Toshiba Satellite M35X. How to fix most common laptop problems.
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.
Need spare parts for your laptop? Search here by the laptop model and part name or number.
April 7th, 2006 at 7:55 am
I have a Toshiba M35X-S149. I got it repaired because of the power cord problem, free of charge. But when I received it back, the keyboard did not work. I took it apart and saw it was disconnected. I tried to re-establish it, but ended up only getting partial use of the keys (some worked some didn’t). Am not sure exactly how the ribbon attaches to the main board. Any hints?
April 7th, 2006 at 6:47 pm
Hi Maryann,
It is very strange that they didn’t check the keyboard. If you just repaired it recently, I guess you can send it back as a “Redo” and your problem would be fixed at no charge. Most laptop repair companies offer 30 days warranty for parts and 30-90 days for labor.
If you repaired your laptop in Toshiba repair center, then most likely they replaced the system board. I hope that the cable just is not seated properly but it also possible that the keyboard controller on the system board is bad. Take it back and request to fix it.
To connect the keyboard, you have to open the connector first by sliding a moving part up (2mm-3mm not more) away from the system board. Be very careful or you can break it. After that place the flat keyboard ribbon cable inside the connector as dip as you can. To lock the connector, slide the moving part toward the system board.
May 1st, 2006 at 4:18 pm
I’m trying to fix a client’s laptop that has no video. Upon a cold startup it did have video but as soon as it got to right before the XP splash screen the video would die out and the screen would go completely black.
Upon taking the unit apart I found that the LCD cable’s ground came off of wherever it was bolted down to. I can’t find the place where it was bolted down to and perhaps this is the fix for my problem. Any idea where the ground for the LCD coming out from the LCD and plugging into the motherboard goes to?
May 1st, 2006 at 5:04 pm
Hey Nocturnal,
Toshiba Satellite M35X video cable has a ground cable close to the connector. This ground cable shouldn’t be connected to anything. When you assemble the laptop back just place this ground cable alone with the main cable.
Now about the video problem. Have you tried to boot into Safe Mode? It is possible that the video driver is corrupted. If you can get video when you boot into Safe Mode, then reinstalling the driver can fix the problem. You can also try to install a test hard drive and run a restore DVD to load the laptop back to original factory defaults.
May 8th, 2006 at 9:34 pm
After talking to two other people, who also have Toshiba Satellite laptops, and they have the same DC connector problem, I knew it had to be a manufacturing defect. Thanks for posting this extremely helpful information on how to disassemble my laptop. One thing I think that would help with most of these repairs during resoldering is to attack the solder from both sides of the board, doing the bottom first. This will, in effect, create a supporting brace, increasing the strength of the new resoldered connections. Having repaired car stereos for years, I know the abuse circuit boards take. Again, thanks for this info–I know it saved me at least $150. And it took about an hour in whole, from removing the first screw, to powering it up afterward. Gratefully, Robert Brady of Antelope Valley Web Design in Palmdale, CA.
May 8th, 2006 at 10:38 pm
Hey Robert,
I am glad that I was able to help you. If you would take your laptop to a Toshiba repair center they would quote you a new system board (at least $250) plus labor.
You also might be interested in this post. The author explaining how he modified the power jack connection on his Satellite M35X laptop.
May 11th, 2006 at 10:50 am
Thank you somuch for this helpful information. and thanks to google I found you.
Is there a class action suit against Toshiba for this ?
If not is anyone interested in pursuing it besides me?
steve_poindexter@yahoo.com
May 11th, 2006 at 12:20 pm
Is there a class action going anywhere?
May 11th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
Hi Steven,
I haven’t heard anything about Toshiba Satellite M35X model.
The latest laptops I’ve heard about are:
Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100
Toshiba Satellite 5005
May 19th, 2006 at 6:02 am
My M35X has been nothing but a disaster the past few months and Toshiba has done nothing to help me. One morning the computer decided it was just going to randomly shut down or freeze every couple of minutes. I ran the recovery to no avail, so I called Toshiba and they recommended a service provider to send it to and they would fix it for free since it seemed to be a common problem with the model (and they obviously didn’t want to face a class action). The service provider assumed it was the motherboard but they did hardware testing for a MONTH and found nothing wrong with the hardware. So they sent it back but my computer still didn’t work. Then I realized it was probably this top cover assembly issue and I sent it back to them to fix it. (I determined this because I tried turning the computer on and then tapping the speakers and it would instantly reboot or shut off.)Toshiba said they would replace the top cover assembly and the motherboard. A month later, we finally hear from this company and they say they’re NOT GOING TO FIX THE COMPUTER because they found liquid damage on the motherboard and accused me of spilling on it. In actuality, the computer was semi-usable before I sent it in. There were times that I could get an hour or out of it before it crashed (and it was by me touching somewhere on the computer like the speaker accidentally, so it had to be the top cover assembly). When I got it back after the first month, it didn’t do much more than turn on and now after the second time of sending it in, it’s just as bad. Is it just me, or is this a red flag that the service provider did something to my computer and won’t fess up and Toshiba is taking their side? I didn’t spill anything on my computer and I’m being accused of doing so. Now I have a motherboard that is apparently fried because the thing doesn’t work at all. Any advice? I’ve been arguing with these people for too long and it’s getting me nowhere. It shocks me that they would treat a customer like this and accuse me of lying.
May 22nd, 2006 at 10:34 am
There are two class action suits for the A70, A75, M30X, and M35X:
http://www.lorisklar.com/toshad.htm
http://www.classcounsel.com/news/toshiba.html
June 13th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
I have M35X 149, I never had problem for about a year. But now when I start, the fan will sound like it is starting. But then nothing comes on while the power button indicates it is on. the CDROM is not operating while the power indicator is on.I guess it might be related with the power not being distributed. I have to call toshiba and make them fix it. If not i will join the suit who ever is on the process.
June 14th, 2006 at 9:30 am
I had the bad dc-in jack problem on the Toshiba M35X. Followed your disassembly instructions, resoldered, reassembled and voila it was back up and running. Thanks for the great disassembly instructions.
June 26th, 2006 at 8:02 am
I had the same DC jack problem about the 8th month of owning my m35×149. I got it repaired under warranty for free, but a few months later (just after the 1 yr warranty ran ou… grr!) the computer has become a large, expensive paperweight. Now when I turn it on, the power light turns on, the fan whirs up for 5 seconds, and then nothing. One service store worker told me that he thought it was a motherboard problem, and i’ve been debating fixing the board for approx $200 (a 1/4 th original cost of the laptop), as I’ve seen that a replacement board would cost twice as much. If there’s ANY help you can offer….. please do. Thanks so much.
June 26th, 2006 at 11:36 am
I Hvae this problem i was woundering if any one could help me. my son dropped some water on my laptop and it works but half of my keyboard does not. is there some way i coudl fix this?
June 27th, 2006 at 10:29 pm
I got M35X. I also have the same problem as you guys. It had been working good since last night. I started it up and nothing come up just the sound of fan running for 5 secs. The power light is on. Sometimes it was able to boot up till Windows is running for a while and it is gone. HELP !! Please
June 28th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
Dan, Pooh,
It might be just a bad memory module. If you have 2 modules installed, remove them one by one. If you have only one module, try to reseat it and move from one slot to another.
That’s would be nice if you can find a test memory and install it.
June 28th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
Mario,
Liquid spills are very unpredictable. If you are lucky, then only the keyboard has to be replaced. You can find a link to disassembly guide in the post above.
June 30th, 2006 at 2:58 pm
Same problem with M35x-s111. Power button is light up, but after a short burst of fan no farther signs of life. System started locking up yesterday and didn’t want to come back up. Swapping memory modules around and trying one at a time at a different slot didn’t help.
July 5th, 2006 at 7:27 am
I have a m35x that, after a mb removal to repair dc jack, and after re-assembly, just gives a hdd blink and a fan burst of about 5 seconds, cannot open cdrom and no video
follow up to my previous post. seems that if I flex the lower right corner of the base up and hit power button, unit boots fine. seems like a bad connection somewhere on the board. this rules out memory, cpu and lcd. I wonder if dis-assembly to repair dc jack could have damaged motherboard?.
thoughts, comments?
July 21st, 2006 at 5:10 am
This is a great website! I followed the disassembly instructions and I got the broken DC jack issue repaired. Just as important, I was able to reassemble everything just as it was to begin with. You can’t tell that it was taken apart.
The two things that gave me some difficulty in the process were desoldering/resoldering the jack (first time I put an iron to a board for 8 years), and reinserting the ribbon cable for the keyboard (that little white piece that clamps over the ribbon just kept getting in the way).
August 4th, 2006 at 1:50 am
I have a m35x-S329, after removal to repair my dc jack, and re-assembly, hit power button just gives a hdd blink and a fan burst of about 5 seconds, unit not boots, can open cdrom but no video. seems like a bad connection somewhere on the board. I wonder if dis-assembly to repair dc jack could have damaged motherboard? Any Suggessions pls.
August 7th, 2006 at 11:37 pm
Ramesh,
Check if the memory module is seated properly. Try to move it into another slot.
By the way, if you removed the CPU for some reason, did you lock it up when you installed it back?
August 8th, 2006 at 2:47 am
Toshiba laptop won’t reboot. I here the unit running lights on in front. Screen won’t come up. I tried attaching another monitor still nothing. I had this problem one month ago when I called them. Toshiba says it won’t cover it just went out of warranty.
Going to pick up another RAM stick replace see what happens.
I have one more of these units still has 10 months of warranty. Surely won’t buy anymore.
I just saw the article on ground problem. I feel I have the same issue.
Not happy camper with company’s that hide things from the public.
Well I will continue my search on issue. Appreciate the post to show how to take the sucker apart.
Will learn about laptops on this one.
Then sell the rest of the pieces on the net.
After I remove the hard drive.
thanks
August 11th, 2006 at 2:43 pm
M35x-S329 DC Jack post replacement issues.
Thanks CJ,
I removed and fixed the Memory Module again and it works fine now i can see the display on the screen processor and fan are running, Only thing is after running 10 min system is hanging. I switched off and tried again and agian but it is the same it’s keep on hanging and processor fan blowing continues. Also when i plug in my internet cable i am not able to get the internet connection. Internet brower says page cannot be displayed, that happens to wireless connection also. Once again thanks for your valuable suggessions.
August 14th, 2006 at 7:22 pm
Ramesh,
Check if everything is connected properly and if you put right screws in right holes. For example if the screw is longer then the original one, it might touch the system board and cause the problem. It’s just a guess. Check if the system board is seated correctly.
August 16th, 2006 at 8:22 am
I took apart my M35X-309 and replaced the broken/problem jack with radio shack part #274-1576. I had to drill open the old hole a little bit, but it fit in there after some finagling. I soldered it to the board using a couple short wires so as pressure on the jack won’t pull on the board and just the wires which won’t cause any troubles. If anyone wants any more information about what I did please let me know.
In any case after I put everything back together and the power worked flawlessly I realized that for some reason the Volume Wheel on the right side doesn’t work. The only way to change the volume now is to use software tools which stinks. If anybody has any ideas as to why or how this occurred and anyway to fix it please let me know.
Also after putting the screen back in I noticed there was a short wire coming out of the video cable going to the system board. It has a hole in it and is right around where the cable sits in the chassis. Is this cable supposed to go somewhere at all?? I wrapped it in electric tape so it didn’t accidently contact anything else, and everything worked fine on the laptop except of course the volume wheel. Any info on the use of this cable would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
August 20th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
I AM HAVING THE SAME PROBLEMS AS MOST ON HERE WITH THE POWER LIGHT ON AND FAN RUNNING 5 SECONDS AND THEN NOTHING, CAN’T GET ANYWHERE WITH TOSHIBA JUST KNOW THAT I A HAVE A COSTLY PAPER WIEGHT. AND HELP PLEASE LET ME KNOW. OH YES MINE IS ALSO MODEL M35X
August 21st, 2006 at 10:56 pm
Bill,
Sorry for a late response, I’ve been kinda busy. Does the volume wheel spins at all? Sometimes it might get jammed by the laptop base.
The short wire coming from the video cable (grounding cable) for some reason is not connected to anything. Just leave it alone.
August 21st, 2006 at 10:58 pm
Annette,
I would try to find a test memory module and replace it. It might help. Or at least try to reseat the already installed module, move it to the second slot.
August 22nd, 2006 at 4:42 am
cj2600,
Thanks for the response. In any case, yeah, thats the weird part, the whole wheel spins fine either way. The audio out port works, didn’t test the mic port though. Also the Wireless Adapter switch connected the the board also works. The volume seems to be maxed out also so its not like the wheel is “stuck” at like medium volume either. If nothing comes to mind at all on why it would be like this, you think just replacing that board would work and if so you know where I could get one or the part number?? I forgot to write that down when I took the laptop apart.
August 22nd, 2006 at 8:22 am
Bill,
The volume wheel is located on the audio board (part# K000019130 – for audio board with wireless). The audio board connects to the system board through a flat cable. I think you might have just a bad connection between boards, may be the cable is not seated all the way down. Before you replace the board, I would try to reconnect the cable. I think it might fix the audio problem.
August 22nd, 2006 at 9:26 pm
Several keys on my Toshiba satellite keyboard went bad after a soda spill. All this advice was so specific with great illustrations that I decided to try to fix it myself. I was going along fine until I needed to disconnect the keyboard ribbon cable. Couldn’t find instructions on that (too basic, I guess), so I stupidly popped at the holder and it became disattached from the computer. Eventually figured out how the open the ribbon cable holder properly, but now the keyboard is not recognized at all. Tried to use the old won, which worked except for several keys and it is no longer recognized either. Anything that can be done?
August 22nd, 2006 at 10:04 pm
Here’s a picture that shows how a keyboard connects to the system board. If you want to remove the keyboard cable, you’ll have to unlock the connector first – move the brown holder away from the connector (2-3millimeters), the direction is shown by yellow arrows. Only after that you can remove the keyboard cable.
To install it back, plug the cable inside the connector as far as it goes and lock the connector.
Eileen,
I don’t know if your connector is broken or not. Try to plug the cable into the connector and jam it with the holder.
August 23rd, 2006 at 6:17 am
cj2600,
I wish I had seen that picture before I started – it really shows what I should have done! The connector did not break and I can put the ribbon cable in there and slide the tabs back in and it seems to hold it. Then I took the connector piece, which I had mistakenly pulled off the board, and put it back on the board, over the two vertical pins at the ends of the connector. But that seems to be an insufficient connection to the board. It is not recognizing the keyboard. There are a series of pins protruding from the long side of the connector towards the front of the board, but they don’t see to “fit” into anything – seemed more like they were just sitting in a hardened green gel. I can’t figure out what should be making the board read the keyboard connection. Is this a new motherboard situation?
Thanks. Eileen
August 23rd, 2006 at 7:33 pm
Eileen,
If the connector is not broken and you can put the plastic holder back into the connector, then it should work. It should work even if you accidentally break a pin on the holder, because the keyboard cable actually stays inside because it gets jammed between the connector and the holder. The series of pins connect the contacts on the keyboard cable when you lock the connector.
Make sure that you plug the cable all the way down and it’s positioned correctly, the contacts on the cable should face the pins inside the connector. The holder also has to be positioned correctly so it pushes the cable toward the pins when you lock the holder.
