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.
January 11th, 2012 at 11:04 am
m35x-149 will not turn on. Fan runs, green light in front is on, and there is a high pitched sound after a short while(kind of like a key is stuck). Cannot open CD tray. No blue ON light and blank screen. Any suggestion?
January 5th, 2012 at 1:37 am
i have brand new toshiba laptop when i connected to the wifi the laptop will hang and need to force turn off. any server of wifi like the linksis, dsl or sun broadband when i connected in my laptop he will be hanging and i can’t use that. if i want to use that again i will force turn off but my laptop will be corrupted or loose other data..i need a comment asap..thanks..
December 15th, 2011 at 2:17 pm
I have a toshiba satellite M35X-S109 and whenever I try to log on it says there is an error in loading the inpage. plz help
September 27th, 2011 at 4:05 pm
I have a satellite L300-EZ1522 pro, i was watching a movie on it the other day using the cpu to monitor plug, and when I plugged the power supply in, the lights in the room dimmed and the pc went off, so now it won’t come on, when I plug it in using a new power supply still nothing, no lights, no fan nothing, I have tried removing the battery and holding down the power button for 15 seconds, probably a little longer and still nothing, when I take out the motherboard the dc plug has a wire that runs to the motherboard well, if you flip the motherboard over there is a copper piece on either side of a white square, the white part has black on it, other than that, nothing is wrong with the motherboard, no smell of burnt electronics or anything, so if anyone can help, I’d greatly appreciate it. Thanks and my email is a2002zx2driver at gmail dot com
July 17th, 2011 at 12:43 pm
To “gkjk” in #344:
the metal strip you mention comes from underneath the plastic cover at the top of the keyboard, that covers the display hinges, the WiFi antenna cable and the display connector. The rubber button normally pokes upwards through the hole in that plastic cover. The other (bigger) side of the rubber button presses down on a small switch on the motherboard when you close the lid. So it’s not critical, but your laptop won’t be able to know when the lid is closed (and then enter sleep mode, for example). Just take the plastic cover off again and superglue the metal strip back to where it was torn off.
June 20th, 2011 at 5:56 am
Pls help me.. i have a toshiba satelite l300, the screen always “whites out” the losses actvty but the laptop is still on but wont react to any key. Wht is its problem? Thank u very much.
February 4th, 2011 at 7:30 pm
While removing the top cover, a piece fell onto the board. I have no idea where it came from or where it goes. It is a thin piece of metal with a 3/8″ rubber finger on one end and three small holes on the other end of the metal strip. The strip is about 1 1/2″ long. I reassembled the M35X-S109
and every thing works except the cd/dvd it has power, spins up when you put in a disc but is not recognized by the Bios or MS XP.
Any body know what this part is?? It it a ground strap or something for the drive?
Cheers,
January 16th, 2011 at 11:18 am
Angel,
Here’s what you can try to do.
1. You can download and burn live Linux CD (Ubuntu, Knoppix, etc…). Boot your laptop from this CD and test keyboard and touchpad functionality. If everything works fine in Linix, there is a problem with your Windows installation. Most likely you’ll have to reinstall Windows.
2. You can reinstall Windows without original restore CD if you still have Microsoft license sticker with the installation key. I think you have Windows XP Home install. All you need is an copy of Windows XP Home OEM disc (not retail). The OEM disc should take your license key and activate after installation. I’ve done it hundreds time. I guess you can search torrentz for the installation disc. I don’t think it’s illegal because you are going to use original Microsoft installation key.
January 16th, 2011 at 2:15 am
Just tried it again and no progress. I’ve even called toshiba and they told me nothing they could do. Then I asked about a recovery disc and they told me it was to outdated and not offered anymore
January 16th, 2011 at 2:10 am
R u still there
January 16th, 2011 at 1:07 am
Tried that a million times. Loads but still can’t type or move the mouse
January 15th, 2011 at 10:49 pm
Angel,
You didn’t login to your account after the keyboard and touchpad failed, right?
What if you press F8 on startup and instead of Safe Mode select Last Known Good Configuration. It should take you back to the last successful login (before the keyboard and touchpad failed).
