Today I had to replace the memory module in Toshiba Satellite 1905 notebook. This notebook has 2 memory slots. One memory slot is located on the bottom of the notebook and you can access it pretty easy. The second slot is located under the keyboard and you have to remove the notebook keyboard before you can remove, replace or upgrade the memory module. By default the memory stick is installed under the keyboard. Be very careful with the keyboard securing strip, it is very fragile and seated in place very tightly.
What memory should I use for upgrading my notebook computer? How to choose the right memory type and size?
November 30th, 2006 at 10:17 am
Chad-
Hopefully you have solved your problem. There are two screws by the paralell and VGA port that are covered with plastic dots. Remove dots over screws and you should be in business.
November 11th, 2006 at 1:02 pm
I am disassembling my 1905 in order to re-solder the DC connector to the main board. I am to the point where the top and bottom parts of the laptop should separate, but I cannot get them to separate. I used a guitar pick and opened it from the front just fine, but there is something in the back near where the monitor posts connect to the laptop holding it together. I do not see any screws anywhere and I cannot figure out what is still holding this laptop together. Any ideas?
October 25th, 2006 at 8:54 am
Hi Steve,
My bad. I assumed that Satellite 1900 is just a Canadian version of Satellite 1905 (I work with laptops sold in the USA) and it also has two expansion slots available for the memory upgrade. After I searched online I found that Satellite 1900 has a memory module integrated into the system board and only ONE expansion slot. The maximum memory size for Satellite 1900 is 512MB or 768MB, depending on the model.
October 24th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Thanks for your help. Unfortunately, according to that memory configurator website and the actual Toshiba website, they say I can only upgrade to 768 MB
Wierd because they both list one of the memory slots as non-removable but I can remove both??? I don’t get it. Either way, thanks again for your help.
Cheers,
Steve
October 15th, 2006 at 10:55 pm
Steve,
Satellite 1900 notebook has 2 memory slots and you can use both of them for the memory upgrade. I believe that this model will accept up to 1GB of memory in both slots, so you can use 512MB+512MB.Toshiba Satellite 1900 is different Satellite 1905. Toshiba Satellite 1900 has only ONE memory expansion slot.
Here’s a nice memory configurator, you can use it to find out exactly how much memory you can install into your laptop.
The wireless card antenna cables run inside the display assembly, under the LCD screen. You can see an example here, on the step 10. You don’t have to solder the Wi-Fi antenna cables to the card. The antenna cables have small connectors that you can snap on the wireless card connectors.
October 14th, 2006 at 6:33 pm
Interesting about that wifi internal card. I just opened my 1900 and saw that slot there above that memory, from underneath the laptop. I saw that there is a stick of RAM underneath the computer AND under the keyboard. Wonder if they are both upgradable? That would be awesome, total of 1 GB finally!!!
With regards to the wifi and the antenna, where exactly do I attach those wires to? the card itself??? Do they need to be soldered on?
Thanks! And your write-ups are amazing
Cheers
October 13th, 2006 at 10:34 am
Do you have instructions on replacing the CPU cooling fan in a Toshiba 1905-S303??
October 6th, 2006 at 3:45 pm
Ahmad,
Check out this webpage, it should help you to resolve the issue.
October 5th, 2006 at 4:26 pm
hi to all
acualy, i have a problem with my laptop Toshiba Satelitte 1905-S277 i forget the Bios user password and Administrator password else….
plz..
how to run my system again ..
waitiny your reply…
thanx
September 13th, 2006 at 4:27 pm
I’m trying to replace the DC Jack on my Satellite 1905-S303. Stuck in the disassembly process…..
August 21st, 2006 at 11:16 pm
Peggy,
You can install the wireless card if you remove the memory cover on the bottom. The Wi-FI slot in the same bay. You can see it on the step 2. There are 2 wireless antenna cables. The white cable goes to the main connector and brown to auxiliary.
August 16th, 2006 at 4:37 pm
Thanks for the helpful site. I am not a pc guru. Anyway I’ve been puzzled by the wireless switch since I got this toshiba and want to make it an internal wireless. How hard is it really? Can I install it and extra memory from the easy hole in the bottom or do i have to remove the keyboard?
July 1st, 2006 at 2:30 pm
Hi,
Just wanted to thank you for the work you put into this site. I’d never have guessed that the second bank of memory for the 1905-S303 was under the keyboard!
Randy C.
May 15th, 2006 at 9:33 pm
Any tips on getting to the hard drive on one of these? Also, any ideas on where to get a replacement keyboard cheap? Thanks.
-
Ryan
May 7th, 2006 at 11:20 am
Rygir…
)
Not to sure but does your Satelitle have the Wifi card fitted.. if so the the small bracker/metal flap is the securing bar (stops case flex from impacting the WiFi board)
You should be able to refit it by removing the cover over the board and slipping it back in. (now you will only have 2 unexplained screws (new spares
Brett
May 6th, 2006 at 9:00 am
Hey Bob,
By default, Toshiba installs main memory into the slot located under the keyboard. The second slot, on the bottom of the laptop should be empty and available for memory upgrade. You have to add more memory into the slot located on the bottom. It is not necessary to remove the keyboard.
