Toshiba Satellite A70 and A75. Taking apart notebook.
I repair Toshiba Satellite A70 and A75 laptops almost every single day and I like to work with this model. I think that Toshiba Satellite A70/A75 is one of the easiest Toshiba laptops for disassembly. Unfortunately, this model has some issues. About 90% of all laptops we repair have one of the following problems:
- Not properly grounded top cover. The laptop will shut down or lock up when you touch it around the speaker or touchpad area. This problem could be fixed by replacing the top cover assembly.
- Overheating problem. The laptop will shut down by itself without any reason. To fix the overheating problem you have to take the laptop apart and clean up the heatsink.
- The power jack issue. The laptop will not charge the battery. The laptop LED flicker when you wiggle the power jack. To fix this problem you have to replace or resolder the DC jack on the system board.
June 23rd, 2007 at 8:33 am
The DC power jack on my daughter’s Toshiba Satellite A75 had to be replaced. We were looking at quite an expense to have this done by a “technician”. Hell, Toshiba wanted to replace the motherboard! I did it myself. Took 3 hours to take it apart, 20 minutes to replace the jack and 2 hours to put it all back together. Had it not been for your instructions, I NEVER would have attempted this. They were clear and easy to follow. Are you planning similar write-ups for the IBM and Dell models soon?
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
June 19th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Thank you so much for the instructions on how to tear apart the A75! Mine was over heating within 15 minutes of turning it on and thanks to your instructions I was able to get it apart to clean it. I’ve had it running for about 20 minutes, so far so good.
Thanks again!
Nick Slaght
June 15th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
I replaced the power jack on my A75 and after assembling it the units would not boot properly. The unit would start notmaly and at some point the Windows XP Porofessional would hand up. After shuting down the unit boot in Safe Mode without a problem but I cqan not figure out what is wrong with the Normal Mode.
Any ideas???
June 12th, 2007 at 11:01 am
It still could be a DC JACK problem. Sometimes the contacts (in the jack itself) become oxidized, from plugging and unplugging. that small arc will weld what ever is in the air to the contact. Though not as often as the ‘infamous’ DC Jack issues where there is no contact, no charging, or no AC this too is one of the symptoms that could be a culprit. Seemingly elusive because you eliminated it from the list. For $6-8 I’d go ahead and replace it. And I have probably had 2 out of 100 DC jacks that was the problem. One was Toshiba M35 series (similar)
June 11th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
it is a Toshiba Satellite A70
Part #: PSA70C-KL100E
June 11th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
Hi,
I have a problem with my battery charging and the ac power. I am pretty sure it is not the power jack problem since wiggling the cable does not help. When I try to have the ac and the battery plugged in at the same time the laptop shuts down. When I try to charge the battery with the laptop off it shows the plug in light on, the battery light orange and then the battery light goes off and the power light goes off. Then they turn back on again. It just repeats this forever every 5 seconds.
I have searched everywhere for a solution but could not find one yet.
June 4th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
hmmmm, I could remove or replace the ram, but I wouldn’t recommend it to the novice. It is a precision job.
HOW TEST onboard Memory:
since there are only two conditions of Bad Memory (Open or Short)
If the memory is shorted. It will become hot, and only that one will be extremely hot, just from starting up. In the old days when I was upgrading Atari 520ST to 1MB we used a crayola crayon to see if it were shorted. The crayon will melt on a shorted chip.
The other method. OPEN – there is no way on the SMT chips to piggyback for testing if open. But you could replace 1 at a time – turn on and test.
PASS/FAIL if Fails do the next one. Proceeding through until all 4 are replaced.
I think the odds would be better if you started with Chip 1 or 2, rather than 0, or 3 (on ends)….
———————————-
When RAM had legs you could place an exact chip on top of another without soldering. That was an easy test for the Apple/Atari/Amiga/Commodore 64 and Vic 20’s.
Hope that helps someone
June 4th, 2007 at 10:52 am
Bruce,
Unfortunately, you cannot disable the onboard memory. You’ll have to replace the motherboard.
One guy had a similar problem with his Satellite A65 laptop (comment 19) and he was able to remove the onboard memory and use only the expansion slot, but I’m not sure if this trick will work with an A70/A75 notebook. You have to have a soldering experience in order to do this job, I’ve never done it myself.
BTW, if you purchase your laptop in the United States, it should be covered by the extended 12 months warranty.
June 4th, 2007 at 7:15 am
I have an A70 that I think the onboard memory is having issues, is there a way to disable the onboard memory and just use the expansion memory.
Thanks
Bruce
June 1st, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Amanda,
Make sure the CPU is seated properly in the socket on the motherboard and the socket is LOCKED. If you have any memory installed into the expansion slot, try reseating it.
June 1st, 2007 at 3:54 pm
This is a great guide and helped me a lot in taking apart and putting my laptop (A70) back together. However, after putting it back together, when I press the power button, I hear fans and nothing else. So it turns on but won’t boot up. I disassembled and reassembled again just to ensure I didn’t miss anything and still nothing. What may be causing this?? Thank you for your help.
May 28th, 2007 at 7:27 am
I have a Toshiba Satellite A-75 and where you conect the video cable to the onboard video has broken off,
is there any pictures you might have close-up of this connection, so I can see how it went.
