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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August 20th, 2007 at 8:02 am
I read Justin at post 23 and am going to give this a try – what the heck! Will advice – also I have seen used motherboards for as low at $50 US and will try that next – I got the exisitng chips off with a soldering iron as well.
August 20th, 2007 at 5:54 am
Okay, I am into this now!! I got the motherboard out – remarkable in the ease that I did so.
I have photos and it woulld seem that the copper tape is easily peeled back to expoase 4 chips – Samsung k4h511638b-TCB3 – that are stapled into place.
Two questions (this website is excellent) – could I somehow cut these out – how?
Could I get a new memory and plug it in about in the expanded memory slot and then hotwire the computer to bypass the first and go to the new connection first?
Thanks.
Also, I read a lot here about getting the Part Number correct if I buy a used motherboard – where is that part number?
6050A0059801-MB-A04
August 19th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
I have lost the computer so, based on what I see and read here, I am going to go for broke and dismantle it and try to take it off – or buy a new motherboard.
Wish me luck.
August 18th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
Paul,
If you have faulty onboard memory then you’ll have to replace the motherboard. Earlier in this thread, one guy mentioned that he was able to remove (unsolder) the onboard memory and start the laptop with a memory stick installed into the expansion slot. I’ve never done it myself but it also could be a way of fixing this problem.
August 18th, 2007 at 7:42 am
My A60 seized up on me and is gone for good. I reinstalled the system twice with the restore disk and now its telling me to hit “r” on reinstallation but I am locked out.
I’ve been told that the RAM is defective and fixed to the motherboard – Toshiba says “Tough luck”
Is a new motherbaord the only way?
August 13th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
Phil,
Not sure what is going on. Enter the BIOS and try setting it to defaults, there should be instructions in there witch key to press for default settings. Try reflashing the BIOS.
Maybe you should try erasing the hard drive with Active@ Kill Disk utility?
August 13th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Alan,
80GB, 100GB, 120GB and even 160GB hard drives should work just fine. You can use Toshiba, Hitachi, IBM, or any other brand.
August 9th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Hi
I have a Toshiba A60 692. ii’m having major problems installing windows after a blue screen incident on startup. It seems that the motherboard cannot recognise the size of a HDD. whether it is a 40gb hdd or a 120gb hdd, the space shown (during the winxp installation process where you choose what partition to install on) always reads 809360mb.
I’ve tried formatting, deleting, creating new partitions but all fail.
Anyone know what could be causing this?
August 8th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
I have a 3 years old A60-CJW which comes with a Toshiba ATA100 4200rpm 40GB hd. Will it be able to detect any bigger hd properly, say 80/100/120 or even 160GB? Must I use Toshiba made 2.5″ hd? Many thanks.
August 2nd, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Does anyone know where the C561 chip located on the Toshiba A60 Motherboard?
Thanks,
Peter