I had the same situation this morning. I was working on Satellite M35X and after I assembled it back the touchpad didn’t work. I took it apart again and reconnected the touchpad cable (the small version of keyboard connector) and it fixed my problem.
BTW, thank you very much for your generous donation to http://www.irisvista.com !!! People like you keep me motivated.
September 11th, 2006 at 6:26 am
cj2600,
Thanks for creating this nice site for disassembling toshiba laptop. I have toshiba m35x-109 and having issue with my dc power jack. I followed your detailed instructions and disassembeld it. However, I am not able to remove the system board from the base (step 18). Is there any trick to remove it while taking care of chasis? It seems proturding parts of system board like monitor jack, network card eject knob makes removal difficult.
npatel
September 11th, 2006 at 8:01 am
I have Satellite M35X. Same problem as mentioned; power light comes on, fan for about 5 seconds, then nothing (cannot open CD-rom). Just wondering if anyone has found resolve for this? PS – also had the DC jack problem. I would be very grateful. Thank you
September 13th, 2006 at 8:30 pm
Npatel,
Start removing the system board by lifting up the edge as it shown on the step 18 and at the same time press on the PC card knob. After that, when the PC card knob is out, you can slide the board from the case and free up the monitor port.
September 16th, 2006 at 2:48 am
Okay I love your guide and its the best thing anyone who owns one of these things can hope for. But i have a m35x s161 and i out everything back installed a new dc plug and now my lcd screen wont power on i dont know where to ground it and im completely lost
September 16th, 2006 at 3:01 am
Also my laptop also goes on fan spins for 5 seconds and the nothing happens and i really don’t understand the whole pc card knob thing
September 16th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
Hi,
Ive got a Toshiba M35X-S114 laptop.
The problems I’m having is that the LCD monitor will not work at times. It’s “glows” a bit so I know it’s on, but no picture whatsoever. I plugged in a secondary monitor and it works fine. I have tried the Fn-F5 keys to toggle between monitors, but it’s still not working. Is this a common problem or an easy fix? Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance.
September 20th, 2006 at 10:31 pm
Ulises,
Even though the video cable on this model has a ground cable, you don’t have to connect it to anything, just place it along with the video cable. Make sure that the memory module is seated properly, remove it from the memory slot and put it back in place (it’s a very common mistake).
September 20th, 2006 at 10:36 pm
George,
It’s not a common problem for Satellite M35X. If the external screen shows normal video, I assume that the motherboard works fine. You say that the screen glows, it means that the FL inverter is OK too.
So it could be a loose video cable, a bad video cable or a bad screen. I would try reseating the video cable before replacing parts. You’ll find a guide for taking apart the display assembly for Satellite M35X in the right pane of the site.
September 30th, 2006 at 8:39 am
thank you all for this wonderful site.
my toshiba laptop(mx35x-s114) intermittently does not boot up to windows. after the toshiba flash screen(display is in touch with toshiba) it goes to a black blank screen with just the blinking cursor on the upper left side. i turn power off/onn and if i am lucky it will boot up to windows.
any suggestions to fix is greatly appreciated.
thanks,
eli
September 30th, 2006 at 11:23 am
Eli,
I think you might have a failing hard drive. You can download Hitachi drive fitness utility and test the hard drive yourself. Also check if the hard drive is plugged into the connector all the way down, disconnect and connect the hard drive back.
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:16 pm
So I put everything back together now the problem is that the fan spins for 5 seconds the cd-rom doesnt come out and it wont show anything on the screen does anyone know what i can do ? i replaced and swicthed the memory modulea about a thousand times and nothing yet, I don’t know what to do does anyone know ? Thank you a lot, and thank you for this awesome website!
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:27 pm
Ulises Salazar,
Did you remove the CPU from the socket during disassembly? If you removed it, did you lock the socket after you put the CPU back in place?
The laptop will not boot if you forgot to lock the CPU socket.
October 3rd, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Yes I did that too my friend, man this is a head ache… can’t I just send this to you and pay you or something lol???
October 7th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
Yes I have a Toshiba M35X-S111 and I have a problem with my display.I can see my display using flashlight. I checked my close button and then I could see a light in the lower right hand side of my screen. I believe I have a inverter or backlight problem. Any help you can give me.
October 8th, 2006 at 11:35 am
When i push the power button on my M35x-s111 all it does is turn the light on around the power button, and the fan will turn on for about 5 seconds. The Cd drive doesnt open either. I do not know what to do.
October 8th, 2006 at 10:08 pm
Ben,
I would try replacing the FL inverter first. You can buy it around $40-$45 on eBay and you have good chances to fix the problem.
October 8th, 2006 at 10:11 pm
Tim,
It could be a memory related problem. Reseat the memory module/modules to make sure that they make a good connection with the socket. If you have two modules installed, remove them one by one and test the laptop after each step. Run Memtest 86+ utility for memory test.
October 8th, 2006 at 11:04 pm
I had the same problem with DC connector for the Toshiba MX35. I followed your direction and resoldered the connection. But when I put everything back and turn the computer on, all I get is the Toshiba sign on the screen and it is asking on the botttom left to “press F2 for setup, press F12 for boot device selection menu”. But when i press the F2 or F12 there are no response from the computer. I also took the keyboard connection out and placed it back several times. I would appreciate any help.
October 9th, 2006 at 5:39 am
I tried the memory thing that didnt help. The laptop still doesnt do anything. The only thing it does appear to do is if i push th FN key the light blinks once and i can keep pushing it and it will work until i push another key then the FN key doesnt work anymore either.
October 13th, 2006 at 4:03 am
Hi
I have the M35x model. Usual problem DC socket went, replaced it – computer was fine for about a month, then one day it died on touch. All that happens is fan whirls for ~5 seconds and nothing (although power light stays on). I am interested to know what resolve (if any) is available. Do I need a new motherboard?
Very interest to know. Thank you dominic.mcgaw@cmmc.nhs.uk
October 13th, 2006 at 12:20 pm
cj2600,
thank you for your reply to my post dtd sept 30. i found that the issue was the hibernation function. i remove the battery and put it back , the laptop booted up to windows, then i disabled hibernation. and i didn’t have reboot problems from then on.
again, thanks…
eli
October 15th, 2006 at 1:39 pm
I just finished resoldering the pin at the DC power block to solve that problem. When I reassembled, I temporarily had exactly the issue Tim and Dominic had. I reseated the memory cards, and it booted up fine.
October 15th, 2006 at 10:21 pm
Emad,
Make sure that all cables are properly connected. Reseat all cables.
October 21st, 2006 at 4:16 am
I tried all of those and they did not work, but the other day I just killed the battery and then plugged it in and tried to turn it on and it worked. But after 10 minutes of running it shut down on me and did the same thing it was doing before
October 21st, 2006 at 4:33 pm
I forgot to mention that none of my drives get power but after about two hours of laptop powered on the wireless card power light turns on
October 27th, 2006 at 6:14 pm
CJ 2600
I need a sound card for a M35X-S309 You told
Bill that the part# K000019130 was for that card.
On the ribon cable on my card it is P/N:NBX12002100
Do we have diff cards? His was for a 309 and mine
is a S309. And, where can I get the card?
Thanks Harold
December 7th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
what is the fastest CPU that can go inside the M35X-S111?
I am just looking at changing the CPU not the motherboard (I have upgraded the memory).
Regards,
Jon
December 17th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
If any of you guys with the 5 second no boot problem were experincing over heating you may have burned out the processer.
December 24th, 2006 at 12:50 pm
Hi, I have a M35x. I would like to upgrade to a dvd/r. Will the cdrw come out easily and a dvd go in? Do I need to follow all of your instructions down to the remove cdrw part in order to get the cdrw out? Thanks. Mary
January 1st, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Mary Murdock,
You don’t need to follow all the instructions. The DVD drive is secured by one screw located on the bottom of the laptop. Turn over the laptop and find a sticker with the laptop name, model and serial number on it. You’ll see two screws on the left side from the sticker, one of them secures the DVD drive. I don’t have this laptop in front of me and cannot say exactly with screw to remove, so remove both just in case. After that open the drive as it shown of the step 3 and carefully pull it from the laptop. Transfer the mounting bracket from the old drive to a new one and install it into the laptop. Done!
I hope your new drive is compatible with your laptop and you have not problem after installation.
January 21st, 2007 at 12:38 am
I disassembled an M35X-S149 looking to clean the heatsink due to an over heating problem but found no dust. Upon deciding to reassemble the laptop I found that both brake hinges were locked an would not rotate at all. They were also not lined up with eachother which made reattaching the screen assembly impossible. The word booby-trapped came into my mind. Is there any way to fix this problem and re-attach the display ? Is this condition what is meant by the term “broken hinge”. It seems odd that they both “broke” at the same moment.
January 21st, 2007 at 3:21 pm
It looks like the brake hinges were not stuck after all.
Two pairs of pliers got them to move. It was just a matter of leverage.
January 22nd, 2007 at 9:36 am
Need help identifying part!
Toshiba M35X came apart eaisly with the help of your detailed instructions and great photo. I am trying to fix a problem wherby the computer powers up and runs fine off of A.C. but will not power up at all from the battery. Battery indicators show full power.
Upon poping the case I noticed a part lying loose back by the power input. It is a metal strip about 1 1/2″ long 1/8″ wide and has a small White bumber or it might be a mount for it on one end. The other end has four tiny holes in the shape of a square in it. I have looked extensively for a logical place for it. Might be some sort of a ground What is this mistery piece?
January 24th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
I found this site very helping. I have Toshiba laptop. M35X. All of sudden once it turned off and did not turn on. All the indicators( LEDs ) attached with the system showing the status of the lap to show that lap top is “ON ” e.g LED under turn on switch and middle LED on the front remain ON, but nothing appears on the screen. If I turn it off and then turn ON by pressing power button, it sounds that fans are running and after some time fans sound stops and nothing appears on the screen.
After going through the instructions on this site I disassembled my lap top and did not found any thing wrong, One I assembled it again it turns on and works well but shuts down at once if I lift it up. and turns on again after few attempts. Can any one guide me what may be the problem and how can I fix that. I will appreciate for this big help.
Thanking you in advance
February 2nd, 2007 at 12:30 am
I want just thank you! Instructions were immensely helpful.
February 9th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
I’m at present looking at toshiba m35x with a power jack problem. upon pressing the power button it comes on for a few seconds, you hear the fan then nothing. no light on the screen no boot. The problem is simply the power jack not letting the system board get power. There is a crack somewhere that i cannot find. Soldering the one contact does not fix the problem. but the problem is near the power jack because i can lift on it while powering the laptop and make it boot. If anyone has a scematic diagram of the board I’m sure I can find a better work around for fixing the problem finally. Even a good high definition photo of the bottom of the board would help.
February 15th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Nastier,
I had the same problem as yours. I just wonder if the inside layer traces lose contact to either the + or the – sides of the power source. When you lift on it, it kind of temporarily connects to the losing trace(s). I’m looking for the schematic too. Any experts out there, please shed some lights on this.
Thanks
February 15th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
To the Mod,
I forgot to check the Notify me of followup comments via email from my previous post.
Please disregard this one but keep notify me via e-mail.
Thanks Mod
February 26th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
I’ve read through ever troubleshooting statement here, but have yet to find the answer to the problem when:
My laptop led lights come on, the battery will charge, and I can run off wall power. However all my laptop does is turn on and the fan spins for about 5 seconds, the LED stays on, but I have no screens or BIOS boot, my laptop does not boot at all. Also the CDRW drive on the side does not light up or let me eject it. After the fan gets done spinning the power leds and the other leds are correctly lit, but my computer does not boot and the LCD screen shows nothing.
What do I do?
~Eric.
March 14th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
On the m35x, I have one that I have been reserching the problems with the power jack. It seems that the power jack is responsible for most of the symtoms of most of the post here. I have not been able to create a permenate fix for mine, because to board itself is a piece of shit. The contacts surrounding the jacks sometimes break creating a nightmare to resolder. I have tried to find a scematic of the motherboard so I can jump past some of the weak contacts. If someone out there has a scematic or can direct me to one I believe I can find a more permenate solution for the power jack fix.
March 16th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Guys, and Gals, All those m35xs that will not boot. Fan comes on, a couple of leds light up, no light to the screen at all, they have the same problem. It’s not caused by loose ram, or bias problems. It is simply the power jack problem, which can be very tricky to repair, because it sometimes break traces on the motherboard. They are small and hard to see. Once broken toshiba or any other tech will try to sell you a motherboard. Then even if you are lucky enough to fix yours it make break again. If any on can locate a scematic diagram of the power section of the mb please post it so I can put together a more permenate solution. Thank you all.
March 19th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Here is the correct solution to the M35X DC jack problem from someone who actually repairs them for a living.
The jack MUST be isolated from the motherboard. A screw on type jack can be fastened to the case, with flexible wires going to the motherboard. Putting side pressure on the jack will not be able to flex the motherboard, which causes the solder joints to break.
Problem #2 is that after repairing the jack, it still does not boot. The blue power light and fan comes on, nothing else.
What causes this is that some solder joints have broken on a 48 pin chip that is next to the DC jack. That is why it will sometimes bootup if side pressure is applied to the jack. It flexes the motherboard enough so that the broken solder joints make contact, usually temporarily. This is why it is so important to isolate the jack from the motherboard, so the solder joints don’t keep breaking.
This chip has extremely small pin spacing, making it difficult for the average person to solder. It takes a sharp sodering tip, magnification, and a steady hand.
These two repairs will put 90% of the M35x’s back in service. If you need some advice on repairing this yourself, contact me a jrhirsch_at_netscape.com.
April 7th, 2007 at 7:39 am
Hi,
I have a toshiba Satellite M35. I replace my HD and install a windows xp with sp and installed all driver but when I push Fn botton for more contrast and brightness nothing happened, in general my Fn botton doesn’t work.
please tell me what can I do?
thankz
Fred
April 23rd, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Hi to All,
I also Have got Toshiba Satellite M35x-149….First the Problem Was the Same as all of yours it Switched on ran the Fan for 5 Seconds , No display and then nothing. But Sometimes it Booted…so it was based on luck if it wanted to work or not…After reading about the Dc Jack problem i Soldered the + Pin of the Jack and reassembeled the Laptop… Now the Status LEDS show power but the POwer On Button LED does not come on and does not Switch the Laptop On and No Cpu Fan Running either….so it seems that from bad i have come to Worse…Any thoughts… Thanks In Advance
April 25th, 2007 at 12:33 am
HI
THANKS FOR THIS SITE AS I MANAGE TO REPAIR THE DC JACK FOR OUR TOSHIBA LAPTOP.I AM GETTING THE SIMILAR PROBLEM OF NO SCREEN DISPLAY WITH FAN SOUND FOR 5 SEC AND BLUE POWER BUTTON ON. PLEASE ANY ONE ASSIST.
April 29th, 2007 at 5:26 am
AA, Hi to All,
Well my Laptop has come back to its previous state of the same old same old of 5sec Fan running Power button blue Led on and all LEDs Working and i noticed another thing that the Video Chip Heatsink Warms up so i think the Power is being distributed to the ICS when in this state. ANYBODY WHO KNOWS A SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM… ALOT OF PRAYERS WILL BE COMING YOUR WAY IF YOU CAN HELP US…MAYBE SOME TOSHIBA TECHIE OR REPAIR GUY…THANKS IN ADVANCE. AH
April 30th, 2007 at 7:33 am
There appears to have been a class action suit filed in California against Toshiba that has resulted in them extending the warranty on the M35X machines through November, 2007:
http://www.a70m30xsettlement.com
April 30th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Hi guys ,
sorry for my bad english (I’am German). I have a M30X-148 and have the problem too that the CPU Fan run for 5 sec. the blue light round the startbutton runnig too. The battery will charge and Battery indicators show full power.
