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.
December 23rd, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Mauricio,
You don’t have to replace the top cover. The power button is located on a 6-button switch board. You’ll have to replace the switch board. Here’s Toshiba part number for this board: V000060490
Google the part number.
December 23rd, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Hi there.
before my question. hey man thanks .. what a useful page.
Now.. i own a toshiba satellite A 105 s4384. the power button stopped working. i have to use the web button to turn it on. keeping it pressed does not work either (it doesn’t turn on or off the computer at all). as i saw in the pictures above, the power button belongs (or is attached) to the upper plastic cover. but unfortunately i couldn’t see it in detail. is there a way to repair the button? do i have to replace the entire upper case? don’t have much budget to repair it. to be honest don’t want to waste any money repairing it. i rather save it for a new one. that’s because the battery went dead and i also have a dead pixel. :S if i can repair it myself so i can use it a couple months more i will. thanks in advance. sorry for my bad English its not my mother language. bye
December 18th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
I just wanted to say thanks! My wife has an A105 series, and I just upgraded her HDD to a 250. Your site, especially the pictures, made it a snap! I’ve bookmarked you, and suggested your site to some of my IT people for working on the tricker aspects of our office Toshibas.
Thanks again!
-Jammer29
December 18th, 2008 at 10:23 am
I have an A105-S4134. Dose the dc jack on this model also plug into the motherboard? If so, have any idea of the part number? Thanks!!
December 7th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
I have an A105 and the ethernet device has gone bad. It will sometimes get a DHCP response from a server, but the traffic rate is inermittent. Wireless is OK. Tried different cables. Same problem in different offices so I suspect the laptop, not the other end of the wire.
Any thoughts?
December 1st, 2008 at 12:14 am
Karinlinn,
Removing, replacing, shorting the BIOS battery in this model WILL NOT clear the BIOS password. Some Satellite A105 laptops can set the BIOS password on its own and Toshiba fixes this problem at no charge.
I guess you’ll have to bypass the BIOS password on your laptop first and hopefully after that the hard drive will recognize the HDD password.
November 30th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Karinlinn, don’t waste your time, for the last two years there have been so many post on the internet on the password crack for the A105. You should have done your research because Toshiba uses a special management that they say they can’t crack and because it can’t be read and if you try anything on it, it becomes inoperable.
The good news is go buy a new HD cause no ones been able to crack it yet. I tried over a yr ago and that’s the way it is.
As I’ve said before if your not mechanical inclined leave it alone or do the leg work before jumping throat deep.
November 30th, 2008 at 8:28 am
I have two questions regarding my A105…
The first relates directly to the excellent illustrated disassembly guide that led me to this forum. You see, I need an EXTREME closeup of the CMOS battery so I can reattach it properly since, without too much investigation and with no instructions, I just sort of LIFTED my CMOS battery up in hopes of clearing a bios password. Stupid mistake!
Turns out that a) the old disconnect-the-cmos-battery-to-get-past-the-password trick doesn’t work on most newer computers - certainly not on laptops; b) I can’t figure out how to solder the right lead back onto anything to make it stick and c)I finally remembered the flippin’ password anyway.
Which brings me to my second problem: I CANNOT get past the HDD password I put on. Yes, me, myself, I put the password on and can’t get back in. I tried every permutation and combination of my usual PWs and can’t unlock my &*%$ hard drive.
Things that have NOT worked:
1. Holding down the left (or right) shift key while booting (reportedly a way to get past the FIRST PW)
2. Hot swapping the drive in an attempt to get to SET UP.
3. Using a SATA-to-USB hard drive adapter and trying to read the drive from my desktop.
Any ideas? (I don’t want to format it because I have many photos etc. that I want to retrieve)
P.S. I have the identical problem going on with a Dell Inspiron 1521 (WHICH, btw, CANNOT be jumped using the “paper clip method,” causing me to spend $60 on the admin PW, only to be stymied at this second one)
Any MORE ideas? (And, yeah, I might just format the Dell since, for all I know, it was stolen to begin with - who am I to ask? - and I just want to get the flippin’ thing working)
Thx
K
PS - I went ahead and donated $10 to this site in hopes of improving my computer tech karma.
PPS - sorry this ended up so long
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:18 pm
ok, so i have a A100, and it was just being used on battery. shut the lid (put to sleep) and it never woke up. now i get no lights at all. nothing mains, nothing w/o the battery. removed the battery, tried with just mains, still get nothing. no lights, no nothing.
November 17th, 2008 at 7:43 am
Hi, I have an A100 model that is quite similar to the A105.
Has anyone has any issues with a loose external video connection? When my external LCD is hooked up it has a hard time displaying the correct resolution. From what I can tell when I move the jack (left side of the computer at the back) with a regular monitor cable plugged in the screen turns off and on and at times has the correct resolution. I know this computer has a board that is integrated with video… I have seen some pictures of the connection on the inside. I am wondering if I can just re solder the connection and fix the problem.
Anyone else seen anything like this?
CK