May 6th, 2006 at 5:59 am
I want to add memory. Do I have to open BOTH the bottom and the keyboard just to add memory. If NOT both, which one?
Thanks
May 4th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
Thank you sooooo much for your posting on Toshiba Satellite 1905-S277…How to add ram. I have been seaarching the internet for days.
Thanks again.
Bob
April 29th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
Rygir,
Congratulations that you got it back and it works!
I’ve checked specifications for Toshiba Satellite 1905, I guess it would be the same for Satellite 1900.
Here is what I found:
Different Satellite 1905 models use different memory types. For example Toshiba Satellite 1905-S277 uses PC133 and the maximum amount of memory it can accept is 512MB. On the other hand, Toshiba Satellite 1905-S303 uses PC2100 and the maximum is 1GB.
I would assume that if your laptop used PC133 you can expand it to 512MB, if it uses PC2100 expand it to 1GB.
April 29th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
Well, good news. I’m posting this from the reassembled laptop!
All I did was just plug the cable back in, and it’s working perfectly now!
It hasn’t shut down, no matter what I throw at it!
Oddly enough, I still have 3 long screws, and that metal plate left. And I haven’t been able to fix the keyboard, there’s one button (with the backslash, less than and more than symbols) that has never worked. And I actually want to give it 256mb more ram…any idea if a 1900 can handle 1gb ram?
If I can find time, I might do a writeup with shots of my “adventure”.
In any case, thanks for your support and information, cj2600!
April 29th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
I’ve got it all back together, except one problem which I will get to in a minute.
The DVD drive : I just had to pull harder to get it out
.
I DID NOT seperate the heat sink and CPU (mainly because I think it’s attached using a thermal adhesive). I’ve taken it back out (because of that problem), to check, and it was perfectly fine. I put it back, this time pushing it in straight and screwing both sides slowly. I did not see a screw on the side of the socket… in any case it slid in smoothly again and since I didn’t touch the screw it’s probably still locked.
And the metal plate seems to be something that held down the VGA cable from the screen.
I do have 3 screws left :s.
Anyway…at first, it kept rebooting when I turned it back on, which I noticed because I heard the CD-rom do it’s booting sequence over and over and over again. If I held down the power button it would stop, if I released it it continued. The only way to power down was to take out the battery.
After checking every connection, I decided to remove that plate and unplug the VGA cable : It boots perfectly. But I can only use a VNC connection to control it :s. So now I have to figure out why that cable is causing it to reboot.
At least I got the critical files of the system now, and the CPU seems happy so the problem can’t be that bad?
I’m curious now, why would you renew the thermal grease if it’s still sticking together perfectly?
nb:I’ve noticed my cleaning had good results the CPU cooler now runs for very short spurts, with long intervals inbetween, rather than just ramping up the speed and then shutting down completely.
April 29th, 2006 at 9:25 am
Rygir,
To remove the DVD drive you have to remove one screw located in the memory bay. Remove the memory cover and you will see the screw. After the screw is removed you can slide out the drive. When the drive is removed you will see 3 screws that you can easily access.
When you remove the heatsink it is very possible that the CPU would be attached to the heatsink. You have to be very careful with the CPU pins! If the CPU came out with the heatsink, you have to separate it from the heatsink before you put it back in the socket. To separate the CPU from the heatsink I usually use a flathead screwdriver. I place it between the CPU and the heatsink and rotate just enough to lift up the processor. Before you put the CPU back in the socket you have to UNLOCK THE SOCKET. There is a screw on the side of the CPU socket and it could be either LOCKED or OPEN. So, you open the lock, put the CPU back in place and lock the screw. Do not push on the CPU when you put it back, it should fit into the socket pretty easy. The CPU and the socked are keyed, make sure to match the key. If you forget to lock the socket screw your laptop will not start when you assemble everything back.
You also have to clean up old thermal grease from the CPU and the heatsink and put new thermal grease on the CPU before you install the heatsink back in place.
About plastic latches on the top cover assembly. You will not see them until you lift up the top cover. Sometimes you do need to use a guitar pick, you just lift up the top cover.
I am not sure where the metal plate is coming from, cannot memorize.
April 29th, 2006 at 8:59 am
Well…I now have a tiny metal plate and I can’t figure out where it’s supposed to go;
If you make a guide, an “end result” overview with all the pieces and where they came from will help people that attempt to do this a lot! Perhaps even total counts of screws, per section, so they can be sure they didn’t miss one.
Anyway, you wouldn’t happen to remember where a small rectangular metal plate, 7mm wide, 4cm on one side, 3cm on the other (it has a small flap)has to go? It has a screwing hole on one side.
