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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June 16th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
I have a MotherBoard to Toshiba A65, and i remove the memory installed in the board, but not turn on, a few seconds shut down.
Is false then that when remove a memory can turn on.
it is necessary to buy a new motherboard.
June 16th, 2007 at 12:25 am
I cannot turn on my Toshiba A60. When you turn it on it only runs for a few seconds and then shuts down. Sometimes it will start right away but very seldom. Can you help me??
June 15th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
Joao Vitor,
Most likely you have a bad battery. It’s possible that you have something wrong with the charging circuit on the motherboard, but I think it’s just a bad battery.
I went through the BIOS change history and didn’t find any fixes for the problem you are experiencing.
June 15th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
cesar rivera,
You’ll find disassembly instructions for a Toshiba Satellite M45 laptop and other Toshiba computers here: http://www.irisvista.com
June 15th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
Nick,
I think so but I’ve never tried this trick myself. I think that’s exactly what Justin did (comment 23) and it worked for him.
June 15th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
GuamGuy,
Did you have any extra memory stick installed into the memory expansion slot? If yes, remove it and test the laptop again. It could be a faulty memory stick.
If it doesn’t help, try this. Remove the battery, the hard drive and the DVD drive. Try starting the laptop from the AC power. If you still have the same problem and the laptop doesn’t start, most likely you have a bad motherboard.
June 15th, 2007 at 10:55 am
I have a Toshiba A65-s126, it only works plugged on outlet power. Does anybody knows if theres a new version of Bios that can fix this problem or any tip to help me. My A65 dont works with battery, on toshiba aplication theres a status of the battery that say N/A, its like there is not a battery or something.
PS: I am from Brazil, excuse my bad english.
Thanks! GOd Bless YOU!
June 14th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
i have this problem with my Toshiba Satellite m45 i need turn the power jack to get poweri know i need to open it to fix i am a noob i just want to fix were can i get guide to fix it for Toshiba Satellite m45
June 13th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Great Site!
I have been experiencing problems with over heating and failing to boot on my A65. I followed all your instructions by disassembling the Laptop and cleaned out all the dust. I then ran the memtest and it failed. After reading some of the comments i came across Justins comment on removing the onboard mem. This seems to be my last option as i do not want to spend $$$ on a new motherboard. I was under the assumption tho that the onboard mem would be considered bank 1 and during the POST if it failed to find the onboard mem it wouldnt work? Am i wrong? Will it just skip over the onboard mem since it wouldnt be there and just use the mem in the expansion slot? Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated.
Nick R
June 12th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
My toshiba A60 will not power up. First it would power up intermittently, sometimes i would need to remove the battery and have to replace it to start it up. Now it shows the blue light around the power button then after a few seconds it turns off? What can I do.