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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May 22nd, 2009 at 5:33 pm
I have a A65 S1065, which I just replaced the motherboard and keyboard everything works great, but I mangeled the motherboard to front LED’s flat ribbon cable. It is similar to the cable attaching the keyboard, just not as many pins. Anyone know of the part unmber for this or perhaps where I can find a good one?
Thanks,
Ben
May 19th, 2009 at 8:14 am
Hi, it is my very first time in this page. Nice! Sorry for my inglish. To the grain!
I have a Toshiba A60 5159 System Unit. 2.8Ghz, 192 MB RAM. Can I change the RAM Memory for a bigger one?
Thanks
David Rodolfo
May 18th, 2009 at 11:00 am
daisy,
If I understand correctly, as soon as you turn your laptop you see 99 everywhere on the screen, right? Sound’s like a problem with the video memory. You’ll have to replace the motherboard.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:27 am
hel,
Make sure the external memory module is good and seated properly. Try another module.
May 16th, 2009 at 6:08 am
Hello, i have a A60-122.I desoldering a onboard memory, the 8 chips. And when put the external memory and i boot, all its ok, but i have a problem, the pc not boot the first time that i push a button. I have to push the button very times, and then boot. When boot every thing it´s ok.
Sorry for my bad english.
Thanks a lot.
May 14th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Okay I don’t know to much about computers but I know enough but my problem is everytime I turn on my computer all it shows is a bunch of 99’s
99’s I have no idea what to do I need help I’ve treid everything can someone please tell me my email is daisybeba AT yahoo DOT com please help me someone.
May 11th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
I have a Toshiba Sat Pro A60 no extra memory (just checked and itr is sadly only 256meg of RAM), Windows XP Sp3.
The fan comes on quite quickly after booting then can stay running whilst just browsing the internet.
It may switch off got a minute but then comes back on.
Is this down to a lack of memory?
Dusty cooling fan?
All of the above?
May 9th, 2009 at 1:13 am
@302
first take out your extra memory
1 way:
just take out your 1 gb memorystick, and then try to boot from the internal memory. if you still see the familiar stripes, then your onboard memory is fried.
or
second way: take out the memory, download memtest or whatever (i use hirens boot cd since the laptop does not have an internal floppydrive and most of the programs require you to boot to dos…), then run the program
but if you see striping with only the onboard memory installed (or your laptop does not boot at all), you have to remove the internal memory
May 6th, 2009 at 2:45 am
ive got a a60 with 3.7ghz p4, i added an extra 1gb of external ram about 3 yrs ago, i bought the laptop way back in 2003, so its been a good little machine, untill yesterday when i think ive fried the on board memory by leaving it on my memory foam mattress. Now it boots round and round in circles on the toshiba screen with pretty little lines running vertically down the screen. how do i run the memomery test so i can be sure its the onboard memory and not just another stinking virus that the sickly windows operating system loves to pick up?
May 4th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Hopefully someone has some ideas, because I’m all out…
I repaired a friend’s Toshiba A65-S126 that had the broken dc jack issue. I installed the jack and everything was working fine. A while after I gave it back to her, it began having problems. The laptop would be plugged in and the battery charging and then once it reached 100%, the laptop would shutdown and reboot! This was witnessed several times by different people. She assumed a battery issue and bought a new one. Once the new one arrived she popped it in and plugged in the laptop and now nothing happened. She brought it back to me and after checking it out, I noticed that when I plugged it in the light on the PSU would go out and sometimes you’d even get a spark when plugging it in. We tried a new PSU with the same results. I tore it down again and noticed the solder connection from the positive terminal on the jack was loose. I pulled the jack and resoldered everything (even doing the “sleeve” fix since I missed that the first time). Still the same symptoms even with the motherboard out everything removed from the board. I’ve checked the voltage from the PSU and even off the jack when plugged in while I had it off the motherboard. It’s reading within range (~19V) both ways.
I’m at a loss as to what to check next.
Since cost is an issue aside from replacing the motherboard or buying a new one, does anyone have any thoughts or ideas?
Thanks!