But the differents between all the problems of you and me is, that I can open my CDROM and the screen looks like a “Whitescreen” (I think the backlight is running only)after starting the Toshiba.
I have solder the DC powerJack too, but the Notebook don’t boot. I don’t know what can I do, to repair my Toshiba .
Hope you understand my very bad english and you can help me to get the toshiba running fine again.
Greets from Germany
Michael
May 25th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Hello I know this isnt the right place to be asking about my toshiba Satellite 1200 but this area seems to be active recently where as that one doesnt..
Do I have to take apart my whole laptop just to get to the dc power jack bit? Im not sure if thats the correct term.. I mena the bit where you plug the end of the power cable into your laptop. Thanks for any help.
May 26th, 2007 at 11:11 am
Hello
I have an M30X and had the DCjack come away from the board completely. This didn’t surprise me, however, as I had been experiencing problems with charging up the battery (having to wedge the power plug to get the lights on etc…) I took the laptop apart following your excellent instructions. A friend soldered it back with ‘heavy duty soldering’. We also put some rapid epoxy resin between the jack and the board on the edge and layed the soldering iron on the jack, This warms up the epoxy and allows it to flow down between the board and jack. I’ve also put a rubber grommit or washer round the plug wide enough to hit the outside case and stop the plug from being pushed into the jack too hard, therefor taking the strain off the jack. There had been some carbon signs of shorting out very close to the DC jack, but it was washed off with alcohol. To my amazement the computer fired up and has been working fine ever since!
Many thanks for your great website.
Rodger
May 30th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
My Toshiba M35X-S114 did all of the above.
It turned the blue light ‘ON’. All three LEDs turned on. The 3 to 5 seconds CPU fan ON and then nothing…
The difference NOW is that if I let it sit like that for probably about 10 minutes (I have not time it, yet) and then WALLA!!!! It boots up out of the blue.
Just like in the ’70s, turn the computer on, go to prepare your coffee, drink it while watching TV, and when you remember about you computer, it will be there…
ON!! And ready to be used.
So, for now that is my problem, I did the soldering trick and the ‘not booting’ problem got fixed. I soldered all 4 points right next to the jack. I put my 25 Watt soldering iron for a good 5 seconds to allow the solder to liquefy very good before removing the soldering iron tip from the board.
And my question is: Am I in the right track, do I need to open it again and re-solder it again.
Thanks for any help provided.
May 30th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Norberto,
First of all try this.
May 30th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Thank you cj2600.
I think, I have spent enough time trying all of the different things posted here, but now is time to use the warranty. It could be the fix to all my problems.
June 6th, 2007 at 10:16 am
Just had someone give me an M35X-S111 recently. Had it a month and the HD crashed. Also have an A65-S126 that though 2.8ghz is slower than the 1.5ghz M35X.
I ordered a new HD for the M35X, but once it gets here I’m tempted to just clean them up and sell them both.
Question – Can you add internal wireless to the M35X-S111? I looked at your excellent instructions, popped the kyb out, but under the wifi cover, I find nothing to attach the card into. Is that just for later models of the M35X?
Thanks so much for your great site.
June 7th, 2007 at 8:58 am
Following the instructions of
Jerry Hirsch (response 78, dated March 19th, 2007) I managed to fix the M35X DC jack problem.
Thanks, Jerry!
June 10th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
I have a m35x with the same problem that power tunrs on then the fans turn on for 5 seconds, then nothing else turns on. when you flex the bottem right hand corner, it posts good. the problem was fixed by resoldering the memory connectors. Its no easy task, the only reason I figurerd it out was becaused I worked as a tech for Dell and they have the same problem.
June 16th, 2007 at 12:41 am
I have a Toshiba Satellite M35X-S311 Part #PSA72U-2JZ00U with Windows XP.
MY problems started when I brought the laptop out of hibernation and the mouse didn’t appear on the screen. Right clicking on the touch pad brought the mouse icon back on the screen only to be enlightened with a frozen system. I then shut the system down. When started up the system would not even show the bios screen. The blue power led, and the three yellow leds on the front, would come on, but the system would appear to go into hibernation after 5 sec. After exhausting all the closed case options I opened the case. I cleaned everything on the inside of the laptop. Started the computer up, but still had the same problem. Removing and reinstalling the battery and memory several times seemed to be the only way to get the system past the bios and into the xp login screen. Once there my laptop froze again, and I was back to the beginning. After thoroughly researching the internet I was pointed to the dc jack, and a few other problematic defects that plague this laptop series. Finally my ac jack would not turn the laptop on, so i moved the dc jack to the outside of the computer. The laptop started up immediatley without any problems at all. It even ran tremendously faster than when it was new. A few hours later my laptop froze again. Only this time several multicolored rectangles about 2mm HX6mm L started randomly appearing on the screen. I have tried removing every part one by one to no avail. All of the hardware seems to be okay. Except something in the video system\s. The power is perfect from the ac cable to the left side of the inverter, but there is no power coming out of the right side of the inverter. Laptop doesn’t get far enough to dispay anything on an external monitor, but when it displayed on the external monitor I could already see it on the laptop’s lcd anyway. The hibernation switch on the board is working just fine. Could this be caused by the laptop not sending the signal to the lcd to display anything like the original problem did? Or could a faulty inverter keep the entire system from booting?
Any pointers and help would be greatly appreciated,
Chris
June 17th, 2007 at 7:29 am
I have a Toshiba Satellite M35X-S111. It shuts down either when it is booting or just after it cranks up the fan after the power on button is pushed.
I read all the reasons it freezes, which it did before, but now I can not even start it. It is not giving me enough time to even diagnose.
Any ideas will be greatly appreciated!
June 23rd, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Hi all, this is my problem…
I have a toshiba M35X S149, after replaceing the jack using the halp of the guide, my LCD has some problem.
They are more explicits in the next pics:
http://www.geocities.com/ceteclaguna/IMAG0005.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/ceteclaguna/IMAG0006.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/ceteclaguna/IMAG0007.JPG
The strange thing is that as you can see on tha pics is that the imgage its full, its not cut, it seems that theres a normal LCD and not a Widescreen LCD.
Excuse my english.
Thanx
June 25th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Rodrigo,
Try reseating the video cable on the back of the LCD screen. It is possible that the video cable is not making a good contact with the screen. Also try reseating the video cable connector on the motherboard.
June 27th, 2007 at 8:05 am
Hey all – I know this seems to be off of the general vein of conversation but I was hoping somebody could help me out.
I’m updating the RAM on my M35xS114, but I lost my manual and can’t find any info on my mother board – do I HAVE to use DDR 2700, or can I use DDR 2700+ or a DDR2 type RAM? Anyhelp would be great.
July 2nd, 2007 at 11:13 am
I recently had a Toshiba m35x given to me by a friend. I found this site and decided to take it apart expecting it to be a simle power jack fix. I found that the plastic from the power jack MELTED and left a hardened pool around the power jack. What could i use to clear the hardened plastic? Has anyone of you ever even seen this happen before?
July 27th, 2007 at 3:35 am
IM LOOKING FOR MOTHERBOURD FOR MY M35-TOSHIBA IF SOM OF YOU WANT TO BUY MY LEPTOP SEND ME E-MAIL
OFEREK1@WALLA.COM I LIVE IN ISRAEL I HAVE ,SKYPE.MESSENGER/ICQ 228075927
THANKS
OFER
August 3rd, 2007 at 7:02 am
i have a toshiba laptop M35X-S311 with part # psa72u- 2jzoou.i formatted the laptop with M70 recovery disc when it was seriously affected by virus. the disc was able to clear the memory of the system but could not reinstall system software. please what do i do to bring the system back to life? I WILL be more grate if you can send me the recovery disc via or send me website were i can get the softwares for free download. thanks
August 4th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
I got M35X-149. I also have the same problem as you guys. It had been working good since last week. I started it up and nothing come up just the sound of fan running for 5 secs. The power light is on.
After I read all the information in this Forum and I re-soder the 48 pin chip that is next to the DC jack and now my laptop Back up and running again.
Thank you all.
Jimmy
August 5th, 2007 at 3:50 am
I have a M40X, which seems to have cover similar to M35X.
I want to replace the ever bad performing Intel 2200 BG wifi mini pci card by the Atheros based Gigabyte SUPER A/B/G Mini-PCI Adapter – GN-WI01H T.
To replace the card, I should only remove the securing strip above the keyboard with a thin object, the keyboard itself and the wifi cardcover to get access to the wifi card (steps 6, 7 and partly step 8). I mean, I don’t have to remove all the screws of the bottom cover etc.?
Do you think I’ll encounter problems (hardware or software) when replacing the card and get the new one working
August 5th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
Andrew,
I’m not sure how you were able to format your laptop with M70 recovery disk. Usually, when you use recovery disks from other models you get a “Wrong Machine” message and the recovery process will not proceed any further. Weird.
Anyways, to reload the operating system on your laptop you can use recovery DVD from any other Satellite M35X. I doubt that you’ll find if fro free download but you can buy it cheap here, just search for “M35X recovery”.
August 5th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Peter van Breemen,
In order to replace the wireless card you have to get under the keyboard, it’s not necessary to remove all the screes from the bottom. Just remove the keyboard strip, lift up the keyboard (it’s not necessary to disconnect it from the motherboard, just flip over on the palm rest) and replace the wireless card.
It’s not difficult to replace the card but I’m not sure if you can find a working driver, so your card is recognized and it works correctly. The only way to find out is replacing the card and loading the driver.
August 14th, 2007 at 8:21 am
Please,someone help me out.I have a Toshiba Satellite M35X notebook and the keyboard appears to be broken. the space bar,among other things,doesn’t work normally and I have to keep pressing down hard on it to make a space.I ordered a new keyboard.does anyone have any simple instructions on how to take the broken keyboard out and replace it with a new one?
any help would be greatly appreciated.Thanks
August 14th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Richard,
It is relatively easy to replace the keyboard and you’ll find instructions in the disassembly guide I linked to in my post. You don’t have to remove anything from the bottom of the laptop.
All you have to do is:
1. Remove the battery
2. Remove the keyboard strip – silver cover located above the keyboard
3. Remove two screws securing the keyboard
4. Disconnect the keyboard from the motherboard and replace it.
August 14th, 2007 at 9:11 am
thanks a million cj2600.
the top silver plastic cover on my Toshiba laptop is loose in the lower left hand corner near where a little speaker is. I can lift it up slightly with my finger. I can also hear at times little pieces rolling around inside when I pickup my laptop and tilt it. not sure what broke inside.
August 14th, 2007 at 9:21 am
my Toshiba Satellite notebook was in its case on the back seat of my car and when I stopped for atraffic light, the case rolled off the seat and down onto the floor. I didn’t think anything was broken at thetime and itinitially appeared towork fine.then I developed problems with the space bar on thekeyboard not being responsive and also started hearing little pieces rolling around inside the notebook.
ordered a new keyboard and hope that fixes the problem. need to investigate what the little pieces are inside.
August 14th, 2007 at 9:45 am
cj2600 wrote:
“2. Remove the keyboard strip – silver cover located above the keyboard”
cj2600,what is the best tool to use to pry loose the plastic keyboard strip…a stiff butter knife? I don’t want to break the plastic prying it out.
August 14th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Richard,
It could be a loose screw or a broken plastic latch from the keyboard cover. You will not know until remove this piece.
You can use a small flathead screwdriver to lift up one side of the cover, so you can grab it with your fingers. When one side is lifted, continue removing the cover with your fingers.
August 14th, 2007 at 10:27 am
The first rule of laptop repair is don’t force anything!!!!!
To remove M35X keyboard, first, with lid closed, on rear side of laptop, push up to unlock backside of hingecovers. There should be a 1/16″ gap.
Second, from front with lid open, pry with a small flat screwdriver between hingecover and LCD cover on right side. Lift off hingecover from right side, there is a tab under left side.
Third, remove 2 keyboard screws,and unlock center clip. Pull off keyboard, remember the ribbon cable is still attached, and lay down forward upside down.
Fourth, remove ribbon cable cover. Pry up ribbon cable lock on back side of ribbon cable connector with fingernails or two small flat screwdrivers simultaneously. They only pull up about 1/32″, any more and they break. Ribbon cable should slide out easily, do not force.
August 14th, 2007 at 11:41 am
HOW TO REMOVE THE KEYBOARDSTRIP OF A M35X (OR M40X)
Sorry for my bad English but….I easily removed the keyboardstrip starting with the 2 black upstanding hooks that are part of the strip. (They cover the hinges of the lcd panel)
At the backside of the lcd panel these covering hooks can simultaneously be lifted up with you fingernails (to do this, leave the lcd panel upright). The hooks click off the housing. Doing so, you get more space around the hooks. Then stick a small piece of wood (long size cocktail pin) in these spaces between hooks and hinges and carefully lift further. Using a little more force bit by bit and get more space under the rest of the strip, you can just pull off the whole strip (hearing clicks). This way I removed the keyboard strip without any damage, unscrewed and flipped over he removed the keyboard to get access to the wifi card.
Good luck
August 14th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
thanks Gentlemen. I appreciate all your helpful tips. when the new keyboard arrives in another day or so,I will follow your tips and try to get the mission accomplished without breaking this Toshiba Satellite M35X and sending it to its grave.
August 20th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
Jerry wrote:
“The first rule of laptop repair is don’t force anything!!!!!
To remove M35X keyboard, first, with lid closed, on rear side of laptop, push up to unlock backside of hingecovers. There should be a 1/16″ gap.
Second, from front with lid open, pry with a small flat screwdriver between hingecover and LCD cover on right side. Lift off hingecover from right side, there is a tab under left side.
Third, remove 2 keyboard screws,and unlock center clip. Pull off keyboard, remember the ribbon cable is still attached, and lay down forward upside down.
Fourth, remove ribbon cable cover. Pry up ribbon cable lock on back side of ribbon cable connector with fingernails or two small flat screwdrivers simultaneously. They only pull up about 1/32″, any more and they break. Ribbon cable should slide out easily, do not force.”
ooops!! I broke the white plastic ribbon cable connector. does anyone know how I can find this part to be able to order a new one?
in the alternative, can I use use some tape to hold down the keyboard board cable in the motherboard socket?
August 20th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
OK – this should be an easy question. Is there a specific type of memory I need to use to upgrade my m35x-s149? I just went and purchased some Kingston 1GB DDR2 PC2-4200 533MHz and it doesn’t fit. It looks like it is just one pin off. This was just the basic notebook memory that was on sale at Circuit City. Does this laptop require a special pin configuration or something that is not standard?
Thanks for the help
August 21st, 2007 at 10:31 am
I answered my own question. Toshiba doesn’t carry the plastic hold down keyboard cable connector. if you break it, they want to sell you a whole new motherboard. you can’t buy a nickel piece of plastic.
August 21st, 2007 at 10:37 am
i have a m35x-s111 I am having the same problem first it was the powercord- I replaced that. it came on for about 2 hours than it blacked out and now the fan sounds for 5 secs and nothing after that. I never took my laptop apart so I don’t know what is going on – also my laptop eventhough i is a m35x-s111 it was not part of the class action suit i was told. So please help.
