Yesterday I had my first experience with Toshiba Satellite A105 notebook series. I had to replace the laptop motherboard because it was completely dead. The disassembly was easy and fast. I like the way this model was designed. Laptop disassembly instructions.
What I like in this model: The hard drive has a very nice rubber protector. Both memory slots can be accessed from the bottom of the laptop. There are no screws under the keyboard and it saves some time during disassembly. The power jack connected to the motherboard via cables and if it fails you do not have to replace the entire motherboard. There are very few cables connected to the motherboard. The laptop disassembly process is very easy and logical.
What I didn’t like in this model: There is no hatch for accessing the CPU fan and the heatsink without taking apart the laptop. It took me some time to remove the top cover assembly because of some hidden plastic latches. It is not very easy to disconnect the video cable from the motherboard. The touchpad has 2 cables connected to the system board. The second touchpad connector is hidden under the flat cable and can be easily overlooked during disassembly and the cable can be damaged.
Here’s another guide for this model. Removing laptop LCD screen.
May 7th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Don’t want to insult you Matt but put on a pair of glasses,LOL.
Look again in step 6 of the laptop motherbaord removal, the circle is around the screw and the red arrow is pointing towards the bracket tab that you will push with your finger or a plastic edge towards the left.
Simple operration but don’t scratch the motherboard underneath.
May 7th, 2008 at 6:39 am
STEP 6
Remove one screw securing the DVD drive and push on the metal bracket to slide the drive from the case.
My question: Where is the metal bracket to slide DVD drive?
Thanks Much Appreciated
April 29th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
need help with my toshiba satellite pro a120 password on booting…
April 27th, 2008 at 5:09 am
A big word of caution:
1-If you are not some what mechanically inclined don’t attempt to open the laptop, you can do more damage than original was. Every step is an adventure because the manufacture put cheap trick to save money on putting that laptop together. Don’t use metal to pry open plastic, a filed plastic knife works wonders.
2-1st rule in computer repair, “get strapped” meaning don’t attempt to open a computer without a static discharge band. They come in remote or wired and they will itch you because of the threads. One static “zap” and you can forget about repairing that laptop. I’ve seen idiot repair guys working on computers and when finished wondered why it’s not working any more, Guess what they weren’t strapped and lived by the dump rule of touching metal to discharged and when they walked back to the computer they picked up static and Guess what “Zap” no work anymore.
Just important basic rules that have helped in 20 successful laptop repairs, with no victims.
April 26th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Zhighe,
Follow the instructions exactly, or you will end up like I did, tearing loose something. I still haven’t located replacements:( Of course that is partly because my paypal account was compromised and I had to jump through a lot of hoops to get my money back in there
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:57 am
I want to clean my cup fan. Do i have to go through this process?
STEP 2
Remove the hard drive cover. You may use a sharp object to lift it up.
Remove the Wi-Fi, modem, memory cover.
April 20th, 2008 at 5:47 am
My A105 shut down periodically after about a year. Thanks for the great piece on taking the laptop apart, because I was able to dismantle it and clean out the dust that seemed to be the cause of the problem - well some of it I guess, because it only took about another 3 months before the same thing happened again. What a piece of junk! I’ve never had a laptop needed this doing to it before.
April 15th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
NTICompass,
On some Satellite A105 laptops the wireless card can be located under the keyboard.
April 15th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
I have a Satellite A105-S4114, and I want to replace the WiFi card. I open the panel where it should be located, and all I see is the modem. Where is my WiFi card?
March 26th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Well I just took a look at the disassembly guide and have decided that my problem is that I skipped a few steps, and during the prying, the things in step 16 were torn out…
The mouse pad things were torn out from the other end.
How hopeless is it now?
March 26th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Me again. I was able to fix my problem on the A105 S4054 with the LCD display that was garbled all up unless I moved the thing to just the right exact position by completely replacing the LCD.
I bought the new LCD off of Ebay.
Then after a few blissful weeks, I started having the problem with the thing shutting down within a few seconds of startup. The CPU fan was full of lint.
Not sure if this has fixed the problem or not, because after I put everything back together, it won’t power on at all
So I am guessing that I did not get something in there reconnected, although I reconnected everything that I could find to reconnect:(
March 26th, 2008 at 7:41 am
Thanks a lot. Managed to get the HDD out. now waiting for a replacement HDD. Toshiba support is quoting almost twice the price for a new 120 GB. instead I am just getting a new Western Digital SATA 160 GB from my regular hardware guy for half the price. makes sense since the laptop is anyway out of warranty. so I’ll just install the new HDD and use the Toshiba supplied recovery disk to install XP.
once again many many thanks for your help. am much obliged.
best regards,
Venkat
March 24th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Venkat,
Please take a look at the laptop disassembly guide, I linked to it in the post. All you have to do is remove the hard drive cover, slide the hard drive to the left. After the hard drive is disconnected from the motherboard, lift it up and transfer both rubber protectors to your new drive. Install it back into the laptop and reinstall software.
March 24th, 2008 at 11:30 am
I would really be obliged if you could guide me on how to remove the Hard Disk of my Satellite A100. It has the same Rubber Protector you have mentioned in the review of the A105. Need to replace the HDD at the earliest. would really be glad if you could help me out.
thanks and regards,
venkat
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Sergio,
This laptop comes with few different screens. If you can give me the laptop model number (PSAA0U-…) number from the bottom I can look up the LCD screen part number for you.
After that you can google for the part number.
