Toshiba Satellite 1200. How to take apart laptop.
I haven’t seen this laptop model for months. We repaired a lot of them some time ago. One of our biggest customers used to have hundreds of these computers and we worked on them until they all went out of warranty. I believe that my disassembly guide for Toshiba Satellite 1200 still could be very useful for many people. We noticed that this model has a lot of problems with video. I believe it happens because a week connection between the system board and the video board. If you experience a video problem, try to reseat the video card. Another very common problem with this laptop model – a broken lid close switch on the LED board. If you laptop doesn’t go to a hibernation mode when you close the display, check if the lid close switch is broken.
During laptop disassembly pay attention on the following moments. The keyboard strip seated very tightly. You have to be very careful when you remove the strip because it has a control board attached to it. The laptop has a lot of screws under the keyboard. When you remove the top cover assembly, do not forget to mark screws. When I disassembled this laptop for the first time, I draw a diagram on the paper for each screw location.
Need spare parts for your laptop? Search here by the laptop model and part name or number.
September 6th, 2009 at 6:53 am
I have took apart a satellite 1135. When i took the monitor off i pulled the white and brown wires away from the board. Now i do not know where they go or even what they are for. I know what area they came from but can not figure out where they went. Can someone please help me with this? I’m no computer tech by any means. I am just helping a friend out.
Please help me!! This is all that is keeping me from putting it back together!!
August 25th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
edwin,
Could be three things:
1. Poor connection between the keyboard cable and motherboard.
2. Bad keyboard.
3. Motherboard problem.
Solution:
1. Try reconnecting the cable.
2. Try replacing the keyboard.
3. Replace the laptop because it’s not worth it to replace the motherboard in this unit.
Also, you can use the laptop with an external USB keyboard.
August 25th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
mick,
Can you get video on the external monitor? If not, check the memory module. Test the laptop with another known good memory.
August 23rd, 2009 at 2:02 pm
toshiba satalite 4200 switch it on, but monitor black or blank help
August 19th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Greetings!!!
I have a Toshiba Satellite 1200, some keys on my keyboard doesn’t work. I haven’t touched anything yet nor dismantle the whole laptop. It just didn’t worked. Please advise. Thanks.
August 18th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
I have a Toshiba Satellite 1200. Before I was having a problem with its monitor, it shuts down automatically, but the CPU is still running. But when I set the power setup to default settings, its ok now. I haven’t touched anything nor open it apart, but some keys of my keyboard are not functioning. I’d tried cleaning it with a vacuum cleaner, but still not working. Please advise. Thanks.
August 14th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Dave,
You’ll definitely have to take the screws out of the back of your laptop to get at the heatsink. I recently took apart my 1005 to clean the heatsink (working like new now!), so let me know if you have any questions along the way (although the step-by-step instructions with pictures on this site may well be all the help you need).
August 14th, 2008 at 6:53 am
Hi – thanks for the disassembly instructions and diagrams!!! I was wondering though if it was possible to access the heatsink without taking all the screws out the back of the laptop ???? It is a Toshiba Satellite 1100 (though the 1200 diagram looks the same)
Maky thanks
July 31st, 2008 at 5:59 am
Thanks for these steps on how to open the Toshiba 1200 laptop, it really helped to open my Toshiba Satellite 1110. They were clear enough to not to make a mistake.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:00 pm
I think I have an overheating problem with my Satellite 1005, so I am attempting to disassemble and clean the heatsink/fan area. I am stuck at the step for removing the keyboard securing strip. I can insert a small screwdriver in the slot and lift it a bit, but it doesn’t want to budge any further (actually, the entire keyboard section wants to lift along with it). It truely seems like I would break something if I “forced” the keyboard securing strip any further. Is there a trick to removing it? The picture makes it look simple, but it seems quite difficult. Thanks in advance for any help!
March 11th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Thanks for this! Like Pat, Robert and Mary, I used your guide to disassemble a Model 1005 (s157).
I resoldered its troublesome AC adapter jack, fixed the long-dead MoDem, reassembled everything and now the PC works as good as new!
March 10th, 2008 at 7:26 am
I APPRECIATE VERY MUCH THE EXCELLENT DISASSEMBLY INSTS FOR TOSHIBA SATELITTE 1200, BUT CAN YOU TELL ME WHERE I
CAN LOCATE THE CMOS OR BIOS BATTERY, SO I CAN DISCONNECT IT AND HOPEFULLY KILL THE BIOS PASSWORD REQUEST THAT POPS UP WHEN I TURN IT ON? THATS WHY I AM TAKING IT APART….AND OR THE RELATED JUMPERS? I HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING ELSE…WOULD BE APPRECIATED.
model 1135-S155
December 16th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
ed goeking,
On older Toshiba laptops you should be able to remove the BIOS password with a parallel plug. It’s not difficult to make and you don’t have to take your laptop apart. Try it first, it should help.
December 16th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
I APPRECIATE VERY MUCH THE EXCELLENT DISASSEMBLY INSTS FOR TOSHIBA SATELITTE 1200, BUT CAN YOU TELL ME WHERE I
CAN LOCATE THE CMOS OR BIOS BATTERY, SO I CAN DISCONNECT IT AND HOPEFULLY KILL THE BIOS PASSWORD REQUEST THAT POPS UP WHEN I TURN IT ON? THATS WHY I AM TAKING IT APART….AND OR THE RELATED JUMPERS? I HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING ELSE…WOULD BE APPRECIATED.
PLEASE TELL ME A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF DONATION FOR YOUR HELP TODAY ? THANK MUCH…ED GOEKING iishere@peoplepc.com
November 3rd, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Gee3,
You can try this. Disassemble the laptop and leave only four major parts: motherboard, video card, CPU (with heatsink) and memory. I assume the video card and the memory module is good. This should be enough to start the laptop with video. Test the laptop with an external monitor.
If you still have no video, most likely there is a problem with the motherboard. It’s possible that the CPU is bad but CPU failures are not very common. I would blame the motherboard.
October 31st, 2007 at 7:17 am
Have a Toshiba 1000-S157 with video problems. Replaced videocard and still no display. Motherboard comes on and you hear cpu running and hard drive, but lcd is black. Tried external and no display either on it. I changed memory also with no luck. Is it my motherboard gone bad or something else?
September 14th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
hi, I have a 1005 satellite and I change the mother board for trouble with hard disk, now with the new mother I cannot to get video only with a external monitor using ctrl+fn5, with the old board the lcd work ok but dont work the hard disk, do you have some ideas for my trouble, thanks in advance.