August 24th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
I have Toshiba satellite M35-S359. My unit powers up the fan never turn it on but the screen comes on always
it says press f2 for set up or f12 and freezes after five minute litte pop up window shows boot or setup after clicking one of these I can go the set up screen or boot from hard drive rarely. never read the cd/dvd drive. the bios screen the cpu info. not showing.
Can anyone please help me, thanks in advance.
August 26th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Burke,
It doesn’t feet because you need DDR memory, not DDR2. Use a PC2700 memory module (333MHz) and they will fit.
August 26th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
teri,
Who told you that? Did you try calling Toshiba? If you purchased this laptop in the USA, it should be covered by the extended warranty.
By the way, you might have a faulty memory stick. Try reconnecting the memory modules, test the laptop with a known good memory.
August 26th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
Adil,
I believe on a Satellite M35 (not M35X) the cooling fan will not start when you turn on the laptop. It starts later, when the CPU is hot. So, it’s normal.
Check the memory module, make sure it’s a good memory. Try turning on the laptop without the hard drive and see if it still freezes.
Test the laptop without the CD/DVD drive. Does it work properly without the CD/DVD drive installed?
August 30th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Hi,
I have a M35x-S349. I have fixed the DC jack problem but when I disconnect the AC power and try to use battery only computer will not start. When connecting the AC power the battery seems to be charging normally and the OS reports the battery as fully charged.
Anyone experienced this problem?. Any solutions?
Thanks.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Hello,
One day my I was using my laptop and my after 10 min of use my keyboard started to act strange. It started randomly displaying different characters if I am typing something. I formatted the computer thinking that it was a virus or something but it didn’t work. Every time i use it, it works good for 10 min and then starts to act funny. If anyone can help me I would really apreciate it.
Thanks,
John
September 1st, 2007 at 11:19 am
Hey. I have a M35X-S311. I would like to replace the dvd/cdrw drive with a dvd drive that records both cd and dvd. Does anyone know the number for a replacement, or if it can be replaced? As usual, Toshiba was no help. Thanks.
September 1st, 2007 at 7:43 pm
TZ,
This is either a battery problem or there is something wrong with the motherboard. Sorry, the only way to find out what is wrong is testing the laptop with a known good battery.
September 1st, 2007 at 7:48 pm
John,
That’s a weird problem, I’ve never seen something like this. Test your laptop with an external USB keyboard and see if it works fine. Maybe something is wrong with the laptop keyboard? Make sure the heat sink is clean. There is a chance that this problem is somehow is related to overheating. This is just a guess.
September 1st, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Mary Murdock,
Sure, I’ll help you.
Here’s what you are looking for.
Panasonic – K000015860
Teac – K000015870
Panasonic – K000024880
KME (double layer) – K000029610
All above mentioned drives will be able read/write CDs and DVDs.
September 2nd, 2007 at 6:41 am
Hi,
Is there a way to check if the battery is good using a multimeter and checking the battery pins? If the battery is OK, is it possible I may have forgotten connecting something back when I disassembled the laptop, or is the battery connected directly to the motherboard?
Thanks for your help.
September 2nd, 2007 at 4:23 pm
cj2600 Thank you for the information. I really appreciate it. Mary
September 3rd, 2007 at 8:42 am
Hi,
Has anyone tested the battery using a multimeter. What are the voltage pins?
Thanks
September 3rd, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Well, I just took about an hour to read this whole page. There is some good info out there. Thanks for helping. But I am having the same problem as everybody else. The blue power button turns on but it does not boot up my computer. I guess we have not found an answer yet. I just contacted the Lawyer for the Toshiba settlement and hopefully they will fix it. I will continue my search and will post if I fix it, until then any help is appreciated.
September 5th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Checked the battery using a multimeter and it appears to be ok. Seems the motherboard is able ot charge it. I cannot however run the laptop of the battery. AC is ok. Does anyone know if there is a way to check that motherboard is faulty since it cannot switch to battery only.
Thanks.
September 5th, 2007 at 11:48 am
I called the Toshiba 1-800 number and they gave me a local authorized repair shop. I took it to them and they are going to fix it for free. Our laptops are still under warranty until november 6, 2007. Even if you did not pay for it.
September 11th, 2007 at 8:28 am
My original warranty ran out on my m35x on feb 6, 2006.
Does anyone know if the extra 12 month warranty that started in november of 2006 still applies to me?
September 12th, 2007 at 8:37 am
Here’s a really beginner question. I have a M35X-S311 that I bought in 2005, my warranty was up in 2006. I have been reading about all the problems with the battery charger and the connection on the motherboard thingy. About 6 months ago, my battery gave up. It wouldn’t charge anymore. I am wondering before this new warranty period ends, if I should send it in, in case something is wrong? How long does a battery last? Is a year and a half a long time? When I put in my linux hard drive it shows it is charging to 3%, and the charging light doesn’t come on. but now it doesn’t even charge in Linux.
September 13th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Hello,
I have been working on my friend’s A70 and it has the same widescreen display problem exhibited in the post by Rodrigo on June 23, 2007. I already attempted to reseat the monitor cable (located under the plastic panel in front of the keyboard) but it had no effect. Did anybody ever figure out a solution to this? I noticed that in the video driver’s monitor panel, the display for some unknown reason was reporting a max resolution of 1024×768 when the native resolution is of course 1280×800. Forcing the screen resolution to 1280×800 simply made the system pan around in 1024×768, so I am thinking it’s a hardware or driver problem.
Thanks for any ideas,
-Vic.
September 16th, 2007 at 1:24 am
Victor I just want to say that i have made everthing, reseating the cable on both sides, but nothing, change drivers, and still the same problem.
Dont know what can it be.
Still looking over the internet to solve my problem, if i find it i will post it.
good luck to all!
September 16th, 2007 at 6:31 am
Hooray!!! I managaed to find some new plastic ribbon cable connectors in China and they just arrived. Now I can put my Toshiba M35X laptop back together again.
September 18th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
Thanks for the great guides and pics!
Am in the midst of the repair for the DC jack (alternative version using the RadioShack 274-1582) M35X-S3112.
A couple tips to share…
For those having trouble removing the securing strip — mine was very tight though I was able to use a jeweller’s screwdriver to pop the corner. At the top edge of the keyboard (underneath the securing strip, closest to the LCD) you can see where there are about 4 screws securing the keyboard to the base that run underneath the securing strip. I used another slightly beefier flathead screwdriver tip and twisted it away from the corner that I’d popped. This popped another section loose from the base. After trying at the other screw ports, I tried loosening the hinges a bit more as they don’t really lift out straight since the LCD doesn’t lay back enough. So I flipped the laptop over and used the same small jeweller’s flathead and popped the second hinge and loosened the first one more. This allowed the strip to be pried a bit more, eventually releasing first from the edge nearest the LCD, then nearest the keyboard. At that point I was pretty much pulling the strip up from the LCD side first. This made it much easier to remove without putting too much force on it.
The small jeweller’s flathead screwdriver also made it easier to pry up underneath the fan and speaker connectors which have a small lip. Prying on one side then the other back and forth jockeys the connectors enough to loosen them for removal.
I’d expected to see lots of dust in the area of the fan and heatsink since this laptop got very hot when running (hot enough to need to shift it from spot to spot every few minutes when using it in my lap), but the fan and heatsink were relatively clean.
On the oher hand, the speakers were filthy. It seems that this particular laptop design didn’t take into account that placement of the speaker nearer the user increases the amount of lint, dust, crumbs, etc. that can fall into the speaker grille. So I’ve cleaned these areas.
For the audio board cable, I noted that though the connector had a brown section, it does not apparently loosen like the keyboard connector. Instead this cable is just pulled out by pulling it up and toward you (rear of the laptop facing away from you).
Everything went fine for me step by step until the final step to remove the motherboard. It seems to be frozen in place, perhaps stuck by some of the same stuff used for keeping the screws in place? The hex nuts for the serial & parallel port have been removed, and I’ve checked to make sure I didn’t miss a screw removal, but its not budging. Don’t want to force things so thought I’d give a shout here before doing soldering only on the top of the motherboard for the fix. It seems that the board is tight/stuck near the serial & parallel ports on the back as well as near the DC jack and CPU. Ideas on removing the board without breaking it are sure welcome!
Thanks in advance for any help on unsticking the motherboard!
September 21st, 2007 at 1:44 pm
Hi, I recently installed a regular edition of Windows XP Pro, but it did not have the Toshiba drivers. I went to the Toshiba web site and got almost everything I need downloaded and installed.
I have one problem left. When I press the shut off button the option to put it into standby is shaded out and will not work. I did install Toshiba’s power setting program.
Does anyone know what I can do to restore the standby function?
As always, thanks for all your help. Mary
September 21st, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Did you install “Toshiba Console for Windows XP/2000″ first?
September 21st, 2007 at 2:55 pm
I uninstalled the power untility and then installed the console. Then I installed the power utility again.
However, after rebooting, the standby still does not work. It is not listed as an option on shut down and closing the lid does nothing. Thank you for responding.
September 21st, 2007 at 3:28 pm
I have no idea why it worked, but when I installed the video driver for intel, the suspend option was again available. Thanks very much for your help.
September 23rd, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Well, re-soldered the bottom of the DC jack and added a second new jack (Radio Shack part) near the old one. Checked the voltages on both before and after soldering to the board.
Starting up the board seems to fail.
Could use some help on this. Its my main work laptop and, as typical, I’m in the middle of the project and of course there is some work I’d like to retrieve (about 1 wk worth after a backup). Yes, lesson learned on backing up — actually am in the process of building a file server to get that in order, but here’s what I’m trying to do now…
(1) Gain access to the data from the M35x-S3112 laptop I tried to fix.
(2) Determine why the ‘fixed’ laptop doesn’t go beyond fan power up.
For the HDD, I’ve still got it out of the case and am struggling to figure out how I can connect it as an external HDD to my other laptop — The connector appears to be a proprietary insertion type versus a regular(?) 40pin laptop IDE. I have a wiebetech combo dock and other external enclosures as well as a 40 to 44 pin adapter, but of course those won’t connect directly to this HDD. So any help/ideas here would be very much appreciated. This is the more important of the 2 issues to fix for me at this point.
On the laptop powerup problem…
It seems to power up the fan, then turn off in a matter of seconds. All front lights appear as they should (on AC, laptop on, battery charging) and the blue LED(?) around the power is colored. I guess I would expect the system to keep going to at least beeps, but it may be that I’m missing the clue-bird on this one…
I’ve got everything installed except the HDD. So, should the laptop progress any further than the power up to get the fan and LEDs going, battery charging then because it finds no HDD power down? Or is this near immediate power down a sign of a failure somewhere? Or short?
I’ve done the soldering all on the bottom of the board — the original DC jack was loose around the inside pin, so in addition to adding the wires to connect to the second new jack, I soldered the bottom of the old jack. Multimeter tests on the top of the board (via the jack) indicate that the voltage is as expected (19+v) for plugging into either jack. So, it seems that the jack is okay. The board is from a M35x-s3112 whose motherboard is very dense — not much space for new solders though I was careful to avoid other connections.
I also disassembled a second time and added more thermal grease in case this is a heat issue for both the video and CPU, though I guess I’d be surprised if things heated up in only 2-3 seconds to the point of power down.
Anyway is the current power off typical? Perhaps there is a way for me to boot via CD to test before putting in the precious HDD with my critical data?
Ideas welcome! Thanks!
September 25th, 2007 at 1:12 am
HDD connector resolved.
)
For anyone else puzzled by the Satellite M35X-S3112 laptop’s HDD connector here’s what I found:
While the HDD doesn’t appear to be in a “caddy” the HDD has a small brownish plastic cover over its 44-pins that allow it to mate wth the HDD connector on the motherboard.
You can see examples of this small piece by searching for “Toshiba HDD caddy connector” or “Toshiba HDD laptop caddy connector” (no quotes). Several are listed on eBay.
This connector can be carefully removed by using a small flathead jeweller’s screwdriver (or similar) and prying under it’s shoulder away from the HDD alternating each side until you can lift the connector off the normal IDE pins.
Once the plastic connector is off, the HDD which is a Hitachi Travelstar (in this case its an 80 GB model tha goes under the name of Travelstar 80GN as found on hitachigst.com). The HDD pinouts are provided on Hitachi’s site, but for this drive they are:
43 — 19 — 1 C A
44 — 22 — 2 D B
That is 2 rows of 22 pins with row 2-44 missing a pin at point 22. 4 additional pins A-D are at the right and are for the “drive address setting” (my assumption is that this may be like the typical master, slave, cable select setting).
Anyway, the exposed IDE pins allow the HDD to be mounted in an external case and connected to another laptop or computer via USB cable. Generally these sell for under $20.
Hopefully this info will help someone else trying to access their data but afraid to start prying this plastic part off the HDD. Of course the bottom line is carefully and without too much force…
HDD data access resolved (ahhh…)
Now just to figure out if the laptop can be revived.
October 1st, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Thanks for the well-prepared 20 step instruction set to corect a broken connection on the DC input jack – the problem plaguing many Toshiba MX series owners. Neither of us had ever taken apart a laptop, however in 3 hours, we had repaired (re-soldered) the cracked pin connection to the system board and verified that it worked like new. This unit was a Toshiba Satellite M35X S311. We could now probably repeat the fix in half the time. I recommend this procedure to anyone who has basic tools, good vision and patience. The documented steps with well-marked images was the key to our success.
October 18th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Toshiba M35x-311
Im having a problem no one else seems to be having. My compuiter worked fine untill I shut it off. When I tried to turn it back on in normal mode it freezes within the first minute. It boots up ok in safe mode. I formatted the HD and had the same problem. Used the recovery CD and the problem still hasnt gone away. How do I troubble shoot all the hardware on this thing? Could I find out whats causing the problem in the event log? Are there any known hardware failures? Ive been without a comp for 2 weeks in college so its crippling me. Please help! E-mail me or post with any solutions, thanks! koige@stthomas.edu
October 18th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
Kayode,
You can get free repair from Toshiba, this model is covered under extended warranty. Hurry, it ends soon.
October 21st, 2007 at 9:44 pm
I’m having problems with my keyboard.
Sometimes, certain keys will not function. It’s always the same keys.
i.e. it’s the( ‘C’, ‘M’, ‘ ‘ ‘).
Eventually they will work again but it is very annoying.
Can this be fixed?
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:06 am
Z
I had the same problem with my M-35X keyboard. If you have an extra USB keyboard around, plug it into your laptop to see if it works. If it doesn’t work, then you could have a motherboard problem. If it works, then you probably need a new keyboard. When I tried to replace my keyboard, I broke one leg off the white plastic keyboard ribbon retaining clip.
As for someone else’s problem, Toshiba recently repaired my A75 laptop which was overheating, freezing up and also shutting down. They had to replace the motherboard, fan and repair the AC connector. Now it works fine and cools well. Repairs were made under Toshiba’s extended warranty.
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:11 pm
I have a Toshiba m35x-s114 and just finished re soldering the power jack to the motherboard. Your instructions are worth GOLD! In the beginning, after putting the laptop back together, it would start up for about 1 minute and then die. Then I read the post by the person who attached the jack with wires externally. What was happening with my laptop is that the motherboard kept shorting out because my soldering points were “too high”. I covered the points with tape and BAM, the laptop works great now. I can’t thank you guys enough! If I had one simple addition, then that is to clean up the heat sink and the cpu cover and re apply the heat sink compound. If you’ve taken your laptop apart a few times like I did during this process, then the compound is worn off and dried up.
