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.
September 10th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
I just took apart and assembled my Toshiba A75 cause of overheating issues. Its really not hard to do. And the results are great laptop has been on 4 hours no overheating. Thanks
September 9th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
One more question. Where can I find the schematic diagram for this model? Toshiba Satellite A75 S229?
September 9th, 2006 at 10:26 pm
cj2600,
First of all, thanks for your commitment to answering all these questions.
I have a Toshiba Satellite A75 S229. I also had this overheating problem, used your disassembling manual and it worked perfectly. But after a few months, all of a sudden, my laptop just went dead. Tried several times to plug/unplug the power jack in the back, but all I could see was that orange LED in the front blinking fast. If i push the power up button, it will come up for 1 or 2 seconds, but then it will shut down again. I noticed that after several tries, the two front LED’s will light and charge up the battery, but even if I remove the power cable out and try to run it with the battery only, it will present the same behaviour (in a shorter shut down time though, about 1/2 a second).
I disassembled my note again and noticed that there’s one component burned up. It’s sat on the upper left corner of the MOBO, just beside the coolers and says PQ7. There’s a PQ6 right on top of it where it seems to read 4407 BE4X1A (I could be mistaken cos the letters are too small).
My questions are: Do you suggest me to try these power jack solution thingy before attempting to try to find these components? Is it possible to find/replace the component in case it doesn’t work? Where can I find it on the web? Do you have them for sale?
I guess I will also need those two mic/phone jacks. I use them quite often and they got kinda loose. Besides the sound from it seems to be extremely low in volume. Any ideas to have it’s signal amplified by software (I’m using WinXP pro)?
I know it’s really hard to find those things here in brazil, but since they want to charge me over 900 USD (plus shipping) for a refurbished MOBO here, I’m willing to seek it in the US and try to have it shipped to my house so I can replace it myself.
Another last question: is it possible to have two HD’s hooked up to this model?
Thanks in advance.
September 9th, 2006 at 7:12 pm
Snir,
There is no screw for the keyboard strip. It’s just tight. Open up the display as much as you can. Insert a small flat head screwdriver under the hinge cover (the part of the keyboard strip) and carefully lift it up.
September 9th, 2006 at 7:04 pm
hi all
please help
i remove all screws from the bottom of the A70
got to the securing strip and its just too tight
i just dont want to break anything
its very loose from the top but it look like somthing
holding it like a screw at the bottom next to the keyboard and it wont let me pull it out?
thanks for all your help
best
September 9th, 2006 at 6:52 pm
cj -
Just a follow-up note. Got everything back together and the A75-S206 works well. I never did figure out where the two extra silver screws came from, but all the hardware works and there are no rattles when I move the laptop around. I’m cautiously optomistic. I doubt I would’ve got this far this quickly without your guide. Thanks again!
September 9th, 2006 at 4:09 pm
On August 29 Scott said:
Just wondering if anyone has ever had a problem with their A70 which involves, im guessing a loose display wire of some sort because my display goes all screwy when my conmputer sits a certain way and sometimes goes back to normal if i tilt it back. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
***
I’ve had seemingly random pixelating and screwy colouring on my monitor as well. After reading his post, I tilted my laptop a bit and have now discovered if I press on the front right corner the condition gets worse, if I press on the front left, it completely goes away. Any suggested fixes?
September 9th, 2006 at 11:21 am
Stuart,
If onboard memory is bad, we usually replace the system board. But back in August, on my other site one guy claimed that he can replace onboard memory. Read comments for this post and you’ll find more details in there.
September 8th, 2006 at 2:26 pm
Hi – Is there a way to remove and replace the built in RAM from the Toshibia A70 model?
Thanks
Stuart
September 6th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
cj -
The two “extra” silver screws are the same kind and size as the ones that secure the fans, but I replaced those four. I confirmed that by totally disassembling the laptop again, following your steps to the letter, and carefully labeling everything as I removed an item. Then I reversed the process, putting everything back, but I didn’t find where the addtional screws came from. I doubt Toshiba had them loose inside the case, so I still have to work on that.
Now on to my new wrinkle: In taking the laptop apart multiple times, I seem to have *created* the “not properly grounded” problem.
I checked the underside of the case as described in another forum, and it sure looks like this laptop was repaired – foil in all the right places. Are there any other ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos of the inner case that I could use to compare with my rig?
Thanks again for sharing your knowledge & skill!
– Mike
September 4th, 2006 at 9:00 pm
Mike,
These silver screws. Aren’t they the screws that secure the fan to the motherboard on the step 22? I remember only 4 silver screws from Satellite A75 – fan screws. I even removed the keyboard from my Satellite A75 to make sure they are not from the keyboard. Man, you’ll have to go all the way down to put them back. Test if the laptop works without them.