Attempt to sketch :
____________________
|o_______________—-
the short piece is slightly curved, so it looks like this from the side :
___________________–
April 29th, 2006 at 8:37 am
I can’t find how to release the CD/DVD rom, I think it has something to do with the metal when you open the center plate on the bottom of the laptop (where you can place cards, which I don’t have). And if I get it out, are those screws located ± where those extra screws are located in the disk drive bay (about where the plastic front of the drives is)?
Another problem I had was that I couldn’t get into the section for the CPU, because I didn’t have star screwdrivers that small. I filed down a tiny inbus and unlocked that cover, then removed the tiny clamps holding down the soft metal plate that keeps the cooling block, and lifted the cooling block out. To my surprise, the entire CPU came along. the side where the air is blown into the block was completely clogged, a 2mm thick layer of black dust. I took that off, vacuumed the entire thing, and although there were some particles left between the copper plates I decided to put it back together, because they wouldn’t come out and it was very little. I tried vacuuming the section with the fan from here, but it didn’t work well, the fan is still dirty. Now I’m a bit scared, because I’m trying to put it back together, so I screwed on clamp fairly tight, and then the other…but when I did that it sounded like…when you push your finger into foam, a soft crackling sound. It went fairly smooth, but the noise worried me, and because it was a fairly steep angle, I really hope I didn’t bend any pins. When I had screwed both sides down I could still give it another push and it sank even deeper all of a sudden… either it fits perfectly now, or my CPU’s pins are all destroyed…
I’m looking through my camera videos right now, to check where a small metal piece has to go, I can’t remember.
If I manage to get it back together, are you interested in the videos? It’s not incredibly detailed, but when edited it might be useful for someone.
If you ever make a guide, I suggest making a couple overview shots and marking all the screws on them, possible using a colour code (because there are only about 3 different types, that should be fairly easy).
Last problem : I couldn’t find those plastic latches, I was going to use a knife, but because I didn’t know where to find them, I couldn’t release them (also, I don’t have a guitar pick). However I don’t think I’m going to risk further dissassembly because it took me the better part of an hour to reconstruct a damaged plug (for on of the speakers, the soft plastic broke when I disconnected it, and now I had shove the cables in, which I managed and I don’t feel like doing it again
…
April 23rd, 2006 at 10:20 pm
Hi Rygir,
The metal plate under the keyboard is a part of the top cover assembly. To get access to the cooling fan you have to remove the top cover. I do not have a guide for removing the top cover assembly for this model, but I can give you some instructions:
1. Remove all screws on the bottom of the laptop. Do not forget 5 screws in the battery bay and 3 screws in the CD-ROM drive bay. You have to remove the CD-ROM first. Also remove all part displayed in my guide.
2. Remove 3 screws on the side where the VGA and parallel connector are located.
3. Remove the plastic piece located between speakers and covering the display cable connector.
4. Remove speaker covers. You have to remove 2 screws before.
5. Remove 7 screws on the metal plate and 2 screws located close to the speakers.
6. Using a guitar pick release plastic latches and lift up the top cover assembly.
You can read through other disassembly guides to get a better idea. Good luck!
April 23rd, 2006 at 11:54 am
I need more help with disassembly, I took apart all the sections on the bottom and the keyboard is out, but I’m stuck; it’s a Satellite 1900 but judging from these pictures the case is identical. Any ideas on how to get that metal plate out, or if that isn’t necessary, how to get to the CPU, because it’s overheating quickly and I want to clean it thoroughly now!
April 16th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
Hi Conor,
It is pretty easy to replace the keyboard on Toshiba Satellite 1905. You can see how to remove the keyboard strip on the step 3. The keyboard securing strip is a peace of plastic that located on the top of the keyboard and covers the keyboard securing screws. You can remove the strip with a sharp object, for example a flat head screwdriver. After you replace the keyboard you just place the strip back in place and snap it in. To replace the keyboard you have to follows steps 3,4,5. Do not forget to remove the battery and be very careful with the keyboard connector on the system board; unlock the connector before you pull the keyboard cable from it.
April 16th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
Hello. I need to replace the keyboard on my 1905-S301 because the H key popped off and will not work very well any more. I saw that you said something about a keyboard securing strip. What is this and is it difficult to put a new one in after I take the old one out???
P.S. I’m know nothing about modding computers and don’t want to screw this up. Please help.
Thank you.
March 30th, 2006 at 1:48 pm
Hi there,
To replace the CPU cooling fan in this model, you have to completely take apart your laptop and remove the system board. After you remove the system board you can get an access to the fan. I haven’t created a disassembly guide for this model yet, so cannot give you step-by-step instructions. Just go through some disassembly guides and you’ll get an idea how to remove the system board. You still have to pass all steps described in the above mentioned guide in order to open the laptop case.
March 30th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
I need repair fan cooler, in my toshiba 1905 s301, before its steps, how I must proceed?