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:37 pm
johnnyturbo,
I’ve never seen a Satellite A105 laptop with upgradable VGA card. You’ll have to disassemble the laptop as it shown on steps 1-20. After the top cover is removed, you’ll see the VGA card secured to the motherboard with two screws. Remove screws and carefully lift up the VGA board to unplug it from the motherboard.
By the way, I lined to the disassembly guide in the post.
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:16 pm
automatic shut down usually occurs when the cpu over heats, in the A105 model it’s usually because of trapped dust, a good cleaning should solve the issue
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:37 pm
I just recently purchased a nVidia Geforce go 7300 for my a105-s4334. I want to go about installing the card. Does anyone know of any tutorials that can get me through this process step by step. Thanks in advance!
March 20th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Is there any Toshiba Satellite A105 user experiencing/experienced automatic shut down issue? What’s the possible reason for that and how to fix it?
March 18th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
do you know where can I find an lcd screen replacement for my toshiba A 105 s-2712? I just cand find that spare…
thanks!!
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:50 am
I need to replace the RTC battery on my Toshiba Satellite A100/A105 . Where is it located.
February 19th, 2008 at 6:27 am
I have a toshiba satellite A105-S4284. I am trying to just upgrade the wireless card. I removed the memory cover on the back and IO am able to see the RAM modules and the modem but there is no wireless card there. The device manager says that I have an Intel PRO 3945 Wireless Connect and I use it all the time. Any guesses to where it is hiding
January 12th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Well Update. It is not the video cable. I have replaced that, still have the problem. Still if you mash around on the screen just right, you can get a perfect picture and manuver the mouse pointer. If not you might get lines or garbled text, and no use of the mouse.
I had to do a fresh install but now the OS is running fine as well.
It all still works great on an external monitor. I guess I will try replacing the FL Inverter next.
January 4th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
I am having an LCD display issue, A105-S4054 and think it must be either the video cable or the FL Inverter Board. All of the connections seem to be in there well, and I CAN have a perfectly clear display if I mash on the screen just right and position the screen open in just the right place or I have text all over the place, everything is much lighter, and the keyboard doesn’t work. External monitor works fine. But I didn’t know one thing from another until I found these websites about how to tear down everything, I sure do appreciate the people who have put this up. If I have missed another possibility, I would appreciate any imput.
Right now it is not a problem since I cannot boot into Windows anyway HA. I had to order a recovery DVD, because I used Fixboot and it lost my NTLDS files, or atleast I think that may be what happened. I have tried to copy the files in the repair console, but no joy there. I was using an XP Pro installation disk to get into the repair console.
If you are reading this and your screen is all blue, with an error message, or you are stuck in a boot loop, you might need to order one too. Toshiba support said they would send me one for free, if I would pay shipping, for the low price of 39.99. Maybe it ships in a gold box, I don’t know, they ended up taking my serial number and telling me they no longer carry them. So I found one on a website for 13.95, shipping was 7.00 priority USPS. So look around on the net before you order one.
To order this you will need your model-part number, this comes listed on a sticker on the bottom of the notebook, mine was no longer visible to the naked eye, it took direct sunlight at an angle with a magnifying glass, turns out it was PSAA8U. You would think they would put serial numbers and model-part numbers in a place where they would not rub off, or atleast engrave them, but what fun would that be?
Now for this lost administrator password issue that has cropped up here, I am not sure about Toshiba, but I was able to get around this on an XP Home HP by promoting another user to Administrator status. It did not take away the first administrator, but it atleast gave us access. There is a website with instructions on how to do this, and a download for a CD that you put into the locked up computer. I have that website saved to favorites, lol in the A105-S4054!!!!!! That I currently cannot access.
December 27th, 2007 at 9:22 am
where do I buy replacement flat cables for the touch pad etc for a Toshiba A105-S4211
December 19th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Thank you for your guide which worked a dream. My problem was/is that after about half hour of work the screen flickers and then goes grey with some thin vertical lines on the top half of the screen. If power is removed with battery in the screen goes a white flicker.
Another forum suggested heat and that I clean the fans out. I was told it has two fans. Yet another forum said I will need thermal grease if I removed the heatsink.
I dismantled the machine and thank you for your extremely helpful guide. I was afraid to unscrew the fan as it connects to the heatsink and I had no thermal grease. I also couldn’t see a second fan. I don’t mind dismantling again but please advise on removing fan and heatsink and what I need when reassembling.
Many thanks.
December 2nd, 2007 at 11:07 am
if i want to reset the bios pass how can i do it in this laptop?
November 17th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Please help me how to remove a keyboard from a Toshiba A105-S2101 because there are a few keys that do not work.
October 29th, 2007 at 7:12 am
Scott forget about #91 it’s for smoke
Scott this one’s for you, Uninstall all your wireless,cards also then reinstall first the software then after connect the wireless card, if this doesn’t work then you have another method and that would be USB wireless. Again install software first, then the USB card.
If to no avail then uninstall and try card first then software. I had a card that made windows freeze after 5 min. but the card was installed last as manufacturer recommended, I then reversed by installing card first and it never gave me problems.
October 29th, 2007 at 7:00 am
Scott , somewhere down the line someone put a password in windows and now it’s showing up. My suggestion is to get another HD and find a different windows disk and install it without toshiba programs(Especially management). Your passwords should be gone,
To all with password Problems to confirm :
Take out the HD drive and boot up, if your not able to enter the bios without the password then it’s in the computer, if you are able then it’s in the HD. So change the HD and never enter any passwords.
This goes to all with this model because toshiba will be of no hope.