F5 are different then F8 screws. I believe that’s a length of the screw in millimeters. F5 – screw with a flat head 5mm logn, F8 – screw with a flat head 8mm long. So, F8 are longer then F5.
Now fixing the touchpad problem. Check if the touchpad cable on the step 14 is properly connected to the motherboard – the white ribbon cable, closest to the touchpad. Before you check the cable connection, try to enable the touchpad through software settings, press Fn+F9 keys. Fn+F9 disables/enables touchpad with left and right keys.
September 4th, 2006 at 8:35 pm
First off, let me say you have one of the best, most thorough step-by-step guides I’ve ever used. Many, many thanks for your hard work in constructing your documentation.
Here’s my situation: I’m working on a friend’s A75-S206. She was having the overheating problem. I think that’s been fixed, but I must have overlooked something else really obvious.
There are two silver screws that are slightly smaller than the screws in the F8 positions. I can’t figure out where these go. I’m pretty good about putting sets of screws in small paper envelopes and labeling the envelopes – “modem card” – “screen hinges” and the like. The fact that these weren’t labled tells me that I must have removed them early – and thought that their location was SO obvious that I couldn’t possibly forget it. I’ve looked at all of your photos from the guide, but I’m still at a loss as to where these go.
Also, is there any difference in screws for the F5 and F8 positions? I know the F3 screws are very short, but I can’t find any clear differences between the F5 and F8.
I already reassembled most of the laptop to check the video, sound, and disk functionality. Right now it’s about 20 minutes into an automatic Norton scan – which would usually cause it to overheat. I put my hand over the heatsink/exhaust and it was barely warm – which tells me the overheating issue is probably remedied. However, there is no mouse pad or left click/right click functionality. The keyboard itself works fine. Any cause immediately come to mind?
Oh, and for those folks confused about the white wire/black wire on the WLAN – there is a “B” and a “W” imprinted on the black plastic of the case. These line up with the Main and Aux terminals.
Another suggestion for all the DIY’ers: If you have a digital camera, USE IT! I take a photo of everything I’m going to work on BEFORE I start. I also take photos of what the hardware looks like as I’m reassembling it. It helps provide me with documentation when I’m finished and have to start putting everything back together. Sort of my “trail of breadcrumbs out of the forest.”
One other suggestion for laptop users: use an angled riser of some kind to increase airflow to the laptop and relieve wrist strain on you. One of the posts here mentioned using a pair of door jambs. I bought a riser for my wife from Cyberguys for $10, but I’m sure lots of other places have them, too. And of course there are more elaborate (and expensive) cooling pads.
Again, GREAT guide! You’ve saved me HOURS of frustration.
August 31st, 2006 at 4:48 am
Wow! These instructions worked perfectly for me. Now I’ve got a working notebook for the price of a new dc input jack and some thermal grease.
CJ, you have really helped me out (and my daughter, who leaves today for college, notebook in tow)!
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Richie
August 29th, 2006 at 6:08 pm
Just wondering if anyone has ever had a problem with their A70 which involves, im guessing a loose display wire of some sort because my display goes all screwy when my conmputer sits a certain way and sometimes goes back to normal if i tilt it back. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
August 27th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
Larry,
Why do you think it’s not the power jack issue? Have you tried to re-solder or replace the jack? Did you test the voltage just on the top of the system board?
I would check if there is continuity between the solder point on the top and the positive trace on the bottom. I know it might be hard to understand right now, but check out this thread. I’ve posted a generic power jack diagram and some explanations. I think, it might help.
August 27th, 2006 at 7:35 am
Cannot Start! Maybe not power jack problem.
Great info! I am proud that I can open the laptop now.
But I still have a problem to start it up. When I plug in the power in the DC jack, it wont power up. When I push the power cable harder into the DC jack, I can see the light flashing. If I loose the power cable, it turns off. When I test the voltage after I plug in the power cable, I always read 19.2V. Can you please think if there is anything wrong that I cannot start the laptop up? Looks like not a power jack issue.
Thanks a lot for your guide! Great work!
August 24th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
Sweet thanks… Ill be sure to connect it that way when I take it all apart again this weekend and go slowly step by step putting it back together.
August 23rd, 2006 at 9:26 am
Thomas,
The white cable goes to the main connector, the black cable to aux.
August 23rd, 2006 at 9:19 am
Thanks for the response. To turn it on I hit the button under neath the power button, which I think is suppose to bring up the media player. It started the fans and what not and after button mashing the screen came on. I think it may have to do with the keyboard strip, Ill play around with it again on Saturday.
Also can you tell me where the black and white wires in step 2 under the metal brace go? I may have switched them up reconnecting. one goes to main and one goes to aux if I remember correctly!
August 21st, 2006 at 11:36 pm
Andrea,
Remove everything you can access: battery, wireless card, dvd drive, etc… and try to turn on the laptop. If it still reboots itself, then I guess you have a problem with the motherboard.
