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 20th, 2006 at 4:40 am
Hi cj2600,
I have a Toshiba Satellite A75-S229 and I have the clogged heat sink problem too and I plan on cleaning it out this weekend but do I really have to take apart the whole laptop? I would hope all I have to remove would be the back cover. Along with that, after one of the spontaneous shutdowns these laptops are famous for, I went to turn it on after waiting a while and it did not turn on (this was without a battery in it). The thing is the LED lights turn on and to get the laptop to turn on I have to disconnect and reconnect the cable that connects from the outlet to the adapter and reconnect the adapter to the laptop. This solves it but I was wondering if this is a problem with the powerjack or maybe something happened to the adapter after so many spontaneous shutdowns.
June 13th, 2006 at 10:08 pm
Hey Billy,
Before you pull the cable, you have to open the connector. The connector on the picture has 2 parts: the lock – brown and the base – white. To open the connector you have to slide the brown part away from the white part, only about 2 millimeters not more. The keyboard cable is jammed between the lock and the base and when you open the connector you can easily remove the cable.
To assemble it back you have to insert the cable first and then move the lock toward the base (toward the touchpad).
June 12th, 2006 at 7:15 pm
Well first off, I wan’t to say thanks to cj2600 for taking your time to help people in need. I recently came upon an A75 with no power cord. I googled up your site and I am in the process of taking the machine apart, as I want to see how it looks inside before I spend $50 on the AC adapter. I’m stuck at step 10, removing the keyboard cable. I don’t want to break it removing it, and I am just not familiar with the mechanism holding the cable in place. Does it just pull out with a little force? I would rather be safe than sorry, so I figured I’d ask. Thanks in advance and if I have any additional problems, hopefully you can point me in the right direction.
June 12th, 2006 at 9:55 am
cj2600 you were right on just lifting cover. the arrow in step 1 threw me. i was afraid i would snap any tabs off if i lifted it. thanks
June 11th, 2006 at 11:26 am
Fred,
You do not have to slide it. After the screws are removed, just lift the cover up. There are little plastic latches that keep the cover in place.
June 11th, 2006 at 11:20 am
step 1 , the cover that is againt edge of a70 laptop will not slide out. i cant lift it out either, as something holds it down at right hand edge. how know
June 10th, 2006 at 7:04 am
cj2600 for some reason I did not saw that comment
thank you very much
June 9th, 2006 at 10:24 pm
Mauro,
Read this comment and the following too.
June 9th, 2006 at 12:07 pm
Hi,
thanks for a very useful guide, but in step 20 I had problems, it looked like something kept the mainboard attached, and all the screws were removed, how did you do it with the volume wheel and the handle that removes the pc card?
thanks!
June 6th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
oh my god..
thanks very much cj! lol I know nothing about computer so I didnt know about that
10000 Thanks to cj ^^
June 6th, 2006 at 12:13 pm
The instructions were great. I had the “power jack problem.” The issue I have is when I reassembled everything two things happened. The first is that I get no LED now. I am seeming to get power form the adapter but no lights to indicate it. I did not go as far as to mess with the CPU. The second is my fault. I was taking the touch pad connection off and broke the clip. It doesn’t look like I actually damaged the connection but my touch pad isn’t working. Can you help me?
June 4th, 2006 at 11:46 pm
Roger,
After you cleaned up the heatsink you have to reapply thermal grease on the CPU. Without thermal grease the laptop will overheat and shutdown even with clean heatsink and fans.
June 4th, 2006 at 3:54 am
oh ic..so Brian did you put back some grease on the cpu? Is that what I should do after I clear the heatsink?
June 4th, 2006 at 3:52 am
I’ve cleaned the heatsink and put everything back, but now my laptop still has the problem… It still shut down occassionally, without any ‘warning’or the fans getting loud ….and all I did was running the Warcraft3 game..
What could be the problem other than overheat?
Also the fans slow down when I pull off the power and using the battery…. what should I do to totally fix the problem of sudden shutdown? n( I already updated Bios)
June 2nd, 2006 at 2:06 pm
The tutorial worked great!!! Pretty straight forward on how to remove everything.
I was lucky enough to have a tank of nitrogen (gas form)and an gun which took care of the majority of the dust.
Since I didn’t know the amount of dust in the machine, so I decided to take it apart anyways. When I did take it apart, the heat sink came right off the cpu with no effort. There was a hint of grease on the cpu, that would probably explain the overheating issues these past couple of days. I applied a generous helping of it and put it all back together. It still runs as hot as it normally did, at least on the back of the computer (probably because that’s where the heat sink is). But it appears that it is all back to normal. Thanks CJ!!
A note for the step 15 (removing top cover from base). If you don’t have a guitar pick around, use a credit card, student ID card or something like that. Works like a charm. If any part gets stuck make sure there isn’t a screw you missed earlier.
Thanks again CJ!!!
June 1st, 2006 at 5:59 pm
AHHHHH YOu guys are awsome. I got it out and cleaned it up but however i can’t put the mother board back in. I am struggling but i’ll keep trying.
THANKS A LOT. CJ2600 you are a good man.
May 30th, 2006 at 9:29 pm
Malim, I didn’t ignore your comment, I just missed it for some reason.