All the best!
g-
October 24th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Z,
Probably bad keyboard but as Richard suggested in the comment 150, try the external keyboard first.
October 24th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
To all,
October 30th, 2007 at 1:19 am
Hi,
I have the Toshiba M35sx-s114.
The power switch comes on each time you press it.
It makes the booting sound. But nothing comes up on the creen!
Kindly advise
November 5th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
The wifi of my Toshiba M30X suddenly stopped working. The LED next to the hardware switch won’t light, if I switch it off and on, too. I tried a BIOS update, reinstalling the drivers and switching it on with the software and the Fn+F8 buttons. Nothing worked… The card gets recognised by the system and is configurable though. Do you think the switch or the card is broken?
I couldn’t find any good advice so far…
November 5th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
Hey Richard,
Congratulations! Where did you get the keyboard ribbon connectors for the M35X? Did you get the whole connector, or just the locking clips?
November 7th, 2007 at 4:54 am
Jerry
I managed to get the white plastic lock-in clips through a person in China. No one carried them in the US, not even Toshiba.
November 25th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
Hello, I just developed a problem with my Toshiba M35X laptop that sounds like it could be the “improperly grounded top cover assembly” and am looking for confirmation and a possible fix if there is one. I was running the computer, on AC power; I had gotten up and came back to it and as I sat down I hit the front edge of the laptop (not hard) and it shut off. Everything went blank, no LED’s were lit up and attempting to turn back on with the power button didn’t work.
Did I just fry my laptop? If not, is it something I can fix or should I take it to an expert? I do have some experience building desktops, but I have never taken a laptop apart. I apologize for the length of my story and would appreciate any tips and/or tricks to get me up and running. Thanks.
-Nick
November 26th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Hello,
I have a toshiba m35x-s149 and I just received it back after having the AC adaptor coming lose and my video connection being faulty (The display was there but it was flickering, the tech said it was just a lose wire) I had been using the laptop for about 3 weeks after it was returned to me and it just all of a sudden turned off after saying that the virtual memory was low.
I tried to power it on, like others, the fan ran and power light, battery and AC lights are all on but no display. I can get the laptop to boot up and operate normally maybe 1 per 10-15 times of turning it on, the video seems fine when it does power on, but it seems to only be doing it when it wants to. What do you think the problem could be? I tried hooking it up to an external monitor when it decided not to boot and they is not any display.
Please help… thanks
November 28th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
Does anyone have any suggestions on what brand/model# of DVD Writer I can upgrade my Toshiba M35X-S149 with? I noticed that NewEgg had some slimline models for under $60. I really don’t want to spend too much on the upgrade.
Thanks!
Jeff
December 3rd, 2007 at 10:17 pm
I NEED DRIVER RECOVERY FOR MY LAPTOP TOSHIBA SATELITE M35X.WHERE CAN I FIND IT.I LIVE IN INDONESIA. PLEASE HELP ME. THANKS.
December 4th, 2007 at 2:23 am
Toshiba Satellite M35X Drivers:
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/su/su_sc_modSel.jsp
Follow the links for your model.
December 6th, 2007 at 8:53 am
I repaired my charging jack, power lights come on fine but screen is black, what should I do next?
January 4th, 2008 at 5:30 am
I have a Toshiba M35x-309s. One day i tried to turn on the computer and it did not work. I pressed the power botton on the computer and the power came on. you can hear the fan running but it has no video. All LED light in the front side of the computer are on.
I do not know what caused this problem, can someone have any idea how to fix it?
Please help me, Thanks!
January 4th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Richard – you mentioned that you found replacement keyboard cable connectors (the clips) from a place in China. Could you tell us who to contact? I just broke mine!
January 7th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Hey my m35x-s149 turns on so the power button is blue, yet there is no hard drive sound and power to the other parts of the laptop. I followed a disassembly guide and took it a part and nothing i wrong. I found out that if you push on the LCD-Motherboard wire, it causes the laptop to boot up! but i cant seem to find out what is wrong
January 7th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
My sister has a M35X that was having display issue. Same thing…turn on the laptop hear the fan come on for 5second, with no display but power is on. I removed the memory from one module to the other and resolved the issue. So its either 1.) memory or 2.) module. Either way its not a motherboard issue. Usually when motherboard goes bad the computer does not power on at all. Hope that helps out with everyone with display issue.
January 7th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
If certain keys work and certain keys dont. Thats a cable issue thats not properly assembled. Make sure the cable is thorougly in.
January 8th, 2008 at 1:31 am
I had the same problem with a M30X/M35X motherboard which when repaired for the powerjack fault would refuse to boot up. The blue light would come on and the fan spin up but then nothing. However if I pressed down on the 48 pin chip mentioned in Jerry Hirsch’s post(78) then it would boot up and continue working until moved. It would seem that sometimes when the dc jack is loose most people, including myself, would wiggle the jack for a time to get the laptop to charge. I am convinced that this flexing of the motherboard on some of these laptops causes a connection on either this chip or another close by component to break. When you flex/press down on the board again in the right place it will sometimes boot as the component gets a contact. Finding the relevant chip/component and resoldering it is the fun part! Maybe a high powered magnifier would work. If someone could post a guide on component/chip resoldering, for people prepared/able to have a go, this would be very useful to those of us with the same issue.
January 8th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Yes, it’s possible that in some cases there is a problem with solder joints but I’m pretty sure in most cases it will be related to the power jack.
January 13th, 2008 at 1:56 am
I used this guide to fix the DC power problem… but after I reassembled, the sound didn’t work anymore. Took it apart again to see if I could find a cable off or something, but everything was fine. DC power is fixed great now, but now the soundcard doesn’t work and the #4 and #6 keys won’t work! ArrrrghhHH!
January 17th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
My family has several M35’s — Lucky us. Thanks to this site I have been able to fix the charging problems. But, about six months ago my daughters was repaired under warranty. She just told me it stopped working again. No warranty. I resoldered but no good. Getting voltage on top and bottom. I would like to solder a jumper wire from center pin to motherboard. What location would I solder to?
Thanks
January 18th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Im having the same common problem that everybody else is having. First my DC jack needs to be replaced, I will use the disassembly procedure on a website.
But the problem that I have is that my Toshiba M35x-S149 does not boot up. I turn the power on, but the only thing that happens is the power button on (blue color) and the fan spins for about 5 seconds but nothing happens. I have a black screen and it seems that power is not getting to the CD drive, hard drive or the screen.
I took the battery off then reinstalled it but nothing. I will have to try to change memory sticks to see if it is bad.
Please any suggestions would be appreciated.
Umbertp
January 18th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
addition to my previous post:
I forgot to mention that my system crashed once a few weeks ago. when i rebooted the computer gave me a blue screen telling me that the system had a major crash. but then it rebooted with no problems.
January 28th, 2008 at 9:01 am
I have a m35x-s114 my wireless won’t work and the sound won’t work either. HElp!!!
January 29th, 2008 at 12:16 am
alll you have to do is format your computer then instal windows again
January 31st, 2008 at 12:09 pm
hi guys……i have a mx35s329 purchased in december 2004. luckily it hasn’t given any major problems unitl now.
recently i have observed some screen flicker. the screen sometimes blacks out…….but if i press firmly just beside the “control” key on the left side of the laptop the display comes back on. tapping the computer gently on the right palm rest also brings the display back on. i am thinking its some kind of loose connection, but do not know which wire.
there is a problem with the key board too. some of the keys done work. i recently replaced the key board, but broke the clip while inserting the ribbon of the new keyboard. do you guys know if the key board clip can be replaced.
past service history includes a FL inverter replacement and ac adapter replacement.
i have had no problems with respect to heating shut downs, charging the battery, dc connector pin and system crashes.
hope you guys can help out.
February 6th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Hi- I have broken a clip installing a keyboard on my Toshiba- I see a few of you have the same problem. What’s it called and how do I replace it??? Thanks in advance.
February 7th, 2008 at 2:36 am
I have broken several of the keyboard clips (Toshiba M30X/M35X) whilst taking these laptops apart. Usually it’s the little retainers on the side that snap. However I have found that if you insert the cable as normal and then put the little white/brown retainer in behind (it’s a bit fiddly) and push down it will usually hold the keyboard cable in place and work fine. You may need to run your finger along the back of it to ensure it is pushed in enough to fully work.
February 7th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Hey Stuart,
Thank you for your suggestion. I “fix” broken clips the same way.
February 13th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Hi guys!
I have a Toshiba Satellite M35X-S214 and I have the same problems like other guys.
Fan runs about 5 seconds, power stay on (sometimes), CD-RW don’t eject and nothing show in screen.
I think the notebook was sent to tech support of Toshiba, becouse the DC Jack hava a black thing around connector, like glue and that static eletric thing already fixed.
I already tested all possible solutions: Memory, connectors, Finally, nothing seems solve the problem! I just noticed that the processor and chipset heat.
Can anyone help me, please???
Sorry my english, it’s very poor, I know
I’m just a desperate Brazilian guy!
Thanks!
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:50 pm
I have a m35x-s149 which has had its motherboard changed twice. Again, I am having a problem. Sometimes it will boot all the way thru Windows and then suddenly the screen shuts down. It can happen on start-up or anytime, video shuts down. If I push down on the corner of the motherboard by the dc jack/lid switch the video shuts down. But the dc jack seems fine. It’s almost the same as pushing on the lid switch. Anybody have a similiar problem?
March 9th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Is there any extented warranty available on these m35 notebooks? Ours was in for service in Nov. new MB and HD.
Thanks
March 10th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Instructions great for M35X EXCEPT FORGOT TO SAY :
Remove all F5 & F10 screws plus 3 silver ones from the bottom of the laptop before prying off the top.
March 10th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Hey Dick,
Click on the image in the step 2 and you’ll see all these screws marked with red circles.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:27 am
Wonder if there are any Technicians out there who can help me with this one or at least point me in the right direction …..
I have or had till it died last night a : TOSHIBA Satellite S1900 – 305 .
Was using it when it suddenly shut down for no apparent reason .. at first I thought its overheated seems to be a common fault ……..so left it a while …….. switched it back on nothing .
You switch the system on …the green lights on the front panel come on to indicate power .. with the exception of the HDD light ……. the CPU fan runs ……. but it doesn’t even attempt to boot up nor does the screen light up .
You can’t even get the CAPS lock light to come on via the keyboard …… the only keyboard light that does function when pressed is the Function key button Fn ……….
Tried plugging an external monitor in ….. incase the Bios has screwed itself up but nothing …….. even removed the hard drive and put a bootable floppy in to force it to attempt to boot from floppy ……… Again Nothing ……… no attempt at booting ……. no screen lit ……….
I thought if I could get a display either internal or external I could see what state the Bios was in …………
I wouldn’t have thought it likely that the CPU has died …….. or the memory although it may be a possibility ………. I ‘m leaning more to thinking we have a Major problem on the actual Motherboard .
Appreciate any help/comments ..
Thanks in Advance.
Dave
March 14th, 2008 at 12:24 am
Hi Dave, I would always try the memory first. If you have 2 memory modules remove one and try and boot. Otherwise try a known good memory module to rule out this first. I had the same problem with my Dell Insiron 6000. It sprung into life as soon as I removed one of the memory modules. Cheap fix. If it’s not this then it could be the CPU and possibly the motherboard (expensive).
March 18th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Hi Stuart,
Many thanks for your suggestion.
Tried the memory without success so took the bull by the horns and stripped entire system down …
Found some very suspect looking dry joints on motherboard which I have re-soldered …
The main thing that grabbed my attention during dismantling was the ribbon cable for the keyboard wasn’t fully engaged in socket … it was at an angle … don’t know how long its been like that …
Even if bios is set to halt on all faults, that shouldn’t have caused the blank screen …will post further update once re-assembled ..
Thanks again
Dave …….
March 21st, 2008 at 3:40 am
my lpatopg screen has flipted around so every thing is upside down.please help me what should i do .my model is a toshiba equium a200=15 i
March 21st, 2008 at 10:26 am
Well commented that instructions for M35X were wrong but as you noted I am wrong. Best suggestion before complaining RTFI. At any rate fixed my laptop.Thanks for eccellent Info.
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:05 pm
I’ve had my M35X for a couple of years now, the power connector broke about 6 months after getting it and I never sent it in, I was able to set the power cord in just the right position to get the battery light to come on so just dealt with it.
A few times I took the top off and attempted to solder the top side of the power connector. This only lasted a short time before I had to be adjusting the power cable again.
Thanks to the images in the guide I finally was able to take the motherboard out and bring it into work where I had better equipment (microscopes, solder equipment, appropriate fluxes and wash facilities, heatsink compound etc…) and was able to get that power pin to take solder and get a good solder joint. I could push the pin and see it wiggle in the hole surrounded by solder. I would highly recommend having the right equipment.
We’ll see how long this repair lasts. The next time, I’m taking the connector out and running wires.
March 27th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Hi guys, I have this terrible designed notebook too. I got it from Circuit City in Maryland. I have the same problem described by “frustrated”. I had the extended warranty and had already changed the MB and top cover four times!!! Despite I covered the speakers to not touch them and I use a four fan coolant system too.
Guess what, I just got it from the “garage” and at the first attempt to start it, the notebook died again. The same PCI conflict error while booting and then no booting at all (MS Windows detects the hardware problem and stops). Using OpenSuse 10.3 Live CD I was able to run it and recover my files, but I saw that there is no wireless. Normally the Atheros wireless death is the first symptom, then the booting error and later the motherboard has to be replaced because it just does not start anymore.
I read that not all M35X-S19 but a full series of them have and will always have this problem. Toshiba knows it and does nothing about it. A trial was set against TOSHIBA but they only offered $20 in compensation and an extension on the warranty (same that I payed already). However, the notebook trends to be more time under service than serving you, and once the warranty is over, Toshiba does not accept its responsibility for this terrible design. I was told by the local service that now, I cannot have the MD replaced anymore unless I pay for it… Toshiba should have offered us another model or gave the money back instead of just replacing parts that are known to be defective.
Since Toshiba is doing nothing, is there anybody that has been able to prevent the MB from burning? like by removing the Atheros chip or something like? so maybe we can use an external USB wireless device instead, or something else? what to do with this notebook? should I just take the HDD out and use it inside a box as an external hardrive? I have no idea of how to make some use of the parts of this notebook as it just dies, get replaced the MB, dies again and again and now I have no more warranty to continue the endless toshiba show.
Sorry, I am very upset.
April 9th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
I’m having the same problem with the blue power light, fan for 5 seconds, no display. How could it be a power jack problem if I have the same problem running off of a fully charged battery, without the machine being plugged in?
April 9th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Also, when I took the machine apart and checked the power connector, it looks rock solid, doesnt seem broken or cracked to me…..once again, battery power exhibits the same symptoms…..
April 16th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Most of the problems stated here refer to the comments below, after reading this post I decided to try and put pressure on the chip and the computer booted, removing the pressure and no boot. For a temporary (maybe permanent fix I ground a piece of brass to fit on top of the chip and in between the case putting constant pressure on it. I am going to epoxy it in place. If it lasts then great if not then I’ll remove the board and make a permant fix.
see pic:
http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?765e54423e.jpg
Problem #2 is that after repairing the jack, it still does not boot. The blue power light and fan comes on, nothing else.