Sincerely,
Melissa
May 15th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Help! Per above (280), I’m stuck at step 6 and need a hint on which way to move the securing strip after it is loose as shown in the picture. It’s still very tight next to the keyboard. How do I move it without breaking something? Thanks. – Bill
May 15th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
Lee,
Sound like you have forgotten to reconnect the touchpad ribbon cable. This also is the LED wiring for the front panel. If you remove the keyboard and look beside the keyboard ribbon cable and connector there should be another ribbon cable about an inch wide that should be connected. If you think it was connected, try reseatting it and make sure you get it in up to the little line on the cable (into the connector).
That should solve your problem.
Hope that helped.
Lee Says:
May 13th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
I took apart my laptop and fixed the overheating problem but i can’t seem to get it working. Windows boots up but i have no mouse and the touch pad doesn’t work. Also the 3 LED lights on the front of the laptop do not light up(battery, power, etc) Any ideas what i did wrong?
May 13th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
I took apart my laptop and fixed the overheating problem but i can’t seem to get it working. Windows boots up but i have no mouse and the touch pad doesn’t work. Also the 3 LED lights on the front of the laptop do not light up(battery, power, etc) Any ideas what i did wrong?
May 13th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Hi,
I was wondering where the connectors are on the mb for the toshiba a75, I opened it up to clean the fans and heatsinks; pulled the lcd monitor cables out by mistake. Any help would be appreciated.
May 13th, 2007 at 7:38 am
No prob SAM- I just fixed an A-105 so there wasn’t much difference.
The A75 was a couple of weeks ago, but remembered the headache.
May 13th, 2007 at 7:21 am
Thanks ECMayo. Looks like I skipped the step to remove the hexagonal screws that hold the ports on. Thanks again! This is a wonderful site that even non technical people can use to fix their laptops!
May 12th, 2007 at 9:36 am
you may need to remove the 3/16″ connector screws. also push in the PC Card button when trying to slide out.
May 12th, 2007 at 4:08 am
Please Help! Help! I am in Step 20 trying to remove the motherboard, but find that the parallel port and monitor port are attached to a shiny metal sheet that is attached to the base. Should the ports come out with the motherboard. I just cannot “slide” the motherboard out. Please help! Thanks
May 10th, 2007 at 11:21 am
Hi, Thanks for your efforts– disassembling laptops is always a scary process. For the A75, I get to step 6, with the securing strip in about the loosened position shown. But, as you say, it is still very tight along the edge next to the keyboard, and I can’t figure out which direction to pull, push, and/or pry without breaking or marring something. Could you please provide further advice? Thanks, – Bill
May 5th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
Brown,
These cables are wireless antennas. Connect them to the wireless card. White cable to the main connector on the card and the black one to the auxiliary connector.
May 5th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
I have two cables running from my LCD one I plugged into the board and another that is split into two, one black and one white, and I cant seem to find where these two hook back up.
Can someone help? Thanks
April 30th, 2007 at 9:43 am
All that was really appreciated. I had the overheating problem and I followed all the instructions : it really worked out !! Thanks a lot for the help, but Toshiba should build a better laptop. I never had before these type of problems.
April 30th, 2007 at 7:46 am
Hi, Great Site
I have a salellite A70 and I have fixed both the over heating and DC plug. My son recently spilled some water on the keyboard. I let dry then started back up. Everything seemed fine but when I tried to type on the keyboard the letters got all mixed up and by pressing one key 3 or more other letters showed up.
I assumed it was the keyboard so when I took it off I noticed that some curosion had showed up around the E359 U41 chip under the keyboard. I then forgot to take out the battery and cleaned the connections with a dry tooth brush.
The curosion was around the chip I think they are probing traces?
When I put the keyboard back on to see if the keyboard worked correctly. I found that the computer will not powerup. When I press the power button the fan will turn on but no lights or other noises. I have to pull the battery to get the fan to stop.
Any help will be great.
Thanks
Trevor
April 29th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
I followed the instructions to replace a dead fan (great instructions by the way!). Now that I have everything put back together, the laptop boots, but it does not recognize the hard drive. The HDD doesn’t show up in the BIOS setup and the computer will only boot from cd-rom or network. Do you think the hard drive coincidentally went bad at the same time, or is there something I could have messed up to make the hdd not work anymore?
Thanks!
April 26th, 2007 at 9:23 am
I found the answer…you also have to unplug the laptop and remove the battery for a few seconds (I waited about 10 sec). Put it all back together, turn it on, and the touchpad is alive again. I hope this helps some of the other people seeing this issue.
April 26th, 2007 at 9:06 am
I have a Toshiba A75 laptop. Several months ago, my touchpad stopped working, along with the mouse buttons. Somewhere on the internet, i found a solution that worked, and it had something to do with removing the memory module. The problem just returned, and I can’t remember exactly what I did to fix this issue before. I tried removing / replacing the module, and I tried starting the pc without the module, but I still have no touchpad. The icon in the systray shows the pad is active (I tried the disable/enable trick, to no avail). Anyone know anything about this?
Scott
April 23rd, 2007 at 2:12 am
the detail disassembly is quite a help. But I need to
know ,how to revove only the keyboard and replace with
a new one. do I have to still remove bottom screws
Can any one help
April 22nd, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Also, there is no extra ram and the processor is seated properly.