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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April 17th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Hello, I’ve been trying to repair a A60 and have traced the problem to the battery, at a guess I would suggest many people in this thread are having the same problem. Toshiba in their wisdom decided that the laptop cannot be used without a battery installed. Some people only use the laptop off the mains so the battery never gets properly conditioned – because of this over time the batteries ability to hold a charge diminishes to the point that when the laptop is on and connected to the mains the charge level slowly falls until it reaches 0% at which point the machine shuts down. My question is this, does anyone know of a way to mod the battery connections so that the machine can run solely from the AC adapter? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
April 16th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
I want to add ram onto my laptop but i’m not sure how many memory slots it has, what memory I should buy and how many.
March 10th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Hi
i have toshiba A60,all the 3 usb ports not working , in which 1 port says multfunction device inserted. but the device dont work. and 2 porst dont sence any device.Tthanks for password clearing option i used shorting capacitor c561 it work great.lpt loop didn’t worked
thanks
March 4th, 2009 at 12:10 am
hello sir,
I want pcb layout for laptop motherboards ,if you can help me with that. any website featuring layouts for motherboard.
February 28th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Apparently, your fan was on the verge of failure and cleaning it was the last straw. I’ve cleaned many many fans using compresses air and never killed a single one. You can find a replacement fan on eBay.
February 27th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
i used the can of compressed air method and it killed my fan. now ive got an expensive problem.
not happy.
where can i buy a replacement fan?
February 23rd, 2009 at 8:35 pm
from 282
by how the things look i would need references to find one brandnew motherboard no mather the memory problem
im interested in these computer because it has full compativility with linux operative system and if the cost its less than buy a new laptop that will not gona be compatible with the operative system that im using for work. thanks for the the heelp that you guys had bringed to me and i hope i coul find someting that can help with my troubles
the knockout memory tricks its really good it worked and be sure that the trouble i got whit the motherboard its not related with the memory knockout,
in any case could it posible that it hapened due my lack in done the trick because i awaited until alll the onboard modules had gone bad
please dont wait until the end
February 21st, 2009 at 11:53 pm
guest what
i goit it working a few minutes ago but the problem persist
but now i have more info to atach
when i was trying a motherboard test, i accidentally missed to plug in the fan connector, so i turned down the computer and plug in the fan connector and try it again to check if cpu got damaged but instead the system comes to work again showing the toshiba logo somethin slow but due that the 1g mem wasnt pluged so after to many tryouts of wat can be hapenning i got that wen the 3 sec problem cames again i have to wait until de laptop get totaly refreshed itself and try de unplug trick
i hope some one can redirectme to the correct issue due that begin plugin and unplugin the fan connector could not be the true failure
so the problem most be on the overheating and the memory failure
someting to attach i finaly got what was mean by metal finger, it is not located on the motherboard its in the case, i can get pictures to share but where and to who i have to send it to be shoed on the page for references
February 21st, 2009 at 9:32 pm
i got a strange problem, my a65 shutsdown after 3 seconds
and the powerjacket its fine the battery fine and heat its fine
wat can it be, could it be cause of the memory or ar abios ghost
any suggestions are wellcome
but please dont sugest any operative system solution like try f8 or reinstal the operative system
due that the lap canot even show the toshiba logo
sorry if its got hard to stand what i say but my english its not well egnought i can speak spanish if its prefered
February 17th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
how do i get a colour upgrade why when i take my ram chip out the computer doesnt work bsod from the radeon colour?