What causes this is that some solder joints have broken on a 48 pin chip that is next to the DC jack. That is why it will sometimes bootup if side pressure is applied to the jack. It flexes the motherboard enough so that the broken solder joints make contact, usually temporarily. This is why it is so important to isolate the jack from the motherboard, so the solder joints don’t keep breaking.
This chip has extremely small pin spacing, making it difficult for the average person to solder
April 17th, 2008 at 12:35 am
Nice idea Eddie T. I tried something similar with a wedge but with only limited success. Hope you have more luck. It would be great to hear how you get on as I am convinced this problem affects many of these laptops. I have about 5 old motherboards now that don’t work! Most of them I probably fired trying to resolder the tiny pins on the offending chip. Since bought a dell inspiron 6000 as fed up with the Toshiba’s. I always epoxy the jack to the motherboard now on all my laptops to stop this flexing problem with the weak solder connections – so far so good. I also have 2 M30X’s which have been epoxy’d and have worked for over a year so far with no problem. I’d advise anyone who has a successful fix to glue it!!!!
April 21st, 2008 at 5:45 am
Hi guys!
I have a Toshiba Satellite M35X-S149 and I have this problem:
Fan runs about 5 seconds, power stay on , CD-RW don’t eject and nothing show in screen simply dark.
I have 2 memory modules . I tried remove one and try and boot. No change still have the same problem
Please help.
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:23 pm
hi! I had read some comments on the website and it seen like people have the same problem. The website has alot good advises and people are tried to fix the computer themself. Does anybody has any ideas how to extract the informations from the hard drive when the computer is not working or functioning?
Wai
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
jamal,
Test the laptop with an external monitor. Can you get video on the external monitor?
If both internal and external monitors have no video and new memory stick didn’t fix the problem, most likely you have bad motherboard.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:36 pm
wai,
Remove the hard drive and install in into an external USB enclosure. After that connect this USB enclosure to any working computer, access the external hard drive and back up data.
For more information on using external USB enclosure read this article.
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:29 am
Thank you for the advice. However the CD-ROM does not eject as well , so I believe I may have bad motherboard.
From the comments it seems that this is a common problem with the M35X-S149.
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:05 am
Here is the correct solution to the M35X DC jack problem from someone who actually repairs them for a living.
Problem #1 is that the DC jack solder joints are broken. The jack itself is usually not broken, it just needs to be resoldered. It should be soldered on the top and the bottom of the motherboard for maximum strength.
For a more reliable repair, a new screw on type jack can be fastened to the case, with flexible wires going to the motherboard. Putting side pressure on the jack will then not be able to flex the motherboard, which causes the solder joints to break. I use a screw on jack for all of my repairs, Mouser.com part #502-712A. This will fit the stock Toshiba AC adapter tip.
Problem #2 is that after repairing the jack, it still may not boot. The blue power light and fan comes on, nothing else. What causes this is that some solder joints have broken on a 40 or 48 pin chip that is next to the DC jack. That is why it will sometimes bootup if side pressure is applied to the jack. It flexes the motherboard enough so that the broken solder joints make contact, usually temporarily. This is why it is so important to isolate the jack from the motherboard, so the solder joints don’t keep breaking after the DC jack has been repairred.
This chip has extremely small pin spacing, making it difficult for the average person to solder. It takes a sharp sodering tip, magnification, and a steady hand.
These two repairs will put 90% of the M35x’s back in service. If you need some advice on repairing this yourself, contact me at jrhirsch@netscape.com.
If you are unable to repair the laptop, I offer an M35X repair service on Ebay. It has a picture of the completed repair showing the new jack, wiring, and location of the problem chip. Search under m35x laptop repair. My Ebay ID is jrhirsch.
Jerry
April 24th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Hello,
i would like to thank you for the help that you have given to all of us that have stupid toshiba Laptops. My problem is the following and I can’t seem to find a solution or where i can get the part. I have a Toshiba Satellite M45-355 and i made a stupid mistake and i broke some of the legs from the white connector strip that goes from the power board to the main board. Now My computer doesn’t turn on unless I remove the keyboard and play around with the strip. I tried looking online for those white think connectors, but I haven’t found any online or anyway to fix them. Let me know…thank you
April 25th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Hey Stuart, the fix with the brass is not perfect sometimes you have to move the AC plug slightly to get it to power up, I repaired it for a client and if they complain I am going to put in a jack away from the mobo as some have stated here. Good luck with the dell I have a shop full of broken ones, seems like the major problem is they no longer can charge the battery and can only be used with AC. Also lots of dead screen problems usally rite after the warranty expires.
April 25th, 2008 at 8:10 am
Hi Lorena,
Send me a pic of the connector. I might have a spare from a dead motherboard. jrhirsch@netscape.com
May 18th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
My Toshiba m35/s309 will not boot. I’ve miss placed the recovery and application diskette. Also, the computer is running on thru some scan when I boot it up. Any suggestions?
May 30th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Is there a significant difference between the three motherboards associated with M35X models: K100019630, K000019660, and K000019680? I see several MB’s available on eBay , and I’m wondering if my M35X-S149 will only work with another K000019660.
May 30th, 2008 at 8:06 am
For the sake of others who read this forum, I wanted to note that the AC jack on mine was repaired 6 times under warranty by Toshiba. Now that their extended warranty has expired, I felt compelled to try fixing it myself, using instructions available here.
The AC jack is fine, good continuity, epoxied in place by the last repair shop. But the connector for the button board cable was very loose and actually broke out of the motherboard when I tried to carefully remove the cable.
So all that warranty work, being disassembled and reassembled 6 times, led to something else being worn and broken.
May 30th, 2008 at 10:44 am
Hi Ralph,
Some of the M35X MB’s don’t have a WIFI connector, so no internal wireless. Some are for the Centrino CPU, these are the most in demand.
Jerry
May 30th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Ralph,
K000019630 = Montara-GM+ TV-Out 1394 5n1 (No FIR No Prt)
K000019660 = Montara-GM+ TV-Out 1394 (No 5n1 No FIR No Prt) – has intergrated wifi as does 19630. No Card Reader. No Printer Port. Shared memory graphics.
K000019680 = Montara-GM+ TV-Out 1394 (No 5n1 No FIR No Prt) – has no wifi I think.
K000019220 = M11P 64MB VRAM TV-Out 1394 FIR Par Prt 5n1
K000019210 = as 19220 but with 128MB Graphics chip.
All these motherboards will fit the M30X/M35X (with maybe slight modifications to the case). The 19220/19210 have separate non-shared memory graphics chips so require a slightly different chip heatsink plate. To my knowledge all will support the same CPU’s.
Hope this helps, Stuart
PS I have junked examples of several of these boards if you need to know any more features.
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
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 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 (ÂŁ350-ÂŁ400) 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.
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.
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!
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 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 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 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 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 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 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
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.
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 22nd, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Hi,
fantastic site. Got the same problems with M30X as most of You and I got it fixed by Your instructions.
Thanks a lot
Hanno ( from Germany )
September 8th, 2008 at 1:40 am
Hi CJ,
Many thanks, with your guide i’m able to dismantle and repair my friend’s M35X, but because it is hard to remove the socket ( lack of equipment ) and it hard to find one, i jumpering the centre pin to the fuse in with small cable, and it solved the problem. the cable is along the processor cooling fan.
September 8th, 2008 at 9:11 am
does a toshiba satellite s1900-303 have an expansion bay or any bay at all to connect a serial port to.
September 19th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
WHEN I PUSH THE POWER BUTTOM ON MY 35X THE POWER BUTTOM LIGHTS UP AND THE FAN RUNS FOR 2-3 SECONDS THEN NOTHING, CDROM DOESN’T WORK EITHER, ANY SUGGESTIONS?
September 26th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Hi. I have a similar problem with the many who have mentioned the lights on but nobody home scenario. However My laptop always boots up. Sometimes I have to wait a few minutes and sometimes closer to an hour, then the BIOS kicks in and everything runs fine. I’m glad it works but the unknown waiting period on every boot up is killing me. My friend suggested it might be a CMOS battery but I have found absolutely no information online that so much as tells me how to locate and replace my CMOS battery.
I also did soldering on the power jack myself, so it’s possible the 48 pin chip has problems, it’s just that I’m not moving anything and after quite a while the BIOS kicks in, as I said. And tips would be HUGELY appreciated, even some links to help me find appropriate discussions would be fantastic. Thank you very much.
-Cody
September 28th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
My wife’s computer started just shutting down and going to a flashing green light. I suspect it to be the power jack issue everyone is talking about here. I’ve got the laptop stripped to the bottom case but cannot get the system board out. There doesn’t seem to be anything holding it in but it won’t lift out, I can get it part way up but it seems like it’s still held to the base somewhere near under the CPU socket. Can’t find any other screws to remove. Please help! Thanks for such a great website.
P.K.Q.
September 29th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
There are two threaded fasteners that attach the video connector to the case. Be sure to undo the speaker connector and speaker ribbon cable.
Jerry
September 30th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Hi there guys well for some reason my little brother formatted my hard drive and erased everything, now I have no audio nor video, I managed to get the video working but I still have yet to find an Audio driver for my sound might any of you guys have the link to it my laptop is a M35X-S111 again thank you guys..
October 15th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Joey, try the following method. Right-click on the My Computer icon and go to Properties > Harware > Device Manager. In the device manager, look for any devices that have an exclamation mark (A black exclamation point (!) on a yellow field indicates the device is in a problem state.) You may be able to right click on the item with the problem and select Update Driver > Update Automatically (which searches automatically on the internet).
October 15th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I just wanted to let you all know that I am selling my m35 Toshiba laptop. It has a new motherboard because the old one had the power on for 3 seconds then shuts off disease. If interested email me to christopheralvarado@hotmail.com for more info.
October 19th, 2008 at 10:17 am
I have a grinding fan in my Tosh M35 and have purchased the fan but had a bit of a problem getting my top cover off. I followed irisvista instructions begining at step 8 because i only needed to replace the fan which is on top and didn’t need to do anything on the bottom like mess with memory, the hard drive, or the cd drive. I bought a guitar pick and cut my fingers up trying to get the cover to release but to no avail.
Are any of the screws on the bottom securing the cover? Is there anything else I might be missing?
Thanks!!
October 20th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Hello folks,
I have a Toshiba Satellite M35X that was giving me SMART FAILURE messages concerning the hard drive (Hitachi Travelstar 60GB). It lasted for some time giving me the SMART FAILURE. Couldn’t do much on the machine because it wouldn’t write or save any information, but it is a secondary machine that I only needed for using the internet. Eventually, the machine just went out on me and wouldn’t start up at all. When I tried to turn it on, sometimes the power button would light up for a moment then just go dead again, sometimes it would get all the way to the Toshiba startup screen, then it would crash again.
I ended up replacing the hard drive with a 160GB Hitachi (HTS541616J9AT00). After replacing the new hard drive, I still get the exact same symptoms (i.e. the machine will not start up).
Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks!
October 20th, 2008 at 8:30 am
I forgot to mention, I have already dealt with the power jack issue and got that fixed, so I’m about 95% sure that is not the issue here.
October 20th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Just repaired an M35 with a heating problem. The M35 was shutting down from time to time, as described above. The problem was that the thermal grease was partially burned! When removing the heat sink with help from this disassembly guide, there was a big visible black spot on top of the CPU, instead of the thermal grease. After applying new thermal grease, it seems to be working fine.
Good luck
October 21st, 2008 at 6:33 am
Need Help !! May be with finding drivers !!
Three weeks ago i found my Toshiba M35X S111 (windows XP) has infected with Virus. So i had to Formatted it from the Recovery CD.Most things i use looks fine after installation But i do not see any “Wireless Connection” Icon under Network connections. I only see the LAN connection and its working fine for me. I like to setup my wireless network the way it was before.Then after i started looking for Wireless LAN driver see if it solves my prob. But its been 3 weeks now, i could not find the right Driver.
Any Help Appreciated troubleshooting my problem.
October 28th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Many thanks!
Followed the directions to fix the DC jack on a M35X-S149 (cold/broken solder joint).
So far so good!
October 28th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Thanks Guys, I have solved my problem.
Found that wireless SW was not installed properly.By Reinstalling it again , my problem solved.
October 29th, 2008 at 4:19 am
please my wireless is disabled and i have been trying to enable it to no avail please help
October 30th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
RE: Powers on but nobody is home.
Toshibas tend to have poor soldering job on the motherboard and the chip legs start cracking off the board. (It could be that the base of the laptop is plastic and easy to twist, i recommend making sure it is always sitting flat.)
if you get the nobody home symptom, you can check to see if its the solder on a chip… twist the laptop base and power it on while twisting, it should work normally until you let go, if doesn’t work, try twisting it the other way.. put some muscle in to it, just not too much.
anyway, here is how I fixed mine…
There is a small chip to the right of the jack (when looking from behind of the laptop), take a soldering iorn with a flat screwdriver type tip and solider all the connections on it, be careful so that the solder does not solder the pins together, but only to the motherboard. You can also solder the jack wile the mobo is out (just in case), My M35X-S109 worked fine after (for about a year then a power surge killed it, but that’s another story) The 2nd M35x-S109, the procedure did not work. (so I guess you got a 50/50 chance. Im getting the same symptom on a M35.
anyway, stay away from toshiba, this is a common problem, if you really like them, get the extended warranty, because this problem usually occurs just a couple days after 1 year, when the standard warranty is up…!
>>>>
229
Cody Says:
September 26th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Hi. I have a similar problem with the many who have mentioned the lights on but nobody home scenario. However My laptop always boots up. Sometimes I have to wait a few minutes and sometimes closer to an hour, then the BIOS kicks in and everything runs fine. I’m glad it works but the unknown waiting period on every boot up is killing me. My friend suggested it might be a CMOS battery but I have found absolutely no information online that so much as tells me how to locate and replace my CMOS battery.
I also did soldering on the power jack myself, so it’s possible the 48 pin chip has problems, it’s just that I’m not moving anything and after quite a while the BIOS kicks in, as I said. And tips would be HUGELY appreciated, even some links to help me find appropriate discussions would be fantastic. Thank you very much.
-Cody
#
228
jim martin Says:
September 19th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
WHEN I PUSH THE POWER BUTTOM ON MY 35X THE POWER BUTTOM LIGHTS UP AND THE FAN RUNS FOR 2-3 SECONDS THEN NOTHING, CDROM DOESN’T WORK EITHER, ANY SUGGESTIONS?
November 1st, 2008 at 7:23 am
Which Motherboards are compatible with Toshiba Satellite M35X – S311? (If small modification to fit to the base that should be okay.)
I know that K000019700 is compatible.
But these I don’t know:
K000019700
K000019660
K000019630
K000019680
K000019220
K000019210
I’d appreciate it if anybody lets me know because Toshiba doesn’t think that they should have any responsibility to offer these kind of information about anything that they make ridiculous money with the SHT they sell…
November 1st, 2008 at 7:37 am
Could anybody tell me that what: S311 or S111 would indicate. It’s part of the Toshiba model identification. Example: M35X-S311, M35X-S111…
Thank you
November 6th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
“210
Stuart Says:
May 30th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Ralph,
K000019630 = Montara-GM+ TV-Out 1394 5n1 (No FIR No Prt)
K000019660 = Montara-GM+ TV-Out 1394 (No 5n1 No FIR No Prt) – has intergrated wifi as does 19630. No Card Reader. No Printer Port. Shared memory graphics.
