Toshiba Satellite M35X is a very popular model in the United States. In general, most Toshiba Satellite M35X laptops suffer from the same problems. Here’s a disassembly guide.
Improperly grounded top cover assembly. If the top cover assembly wasn’t grounded properly, then laptop may lock up or freeze up when you touch it in the speaker area. It happens because of a static electricity discharge. This problem was fixed on some laptops, but still there are a lot of laptops with unmodified top cover assembly. This problem should be covered under warranty even if you laptop is not under warranty anymore.
Poorly designed DC-IN power jack on the system board. Overtime, the DC power jack gets disconnected from the system board. If it happens, you will experience a problem with charging the battery or the laptop may not start at all.
Read more:
Toshiba Satellite M35X and A75 power jack and battery charge problem.
Toshiba Satellite 1900 laptop looses power and shuts down without warning.
Laptop CPU overheating. It is a very common problem for some Toshiba laptops. If a laptop CPU overheats, then the laptop shuts down without by itself without any reason. Read more:
Why my Toshiba laptop suddenly shuts down by itself without warning?
You can use the disassembly guide to take apart Toshiba Satellite M35X notebook and repair it yourself. Do not open the case if your laptop is still under warranty.
August 9th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
i have a toshiba m35x-s161 and i have the dc jack problem but i think i can handle that but when i press the power button nothing happens but a blue light comes, the fan runs for a second and that is it does any one know how to remedy this problem
August 4th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
So I had Windows XP installed on my Toshiba laptop (M35X-S163) and when I got it back, the sound isn’t working, I apparently need to install a new driver for that. And the wireless key was deleted. I’m sure many other things as well, but I’ve yet to figure it out.
If you have any idea on where I could go to get this fixed, please email me, it would help out a lot. I’m about to start school and I need the sound for a class I’m taking. Can’t afford to to buy a new one and don’t have a lot of money to get it fixed.
July 28th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
i had th eno boot thing and i just super glued the dc thing to the board and she works good oh im so happy every one kept telling me i needed a new motherboard
July 26th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
my laptop has the outer two lights lit under the latch the center light is out. the laptop won’t come on at all. the blue power button does not light up no noise no nothing. computer worked fine yesterday. of the three lights on the front the left is green the right is orange/red. If i move the power connecter i can sometimes get the center light to come on green for a split second.
July 16th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
My Toshiba Satellite computer is not playing any volume. The buttons on the keyboard will “beep” but I can hear nothing either from the speakers or the headphones outlet. I have tried the control panel and volume control but can’t seem to figure out why the volume has suddenly disappeared. Can you help?
July 11th, 2008 at 1:41 am
Laptop CPU overheating is common to most brand laptop. Funny my Asus laptop also face the CPU overheating. Sending to their service centre… find out it just a dust already full covered the heatsink. That it…clean it and everything run ok. Maybe the case same with other brand to.
cheers
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:53 am
Bernie,
You can try testing the motherboard as it shown in the last picture in this troubleshooting guide: Laptop is dead. How to troubleshoot the problem.
July 3rd, 2008 at 6:29 am
Hello everyone who’s had toshiba laptops
I have a m30x (or m35x, don’t know since I can’t boot it anymore) and I have the same 5 sec fan then nothing symptom.
I have entirely dismounted it (heatsink/PSU(?)) but I can’t seem to detach the mobo from the case (the serial/vga pins seem stuck)
Since I have it entirely dismounted, is there anything I can do to test parts ? Visual inspection ?
My DC jack looks fine and doesn’t budge, but I can’t say for sure.
I was told I could ‘flash’ the BIOS by removing the motherboard battery, but can’t seem to find it on my laptop !
I’ll add pics if anyone replies.
Thank you and have a good day !
July 2nd, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Thanks for the instructions. Just performed a laptopectomy to try to fix a no boot situation. The power plug had been fixed under warantee so I wasn’t expecting that to be it.
The symptoms were power on, HD one flash, fan whirs 5 secs, and then nothing, couldn’t even shut it down manually until I pulled the power.
I pulled the HD and slaved it to another laptop, seemed ok, but my Norton AV went into overdrive, and I cleaned off 32 viruses of assorted maliciousness. The Toshiba was running Fix-it Antivirus which I usually invoke manually, but hadn’t done so in about a month.
Anyway, I dissected the thing down to the motherboard, blew out the dust bunnies and tumbleweeds and put it back together. I gave the speakers a good cleaning since I read they were prone to a static discharge event that might cause this situation.
I did have a screw that wouldn’t reseat because the inmold nut had broken off due to apparently some trauma. There was also a minor crack in the outer case at the corner where the optical drive inserts, but nothing really structural.
To my great pleasure, it rebooted normally when I put it all back together. I went prancing around the house chanting “He da man, he da man”. My kids were very happy to get their laptop back, I just wish that whereever they were surfing (Myspace, Facebook, ???) was less virus ridden. I must clean at least a dozen viruses a week off their computer if I find the time.
Don’t know what was really wrong with it, but the “take it apart and put it together” approach seemed to work at least this time. Couldn’t have done it without the instructions. Thanks again.
July 2nd, 2008 at 6:31 pm
i have a problem, i played a game called halo trial on my m35x s161, it worked fine after i downloaded many things it kinda got slow, so my dad bought a windows xp cd which made the computer add another section first it was win xp home edition. now i have windows xp pro. so i can choose which one i would like when i turn on my computer. i had gotten this becuase my computer was gotten very slow. then when i downloaded halo, it had a problem, it said i need directdraw and i should press start-> run-> type in dxdiag. so on my old operating system i have directdraw and driect3d and apg texture acceration, now i do not have any of those and i do not know where to find it, it also says “The system is using the generic video driver. Please install video driver provided by the hardware manufacturer.” and
“Direct3D functionality not available. You should verify that the driver is a final version from the hardware manufacturer.” i tried the website but it only has wifi drivers and sound and no video drivers or anything please help me the fate of my entertainment is on hand!
June 26th, 2008 at 8:46 am
Just fixed an M35X-S163 that had the no boot issue (blue power light, 5 sec run on fan), reflowed the 48 pin chip next to the power connector as suggested by EddieT in post 195, very fine pitch leads fortunately I have a microscope and a real soldering iron with surfacemount tips, the same work could be performed with a homemade hot air pencil (google is your friend). HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY.
May 30th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
If we could get laptops in the UK for such low prices I’d readily agree with you. It’s more like $700-$800 (£350-£400) over here for an equivalent basic machine! Hence to me $250 to fix a laptop sounds cheap. I’ve had 2 of these laptops running for over 2 years with the power connectors epox’d on with no problems. I gave up on another Toshiba because I couldn’t get a low cost replacement board in the UK that worked - some you win! Who’s to say any other machine is better as they all use similar soldered on connectors. I think the Apple Macs with their magnetic power connectors are a massive step in the right direction but the prices are way too high for me. I’m no laptop expert - I’m just going on my own experiences of what I’ve seen.
May 30th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Just add $240 to $259 and buy a brand new Acer or Toshiba from NewEgg.
I wouldn’t pay $259 for a new, I mean refurbished, motherboard for a Satellite M35X. It’s going to fail sooner or later anyway.
May 30th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
It looks like if you live in the US (I don’t) the K000019660 is available for $259:
http://www.impactcomputers.com/toshiba-satellite-m35x-s149-parts-internal-parts-and-assemblies.html
Looks like a good price for a new guaranteed board.
Stuart