Roger, thank you for your help. I also start removing the system board from the left side. One more tip. Some models have a card reader located under the PC card slot (on the left side). The card reader is closed by a rubber plug and this plug has to be removed too before you start removing the system board. After the left side is out, you can start removing the right side. It’s hard to get the right side out because of the volume wheel, the audio jacks and the USB ports. To release the right side I usually push on the right side of the laptop base with my left hand and lift up the system board with a flat head screwdriver using my right hand at the same time.
To install the system board back into the base I do next. Sit the back of the system board (with VGA and parallel port) first. After that push on the PC card button and sit the left side. Finally sit the right side.
May 30th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
oh the way I took the motherboard out is to take out the 2 screws (therer is an arrow pointing at each of them), then take out the dummy pc card. Try to press the small pc card switch inside and then pull out the left hand side of the motherboard first.
On the right hand side, you have to push the speaker/ volume inside first and pull out the motherboard..
3 sides are out so u just need to slide the motherboard backward..hope u understand what I mean
May 30th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
Cj2600 why did u ignore my post. I am desperate for help. Please explain how to take the mother out of the case itself because i am afraid i can damage it
May 28th, 2006 at 11:41 pm
Hey Roger,
You must apply thermal grease on the CPU or your laptop will overheat. I guess the CPU fans are spinning all the time because there is not thermal compound between the CPU and the heat sink.
The grey color thing on the CPU is thermal grease. Did you apply new thermal grease after you removed “the grey color thing”?
May 28th, 2006 at 11:31 pm
Ignore my last post lol My computer works well now, i just didnt plug the monitor cable deeper into the socket
Everything works well now, however I feel that the fans are spinning all the time even I’m not loading anything. It is coz I removed the grey color thing ( dirt?) on top of the cpu ? (I removed it and also the dust inside the heatsink )
I saw the pictures also has some on the cpu..are those dust?
Thanks for cj’s help ^^
May 28th, 2006 at 9:37 pm
Great Guide! Thanks for the detailed instruction and cj’s help. My Toshiba A75 has the problem of overheat and I successfully disassemble the laptop
Problem comes when I put it back together, the power is on, one of the fan spins but the monitor does not turn on, the dvd and the wireless switch doesnt work too.
What will be the problem?
May 26th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
Hi there. This is great guide and cj2600 is awsome. However i got stuck on taking the board out of the case. I unscrewed the screws that are holding it to the case but i try to pull it out and it’s doesn’t come out. I am afraid to pull it hard because it can easly break. It seems that volume thing is holding it or something; however i try to sort of move it still doesn’t work. Can anyone help me out on that ?
May 21st, 2006 at 6:16 pm
I just finally reassembles my toshiba Satellite A75. I can’t get the thing to boot now. The problem appears to be the same as todd had in an earlier posting. I was just wondering if there was any resolution with that.
Nathan
May 18th, 2006 at 9:38 am
how do i remove card reader from a70 laptop.Do i have to dismantle whole computer
May 14th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
i am really scared i took my Satelite 75 to a computer shop because my laptop battery would not charge up. it would if i put it in wierd position. the store resolder my internal power point but it still didn’t work. i called toshiba service center and the first thing they said was that it will probably need a new motherboard because microchips can not be replaced on a laptop. could it be anything else i am dreading the call from the service department problem telling me to scrap it or pay as much as a new computer to have it fixed
May 13th, 2006 at 7:03 pm
Thanks for the great instructions! I fixed my Toshiba A70 DC power connector problem (a loose solder connection on the motherboard, like most people’s problem) by soldering a 4″ piece of wire from the rear of the center pin (behind the connector) to the other side of the motherboard where the lead from the center pin appears. Hopefully, this will bypass the stress point where the connection tends to fail.
I had a real hard time (90 minutes!) getting the keyboard connector strip to seat correctly. I kept ending up with one or more columns of keys dead. I finally realized the little black plastic support was not providing enough upward pressure to keep the strip in contact with the connector. I doubled over a strip of blue Scoth tape and laid it where the black support goes, then taped it down with another piece of tape. I slid everything in place, added another piece of tape over the connector strip to keep it in place, and all keys work! Hopefully this idea may help someone else.
Paul
May 13th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
CPU is in tight and locked…no bent pins. Got the heatsink firmly attached and the fans mounted. No other extras.
It still just spins the fans and shuts off, spins the fans and shuts off. Will repeat for ever I expect.
Any further ideas before I turn it into a monitor stand?
May 11th, 2006 at 10:50 am
LOL I think I know what you are talking about now. The cables ARE the wifi antenna…Ill find out when I get home from work if they are Im gonna smack myself in the head cause I sat stairing at the mobo for an hour last night trying to find a connection close to the video card for what I assumed was a monitor input.
May 11th, 2006 at 10:48 am
Hey Chris,
I think you are talking about Wi-Fi antenna cables. Thats only black and white cables with round clips I know, I havent seen any other cables coming from the LCD screen that looks like wi-fi antennas. These cables follow the route on the top cover and then go through the hole on the system board to the other side. You connect them on the other side of the laptop to the wireless card.
White main and Black aux.