K000019680 = Montara-GM+ TV-Out 1394 (No 5n1 No FIR No Prt) – has no wifi I think.
K000019220 = M11P 64MB VRAM TV-Out 1394 FIR Par Prt 5n1
K000019210 = as 19220 but with 128MB Graphics chip.
All these motherboards will fit the M30X/M35X (with maybe slight modifications to the case).
Hope this helps, Stuart”
When I look at the boards that Stuart mentions, they don’t look anything like the board in my M35X-S311…
So I’m buffled here…
November 7th, 2008 at 12:08 am
Cem,
K000019700 is the base unit and not the motherboard. You need to look at the sticker on the actual motherboard for model number.
http://www.impactcomputers.com/k000019700.html
I have several examples of different boards (all broken). The M30X/M35X boards will fit but may have different features. Stuart
November 7th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Stewart, thank you for fast replay.
Unfortunately there are no any other serial number that I can find on the board or at the back of the case, even resembles – K0000***** –
There is a “LOW K000019700 WK 504K” inside the bottom part, not on the M.Board, but on the battery compartment from the inside… And then there are various of long and boring serials of all kind sticks not on the board it self but on other integrated parts such as the fan, the cpu case, etceteras…
And on the back of the laptop it says:
Satellite M35X-S311
The problem is that when I look to the pictures,
they don’t look like my Motherboard. So I am reluctant about choosing one. I can take a picture of my board if you think that would be a good idea, or some other part or serial number that you think would help to identify my frucked up motherboard…
Thanks again for your efforts…
November 7th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Cem,
No problem. Have you taken the motherboard fully out of the case yet? They usually have the sticker on the bottom with the serial no. If no joy I would be happy to try and identify it from a photo. Does your board have a printer Port? Do you know if it has a separate graphics chip (identified by the silver ‘L’ shaped heatsink having 2 points of contact on the board (usually with white paste). If not it would have integrated graphics with only one point of contact. I have the same laptop so am very familiar with the boards it will take. Stuart
November 7th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Cem,
Try this link for info on laptop specs.
I don’t think either of these models have a printer port so rule out K000019220 or K000019210 motherboards.
Stuart
M35X-S311 Intel® Pentium® M Processor 715, 15.4” WXGA, 512MB, 60GB (4200 RPM), DVD/CD-RW,
Bridge Media Adapter, 802.11bg, TV-out, IEEE 1394, Microsoft® Windows® XP Home (SP2)
M35X-S111 Intel® Celeron® M Processor 340, 15” XGA, 256MB, 40GB (4200 RPM), DVD/CD-RW, TV-out,
IEEE 1394, Microsoft® Windows® XP Home (SP2)
November 8th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Well, no I did not take the board out of the base… Sometime ago I saw a picture where it showed where the identification of the board should be, and there it was, so I never went further. I do not believe there was a separate graphics chip, I don’t know how a printer port suppose to look like. But now that you made me wonder,
I checked the other half part, where the LCD is placed, to see if is there any K0000***** printed sticker attached to it or not… I found two!
“K000018960 WK637K” printed sticker, on the a very thin circuit board. (The power on-off switch and play, stop, fw, rew buttons)
And then again another one on the same side of the plate: “K000018930 WK504K” And they all different from each other. It’s very confusing at this point. I’ll take couple of pictures and stick it somewhere for you to see it. I’ll post where… Thank you again for taking time for me, appreciated… Cem
K000018930 WK504K
November 8th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Cem,
K000018930 = Top Cover Assembly
K000018960 POWER LED BOARD
The sticker you are looking for should be directly attached to the motherboard. Not on any of the plastic assembly parts.
A printer port looks like a serial port on the back of your laptop only it’s longer.
You can narrow down which board you need by it’s features (integrated wifi, 5in1 card reader)
K000019630 = Montara-GM+ TV-Out 1394 5n1 (No FIR No Prt)
K000019660 = Montara-GM+ TV-Out 1394 (No 5n1 No FIR No Prt) – has intergrated wifi as does 19630. No Card Reader. No Printer Port. Shared memory graphics.
K000019680 = Montara-GM+ TV-Out 1394 (No 5n1 No FIR No Prt) – has no wifi I think.
I used a K000019630 (from ebay) to replace my board in the M35X-S311. The other boards will fit but you either gain or lose features compared to your old board.
What is wrong with your current motherboard. Did you try to repair the power jack yourself?
Let me know when you’ve sorted the pictures out.
Happy to try and help.
Stuart
November 9th, 2008 at 3:44 am
Just checked my 5 broken motherboards. Every one has the reference on the underside (of the board not the case)on a white sticker as follows M/B K000019xxx. You may be able to see the sticker by removing the memory modules or failing that taking the board completely out of the base.
November 9th, 2008 at 6:36 am
I have a grinding fan in my Tosh M35 and have purchased the fan but had a bit of a problem getting my top cover off. I followed irisvista instructions beginning at step 8 because i only needed to replace the fan which is on top and didn’t need to do anything on the bottom like mess with memory, the hard drive, or the cd drive. I bought a guitar pick and cut my fingers up trying to get the cover to release but to no avail.
Are any of the screws on the bottom securing the cover? Is there anything else I might be missing?
Thanks!!
November 9th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Hi, yes right underneath Rams, there it was: K000019630
So I guess this is it then…
My power jack was fixed once, and afterwards I figured out how to:) Unfortunately my chip set is fried according to Toshiba service… So there you have it. IN it’s second year two months after they fixed the jack it hit the bucket… As you know quiet well, Toshiba truly sucks… I’m assuming your five broken boards are all Toshiba, how come you insist on this looser brand of a misery? Anyways, I guess now I want to find a K000019630 board…
I wonder though, what other boards I can use that would work with the rest of my remaining M35X-S311?
Thank you so much for helping me out here…
I couldn’t even know what was my bloody MB’s type without your help… I appreciate it.
November 9th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Cem, Glad you found it. My 5 broken boards came from a few years ago trying to resurrect this Toshiba laptop. I finally gave up and sold all the parts for spares and bought a Dell Inspiron 6000 instead – which just needed a new screen. I made sure that I stripped it down and epoxy’d the power jack to strengthen this weak point which most laptops have. Over a year later I have had no problems. I also have a Tohiba M30X & M40X (essentially the same as M35X) which my wife & son use. I epoxy’d them both after repair and 2 years later they are still going strong! You could also use a K000019660 (check it has built in wifi first) but you would lose your memory card reader. Are you in the US or UK? Ebay is often a good source – but make sure it is guaranteed. Stuart
November 9th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Stuart, thanks for the tip. I’m in Turkey but nobody in UK carries MB. So I have to get it from US. There is one for about a $150 plus $30 for shipping.
It has been pulled from a M35X-S329. But it’s exactly the same board like I’ve got. I don’t care about the card reader but I think my K000019630 has… had wifi, unless I’m mistaking. Mine had Bluetooth and Infrared and I guess wireless internet connectivity…
But then I now realize that wifi is something else… Hah… I wish I could have extra K for my LCD, instead of 128K and perhaps plus some software faking…
Anyways thanks again
Cheers Cem
November 14th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
i have laptop toshiba satelite m 35x my cd and vcd player working but dvd player not working. i need driver recovery for toshiba satelite m 35 x
November 14th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
how to get free driver recovery for toshiba satelite m 35 x
November 19th, 2008 at 6:46 am
Can you tell me how to replace my hinges on my M35X?
Thanks,
Mike
December 6th, 2008 at 6:56 am
Hi Richard ..no 138 can you give the address for this website in China where you purchased these ribbon cable clips
December 6th, 2008 at 6:58 am
Anyone know where I can cet ribbon cables for a Toshiba Equium A-100-306..and ribbon retaining clips (if thats possible)…
.
December 7th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
I’ve just re-installed our Mx35X-S149 laptop from the Recovery and Applications/Drives DVD and I’ve yet to get the wirelss working, any help with this?
It used to work beofre but suddenly it just stopped working. Thanks in advance.
For those who need drivers, please be exact as to what you need for this particular model(s): Satellite M30X/M35X Series (that the DVD I have) I will try to upload this somewhere for you to have.
December 7th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Well…Too many years doing this stuff..what do you know?
this particular laptop has a ’switch’ on the side!!!!
It was not on! DUH!
If I bother anyone, please accept my apologies.
Thanks.
Great place for help!!
December 10th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Ok so I have a m35x-s149 laptop as described above. It runs great for a few minutes and then dies. If I remove the battery it runs great again and then dies. I am thinking that it is a cmos issue but I cannot locate a diagram to show me what it looks like. well, what I am asking is do any of you have a clue as to what could be wrong?
December 30th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Hi, I have a Satellite M35x-S311. The lid close trigger button is broken. It seemed to be slowly going deeper in to it’s hole and now it’s out of sight and touch. Can I pry off the silver securing strip and get to it? Is it attached to the keyboard and is a repair possible-can it be replaced?
I looked at the disassembly guide but still not sure. Also, do I have to do anything to the hinges to get to the securing strip?
Thanks for any help you can send my way.
December 31st, 2008 at 2:31 am
Holly, Re: M35x-S311. The lid close trigger button is broken.
This little rubber trigger is connected to the strip that runs along between the keyboard and screen. It can be gently removed by inserting a small flat blade screwdriver just above the keyboard and then lifting it up – it is a push fit only. to reinstall you may need to bend it up in the middle a little to make sure both ends are in before pushing down and then going behind the screen and pressing the hinge covers in place. You can either do away with the trigger (I have one machine that just has a bit of insulating tape underneath to keep out dust) although the laptop won’t shut down if the lid is closed. Alternatively you can try and fix it – it is held in place with a flimsy bit of metal. More seriously the trigger presses down on a switch on the motherboard which if pressed in all the time means it will not start. That’s when it gets a bit more complicated. Hope this helps, Stuart
December 31st, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I have Toshiba M35 S320. After I used the recovery disk, there’s nothing on the screen. It wouldn’t allow me to run in “normal mode” and keeps on rebooting. I try something new which I reformated the hard drive and installed Window XP without using the recovery disk, and the screen come up. I think my hard drive and ram is fine. However, I only get the default window display “blur screen”. If I install the NVidia driver, my screen would go black again. Could someone help me to solve this problem.
January 31st, 2009 at 11:45 am
Not sure if I can post a question here, or if this is just for replies; anyhow:
I have a Toshiba M35X S149 with just a CD R/RW drive. I am able to read the CD OK, but am unable to write to it. It is enabled, & checks out OK in self diagnostics. Any comments or suggestions are welcome–Thanks–Dan
February 14th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Richard, Can you post the website in China that you used to get the Toshiba M35X keyboard cable retainer clips?
February 15th, 2009 at 10:31 am
hey guys…do u know if i can actually replace my intel chipset for an nvidia graphics card??
February 18th, 2009 at 7:21 am
Hi, I have a problem with a M35x S329.
I turn it on and the power blue light is on, I hear some noise from the fan but nothing else. Monitor is down, DVD is down. I removed the battery and turn it on the same. I cleaned the fan, problem stays.
It seems that after a while 10-15min it starts by itself, goes through the normal startup.
Any ideas what I can do?
Thank you,
Cris
March 12th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
I baught my toshiba satelitte computer at staples 2 and a half years ago. I thought i was doing the smart thing by buying 3 year extended warrenty on it, which cost me about 200 dollars. About a month ago, my computer started going really slow and started freezing every few minutes. About a week after, my computer crashed. Whenever i turned it on i would get a blue screen and it wouldnt work. I took it to staples and they examined it and said that it was a part. So they sent it away to the company to fix. 2 weeks later staples called me and said that my computer was back. I went in, expecting it to be fixed and they said that they couldnt fix it because i spilled water on it. I did not once spill water on my laptop and they accused me of doing so. I will not ever buy a toshiba laptop again and i am very dissapointed in their services. My advice: Dont buy a toshiba laptop.
March 12th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Sorry to hear about another your laptop Shan. The DC jack solder joints are purposely designed to break on this model. A couple nearby components solder joints also break, the 40-48 pin Maxim chip frequently, and a capacitor very infrequently.
Seem my Ebay auction under jrhirsch for some pictures.
Staples might be scamming you. If they are, you should take them to court. If you don’t, companies will continue to ripoff people. I can check out your laptop for free, you just pay for shipping both ways. An independent inspection is the only way to know for sure.
Jerry
March 12th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Staples is terrible! I had somewhat of a similar experience with Staples when I shipped a rare car console at a Staples store and they encouraged me to buy insurance which I did. I was led to believe that it was UPS insurance. Anyway the console was damaged during shipment and I was sujected to all kinds of delay and nonsense by Staples. It took me over 3 months and constant going back to the Staples store to register complaints about all the delays in processing a simple insurance claim. They finally paid but would not have if I didn’t keep contacting Staples and complaining.
March 12th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Sorry to hear about another your laptop Shan. The DC jack solder joints are purposely designed to break on this model. A couple nearby components solder joints also break, the 40-48 pin Maxim chip frequently, and a capacitor very infrequently.
Seem my M35X Laptop Repair auction under jrhirsch on Ebay for some pictures. I have repaired over 100 of these by removing the jack and replacing it with one that is mounted to the case, not the motherboard. This way, flexing the DC jack will not twist the motherboard which in turn breaks the solder joints on nearby components.
Staples might be scamming you. If they are, you should take them to court. If you don’t, companies will continue to ripoff people. I can check out your laptop for free, you just pay for shipping both ways. An independent inspection is the only way to know for sure.
Jerry
March 18th, 2009 at 11:50 am
Has anybody tried to use the motherboard K000019200 with the M35X-S149? They look the same, even the size of the video chips but I saw were someone said they though you needed a different heatsink for it. Just wanted to see if anyone has tried this. I have found this board much cheaper than the stock K000019660 so I figured if it works the same I would just repalce it with this one instead. Thanks for any info anyone can pass my way.
March 26th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
I recently had to reformat my hard drive and reinstall Windows XP Professional on my Satellite M35X-S3112 due to some spyware that caused my computer to restart every couple of minutes, if not more often.
I am now trying to get the video and audio features to work again, and am having little success. My computer has no sound, and only video capabilities when I’m on the internet.
I have tried running games on my computer and I come up with an error message saying that it cannot find an audio card installed.
When I try to watch a movie it comes up with this error message: The TV Out port of your display card is not working properly.
I am wondering if there is a website where I can get drivers that will fix this problem. If you have any ideas I would greatly appreciate any suggestions.
March 27th, 2009 at 6:18 am
#269
I posted a problem back in January about not being able to write to my CD, although being able to read it, on my M35X. Have not had any replies (not sure if I’m just supposed to wait until somebody has a response, if I’m in a queue on hold, or what); anyhow, in the meantime I fixed my problem:
Installed a known working drive–Didn’t help
Shut system down & removed drive
Rebooted without drive in place
Shutdown after complete reboot & Windows up
Shutdown again (with no drive in place)
Reinstalled drive & rebooted
Bingo–works like new–presumably corrected something in BIOS.
March 27th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Just an update I replaced my K000019660 with an K000019630 in a M35X-S149 and it works fine, you just have to notchout the opening under the PCI Slot for the new card reader on this motherboard. Also goth the K000019630 for $50 less on ebay than the K000019660 was going for.
