works, and he replied that it does the same thing, that only works well in D.O.S mode. Is this normal for a broken video card?
What would you recomend? Many thanks in advance.
Joao
June 22nd, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Yves,
Check out this post: Laptop LCD screen turned completely white
June 22nd, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I can’t see any thing else than a white page. Nothing on it, what is wrong ?
June 15th, 2008 at 9:07 am
2nd fan I have put in my A65-S126. I seem to have a faulty connection to the motherboard. Sometimes when I wiggle the wire connecting the motherboard and the fan the fan kicks on.