August 21st, 2006 at 11:33 pm
Thomas,
I think that you might have some kind of grounding issue. Do you have to press on buttons to turn it on or it would be enough if you press on the top cover around the buttons?
Check if the lid close switch is moving freely and it’s not stuck. You might even try to remove the keyboard strip as shown on steps 6-7. The lid close switch button is located on the keyboard strip but the switch itself is located on the motherboard. I guess that when you move the screen, it somehow flexing the keyboard strip with lid close switch button and it affects the lid close switch on the motherboard. That’s why the laptop hibernates as soon as you move the screen.
August 20th, 2006 at 11:40 am
I’m having problems with my A75 laptop. It is constantly rebooting itself. If the heatsink weren’t the problem, is it possible there’s a problem with the onboard memory? There’s no additional RAM installed on the machine.
August 19th, 2006 at 1:45 pm
OK guys a few problems. The backlight went out and I suspected it was my inverter. Tore it down changed the inverter and went to power up and the button does nothing and the battery light comes on once. Plug it in and try again and nothing. I hit the little music button and I hear the fans go off… start pressing other buttons and it powers on, and the screen works.. SUCCESS!!! Not so fast. I barely move the screen and it goes into hibernate and I lose everything. Power button does nothing and I hear the sound cut out. Any ideas? Im too frustrated and depressed to try again today. Also on step two when you remove the metal brace (which mine didnt have) and uplug the main and aux black and white cords, which one goes to which? I forgot to mark them off and I think I put black to aux and white to main…
August 16th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
This screw is circled on the step 3.
August 16th, 2006 at 2:40 pm
I have Toshiba A70. After I removed the hard drive,I could not find any screw securing the DVD drive. Please give a better picture, where I can find the screw.
Thanks.
August 15th, 2006 at 11:51 am
Lee,
I think it’s still possible that the AC adapter is causing the problem. Not sure 100%. Just recently I had to repair Toshiba Satellite Pro with a similar problem. The laptop had an intermittent problem with power and battery charging. Sometimes it worked fine, sometimes didn’t boot at all and the power LED flashed orange. I don’t know if there was a relationship between the CPU load and the battery charge, I didn’t test it. At first I thought that’s the motherboatrd problem.
The AC adapter on this laptop had a normal 15V output and it was the original Toshiba adapter. As soon as I connected my test adapter, the problem disappeared.
Don’t buy it right away; try to find somebody with a similar model and test it.
Are you sure it’s not the power jack problem? (comment 140)
Hey guys, if you have any other thoughts please help to resolve the problem. Any comments are welcome.
August 15th, 2006 at 11:34 am
cj2600,
The generic AC adapter has an output of 19v~6.3A. The unit does charge fine with the generic when plugged in and in use as long as I use the Toshiba Power Managment Utility to change the processor speed to low.
To remind you of my issue, with default settings it seems that when I plug in the charger it charges fine until I do something like watch a movie or play a game for a over 10 minutes. Then it stops charging and goes back to battery power (as if it’s not plugged in at all). I’m on my third adapter as the other two just stopped working alltogether. Can it still be the generic charger even though the output is correct?
Thanks
August 15th, 2006 at 10:20 am
I ended up purchasing a replacement motherboard for my A70. After installing it, the system is acting very similar to Ryan’s from post 118.
So I took it apart again and reseated everything including reapplying the thermal paste but it is still the same. Stays on, charges the battery, CD activity but no display.
Would a bad keyboard cause this? I noticed a small crease in the keyboard cable. I’m just leery spending more money on it unless I was relatively sure it would work afterwards.
August 15th, 2006 at 8:29 am
Hello Cj2600, first of all thanks a lot for the guide, it’s very easy to follow and you helped me to solve the dust problem inside the ducts, you’re a genius man!
Now let me ask you a couple of questions, I wanted to take apart my Toshiba because it started to make very loud noises from the fans and to shutdown from overheating. The overheathing issue was solved but the fans are still making a very loud “Brrrr” noise specially when it’s slightly tilted, do you think I might need to replace the fans?.
And second question. Everything worked fine when I reassambed the laptop but my wireless conection died, I’ve checked the tiny cables and the card but no use, any suggestions?
Thanks again for the nice guide, I’ll be waiting for your reply.
August 14th, 2006 at 6:59 pm
Hafeez,
Check if the CPU is seated properly and LOCKED in the socket. It’s not gonna work if the socket unlocked. When you remove the heatsink, the CPU might come out with it. In this case, you’ll have to separate the CPU from the heatsink (very carefully). After that you UNLOCK the CPU socket on the motherboard, then put the CPU back in place and LOCK the socket. Now you can clean the CPU surface and apply new thermal compound. Finally, attach the heatsink.
Also check if the memory module is seated properly. If it’s not seated properly (very common mistake), your laptop will not boot.