March 30th, 2009 at 6:49 am
y friend’s M35X-S161 exhibited symptoms of a poorly connected DC-IN jack and I found the disassembly instructions fantastic! (I’m visual!).
However I had trouble removing (a) the DVD/CD dive and (b) the top cover until I took both the [F5] and [F10] screws from the base of the machine.
Also, please give details for disconnecting the ZIF cables. (I found that a dentist’s plaque pick was great as it allowed me to lift the locking bars easily).
I’d also add a tool list (guitar picks ARE hard to find!) – viz: Philips head screwdriver, flat bladed screwdriver, guitar pick, dentist’s plaque pick or curved awl, solering equipment (as described in “how to replace the DC-IN jack”).
March 31st, 2009 at 12:44 pm
My husband is working on his sisters M35x-s111. We are having a problem with grounding the lcd, i know it says here that it’s a known problem and that toshiba should / might replace it even if it’s not under warrenty, however here is the problem, the laptop was dropped and it broke the lcd display, we purchased a new screen, but we can’t verify the laptop still works because it keeps coming ungrounded. It will boot up, but if touched or moved at all it stops working. any suggestions on where to ground it with a short ground wire?
April 11th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Hello,
My 3 yr old satellite M35X-s309 – takes about 10 minutes to start (just to come up to boot prompt – where it does memory test and displays bios info). This problem started, after I dropped it. After boot – everything works fine. Any idea what I should look into?
Thanks in advance.
~Bob
April 20th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Please help!
My laptop has been connecting perfectly to wireless. As of late, it appears that it does not anymore. I also tried “Repair Wireless Network Connection”, but I got a message “Windows could not finish repairing the problem because the following action cannot be completed: Connecting to the wireless network”.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:03 am
Hi! I have this friend who has a Toshiba satellite M35x-S161
It runs Win Xp SP2 and After It boots Up about 3 to 4 mins Then It just restarts itself again. Now I have built computers before but this is my first laptop what should I do first the DC jack solder was broken so I resoldered it tight my self the trick is to insert the plug press down and solder under neath the dc jack and the green board leaving no room to move even when pluging and unpluging so what should I do about this problem with the restarting of the computer? If anyone has an answere please write to me at james_e_amari AT yahoo DOT com “THANKS”
May 11th, 2009 at 8:17 am
Hi, I have a problem with a M35x S163.
I turn it on and the power blue light is on, I hear some noise from the fan but nothing else. I’m trying to get to the reboot/setup option to use my recovery cd but I can’t get there because it shuts down just before getting there.
May 11th, 2009 at 8:20 am
Julio Perez,
You don’t have any video on the screen, right? First of all, try reseating memory modules. Try removing them one by one and test the laptop with each module separately. One of the modules can be bad.
May 11th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Julio Perez,
If reseating memory modules doesn’t help and the laptop doesn’t work with each module installed separately, it’s very likely that you have a faulty motherboard.
Motherboards in Satellite M35X laptops fail a lot.
By the way, did you test the laptop with an external monitor?
May 19th, 2009 at 6:52 am
Im working on getting a Toshiba Satellite M35x-s111’s wireless working and having no luck.. Ive read thru many of these posts and most say the same thing. anyways this computer doesnt have an on off button located beneath the volume slider on the side of the comp does this mean this computer doesnt have wireless? ive got programs on it that show wireless things like “wireless connectivity wizard” and “wireless link” in the control pannel, as well as an Atheros wireless driver installed in the “add/remove programs” so with all this shouldnt I have wireless on this computer? Ive also tried the Fn-F8 keys which I believe turns the device on and off but still nothing.. and help from anyone reguarding this would be helpfull. I can give more info if needed but id like to get this resolved so I dont have to part out this comp which works almost perfectly otherwise.
May 22nd, 2009 at 7:46 pm
I have a M35x-s161, did the power jack replacement with a hard wire connector, and it worked so-so. I still had to press around the board, that tells me that the boards solder points are bad.The existing board is a k000019660, does anyone know what other boards might work(i.e. k000019200 as a cheaper replacement?) and what mods would have to be made (printer port cutout, etc.)
June 6th, 2009 at 2:43 am
Hello I have an old laptop and I lost my recovery disk, do you sell recovery disks for a toshiba Satellite M35X-S114 or do you know where i can get one please get back to me at your convenience.
JerryBarba@hotmail.com
June 12th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
My M40X was shutting down. I found this site and did the easy step first. I blew out the dust. That worked for a while but eventually, the fan started to sound like an electric razor.
I”m mecahnically & electrically inclined and I hate to throw out and waste but I never thought to take a laptop apart. I poured over the pictures and it seemed like I might be able to do it. After calling a few service centers it loked like it was going to cost me $150. Then I found a replacement fan assembly on ebay for $22 and I figured what did I have to loose. $22??
To make a long story short, I followed your steps exactly and except for the anxiety of some of the cable connectors was able to replace the assembly and, incredibly, it booted up and is still running. I can hear the fan coming on/going off so I think the operation was a success. It took me just 1.5 hours to do it.
Even though mine was an M40X, I have to say how impressed with your instructions and tips. I’ll be highly recommending this site to everyone who wants to try to fix their laptop.
Thank you so much for your help.
Stephen – Toronto, Canada
June 13th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
I read the IrisVista “Disassembling Toshiba Satellite M35X laptop” guide.
Since my problem is the heatsink, do I need to follow all the steps in sequence, or can I skip some and go straight to ArcticSilver-ing the heatsink and replacing it back?
June 15th, 2009 at 7:58 am
Hello,
I have a Satellite M30X-113 with a Intel Pentium M Processor 725 1,6 Ghz, I want to know if my notebook is capable to support this CPU Intel Pentium M Processor 765 2.10 GHz , and if it’s worth in terms of performance? I also have the latest build of the BIOS v2.0 released on 11/02/09.
Thanks for your answer
July 14th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Hello, My Satellite M35x-S1142 speed has significantly decreased over the last 5 months. It now takes several minutes to pull up a website. My other computer on the same router is not slow at all. Any suggestions to speed things up? I have already upgraded the RAM – I added 1024MB to the 512MB.
Thanks!
July 14th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Josh,
Scan your laptop for viruses and spyware. You can use AVG antivirus and SpyBot spyware removal tools.
July 20th, 2009 at 7:15 am
I was following the Disassembling Toshiba Satellite M35X laptop guide which was a big help but under step 4 it says to carefully remove the dvd drive how does one go about doing that skillfully? do I just pull it out is there some latch or something do easily remove the dvd drive?
August 1st, 2009 at 8:20 pm
I have a TOSHIBA SATELLITE M35X-S349 that does not boot. The blue power light and fan comes on (fan ran for 5 seconds and stop), nothing else.
This guide and the replies helped me learn a lot especially reply number 78 by Mr. 78 Jerry Hirsch. I tried replacing the DC Jack with a new one thinking it might solve my problem but it did not.
So my motherboard might have solder joints that broken on the 48 pin chip that is next to the DC jack or it that chip might be broken entirely.
I am now looking for someone who can repair this motherboard for me for a very reasonable price. I can’t afford to buy a replacement motherboard or a new laptop.
Thanks and Regards.
August 6th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
i have a m35x-s111 and i have no video i opened it and checked everything but everything looks fine. sometimes the tchiba logo come up when i turn it on but then goes away. i dont want to reboot it can i get any ideas on how to fix the problem?
August 8th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
I have an M30X with the famous power jack problem. I tried to diassemble it and got 90% of the way before I realized I had broken not only the keyboard cable connector clip, but also the two flat cable connector clips (also on the system board) from the top assembly. I saw in earlier posts that Toshiba does not sell these cable clips, and my service center doesn’t have any. I stopped the disassembly without fixing the power jack to see if I could reassemble the flat cables. Most of the clips for the keyboard connector and the power light connector were still intact (only one pin broken) and I was able to wedge the cables back into the connectors. For the small touchpad connector, the clip was hopelessly broken, but I found that I could wedge a small piece of a credit card between the conector and the cable and it worked. I would like to disassemble the machine again so I can finally repair the power plug, but am afraid I won’t be able to get the flat cables to work again without the proper clips. Does anyone know anywhere where I can get these plastic clips? I’m sure I’m not the only one who has broken these.
August 12th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Alex,
Have you tried replacing memory?
I’m pretty sure you can make it boot if you apply some pressure on the motherboard and turn on the laptop. Apply some pressure on the area close to the left hinge with your thumb and turn the laptop on while applying the pressure. Will it turn on this way?
I’ve seen this many times before. If that’s the case, there is a problem with the motherboard and it has to be replaced.
August 20th, 2009 at 5:55 am
Need help PLEASE. I was cleaning my husbands M35X-S149 laptop. I was wiping down the side with a cloth, on the right side there is a small square headed button I pushed on it and something right next to the button came out. I pushed the card or what ever it is that came out back into the case I can not get the square headed button to stay in as it was before. it is sticking out of the case about 1/2 of an inch. Husband is at work, I would really like to get this taken care of before he returns. THANK You
August 24th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
I have a TOSHIBA SATELLITE M35X-S149 that does not boot. The blue power light and fan comes on (fan ran for 5 seconds and stop), nothing else.
August 25th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Marc F,
First of all, check RAM modules. If you have two RAM modules installed, remove them one by one and test the laptop with each one separately. Try installing a known good RAM module and test the laptop again.
If replacing/reconnecting/swapping memory doesn’t help, most likely you have a problem with the motherboard.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Has anyone used the repair that Jerry (jrhirsch) has outlined for isolating the jack from the motherboard and/or used his repair service. I’d like to get some feed-back form anyone that has. Thanks in advance.
September 6th, 2009 at 5:23 am
main system chip faulty, cpu fan screw damege, processor socket damege
September 9th, 2009 at 6:31 am
Hi there, I’m looking for help with Toshiba Satellite M40X please. Product was bought in Canada & is out of warranty. Laptop keeps freezing, I have put in the recovery disc, but it is still freezing after about an hour or less working on it. If anyone can help I would be very grateful.
September 28th, 2009 at 12:35 am
could someone tell me where is the cmos battery located (with picture), model toshiba satellite M40X-184. i forget the bios pwd, so is there any other ways to reset this pwd other than taking out the cmos battery?.
October 16th, 2009 at 10:51 am
i need driver recovery for toshiba satelite m35 x.by free downloading .please help me thanks
November 27th, 2009 at 9:51 am
I have a toshiba satellite m70 laptop.
I got hit with a virus, I used mbam to remove everything, but a couple of days later when I try to start up my laptop it won’t go past the toshiba logo page. Even if I press F12 or F2 it just stalls there, so I had to power down and restart it. Sometimes I have to do that up to 15 times for it to fully boot up.
I used Chkdsk to see if there was any problems, nothing was found.
What can be causing this?
November 28th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
a,
I think it’s just a coincidence. Most likely your problem is not related to the virus infection.
It’s possible that your problem is related to the memory failure.
You have two modules installed in your laptop, correct? It’s very unlikely that both memory modules failed at the same time.
You can try removing memory modules one by one and test the laptop with each one separately. It should start fine when the bad module is removed.
November 28th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
I have a M35X that keeps locking up (freeze) requiring me to give it the finger. I have gone thru all the virus work, registry, ran memory check program. Any idea’s where to look next
December 1st, 2009 at 8:03 am
I’ve tried removing the memory to see if it was the culpert. Still having the same problem.
Here’s more info: When the booting up problem occurs, and after several restarts, the laptop will fully boot up, but then I discover that my D drive would go missing.
And this only happened once, where the computer just shut off by itself.
Any more suggestions?
December 5th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
On step 15 there is a photo that I think shows the bios chip.
It looks to me to be socketed. Can you confirm this?
M305-S4910
December 6th, 2009 at 10:57 am
I have a toshiba m35x s111 and sometimes when I press the start button I hear a beeping sound and I see nothing on the screen. I then unplug the unit and try to restart again. Sometimes it comes on and sometimes it reverts back to the beeping sound. The laptop is about 5 years old so I don’t know if it’s on it last leg or not. Got any suggestions?
December 6th, 2009 at 11:52 am
I have a M35X-S3112. The screen fails to light up or goes black while in use. Pushing the close button multiple times usually brings the screen back to life. Each push of the close button will cause a flicker or flash or attempt to light up on the screen. Sometimes the close button will restore the screen for the duration of use, other times it’s only temporary.
Any ideas?
December 19th, 2009 at 9:55 am
I have the solution for the non booting Toshiba m35 that I wrote almost a year ago. This tutorial is applicable to laptops that shut down without any warning, laptops that turn on only sometimes, and laptops that simply refuse to turn on (LEDs blink, fan spins up for a second and then everything just goes dead). So if your laptop does not turn on, it goes completely dead within a few minutes after bootup, here’s the link to the tutorial. The repair takes about an hour, there’s no need of replacing any parts, reinstalling any software or any other thing. The only investment in repairing your laptop with this tutorial is your time. Basically, you can repair your laptop within the hour, without spending any money for any parts or software.
http://imateski.blogspot.com/2008/08/toshiba-satellite-m35x-motherboard.html
December 23rd, 2009 at 3:30 pm
how do i restore my toshiba satellite m35x- back to factory settings
February 1st, 2010 at 12:56 pm
i have smae problem.like when i on my m35x-s111.the lights comeup and the sount of fan for 5 sec and than nothing.can u tell me aheat is going on and also i can,t open my cd rom too pls help me.thnkas
February 26th, 2010 at 6:24 am
HAVE a Toshiba M35X-S329 had a power jack problem replaced
that. Put everything back , It run it great no more losing power and all ,but now if I touch the laptop around where the power plug is the screen goes off and everything else stays on.
I reboot it and sometimes everything will come on as far as the power but then stops ,blank screen. So maybe there is another problem . I will tap it around where the video plug is and then reboot and it will be okay ,then I touch that area it will go off.I guess the mother board..Right?
February 27th, 2010 at 6:59 pm
For those who have a notebook Satellie M35x and the screen light does not turns on, but the things are there, i mean disk ram, OS is going well… You may have to weld a piece placed at the bottom of the screen, you may remove the screws and take off the black cover, you’ll see chip at the bottom chek the pieces, you’ll probably find that a pin needs to be welded. It works for me.
Now im having a problem because I try to turn my lap on and then a secuence of beeps starts, it does not even boot, but i think it could be fixed simply by cleaning, removing rams and clean everuthing there, and chek unwelded parts.
Sorry for my english im learning. hope my replay helps.
February 28th, 2010 at 11:11 am
JIM,
There could be some grounding issue I think.
I would remove the top cover assembly and take a look at the bottom part of the top cover. Make sure nothing touches the motherboard. Maybe something is not seated properly, o a metal piece on the bottom part of the top cover shorting the motherboard.
Try running the laptop with the top cover removed. Can you make it fail when the top cover is removed?
March 10th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Great guide! De-mystifies the items that need to be pryed apart >:( (boo for all manufacturers that do this)
However the formating leaves a bit to be desired, I can’t keep this on the screen while I work since I only have the one computer, and when I tried to print I get all the extrainious stuff around the edges of the webpage and some things fon’t fit well.
A “Printer Friendly” version would make it complete.
Still, thank you for posting the info, now I can clean the crud out of this thing and maybe find out why the left 40% of my screen has a white cast to it (low contrast).