January 15th, 2011 at 10:26 pm
Hello, I have a toshiba satellite m35x-s3112. I had no sound audio after downloading all the updates and drivers I could find. Nothing worked and the laptop was getting really hot. I disassembled it cleaned the fan and made sure all of the sound stuff was attached. After doing this the laptop didn’t get hot anymore but still no sound. So I went to toshiba website and started to download drivers after removing all older ones. Anyways, I downloaded a bios update, my laptop wouldn’t let me download realtek or any other sound and audio drivers so I went ahead and downloaded some more updated drivers. Here is my current problem. I downloaded some touchpad updates and drivers. After my restart my touchpad or keyboard does not work. I tried to use the tab key and arrows to go to start menu and do a system restore but for some reason those keys don’t work. So I went to safe mode and can’t do anything because it loads the ” select user
Screen” which I can’t. Do. I’ve plugged in external mouse and keyboard and my laptop doesn’t detect them. I have tried command prompt start up but it goes straight to safe mode start up screen so obviously yet again I can’t do anything. I don’t understand the keyboard not working because the arrows keys work in bios. Also I disconnected the touchpad and no help there either. I don’t have a system recovery disc either. So my question is. Am I screwed? Or is there something I can do. Plzzzzzzzzz. Some1 help my chemistry teacher is not eery understanding and I got assignments due on Monday.
December 26th, 2010 at 9:03 am
John–My MX35 had the same problem. I purchased a guide for less than $20 that shows how to solder the maxim chip then took it to a guy who works on laptops. He fixed it for me in about an hour and it’s been good for the last 6 weeks. Go to “insidemylaptop.com” and be directed to a blogspot discussion. Igor gives a lot of tips on the discussion pages. Good luck!
December 21st, 2010 at 9:39 am
I have a M35X-S111 Toshiba Satellite and would like to upgrade the USB ports to type 2.0 Can this be done?
December 19th, 2010 at 8:12 am
Hi, I have a m35x s309 with a bad solder joint on the maxim chip. I was so frustrated with this laptop.Hit the power button and no video,no cd rom,bla bla.I read on this site and finally pulled the cover plate off by the moniter an applied pressure to the chip with a marker and sure enough it boots.So what Im guessing is poor solder job,
My question is or needing help with,,,How can I resolder this chip it has like 25 little prongs per side..Without burning a hole in it…Im somewhat handy and can solder but need help….Though about buying another mb off e-bay but what keeps that one from having the same problem.
November 21st, 2010 at 11:15 am
my computer is satelite L500.these week it made some screaming noise i shut it down but since then it stopped working normaly.it takes so long to switch on and sometimes it hangs up when its on
October 7th, 2010 at 5:29 am
I have a Toshiba MX35 laptop which will not boot when I turn on the wireless adapter switch. Seems to work fine when I have the wireless switch off. Any ideas regarding repair? Thanks
September 1st, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Working on a Toshiba Satellite M35X S161.
I beleave it has the wrong Bios in it and can’t find an upto date Bios.
It has Bios 2.31 all i can find is 2.00.
Can someone help me please?
August 19th, 2010 at 1:58 am
Hello, I have a toshiba satellite pro A300 which can boot when on battery but cannot boot when on DC power jack instead the power and battery lights are on then go off when i switch on power. I have tried the ‘ remove battery, 30/45 secs power down- even when upside down,insert power cable without batt.
Etc’
Tried all these please assist
July 20th, 2010 at 1:09 am
hello, i’m using toshiba satellite L40, and i am facing power issues.the problem is when i put off and again on my laptop powers on or else it never starts.the same thing happens when i try to use it without battery i mean with the charger adapter.once i switch off my laptop from windows it never powers on again unless i put off my adapter jack off and on again…hope u understood my problem..thank you…
July 17th, 2010 at 9:58 am
Murthy,
Nope, it’s not necessary to replace the motherboard.
You can replace just the DC jack. You can follow this guide: http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2007/12/06/dc-power-jack-repair-guide/
Good luck!
June 15th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
I have a 5 year old Toshiba Satellitte M35-S329 laptop and the DC inject is broken. It does not charge and the battery is les than a year old. The charging cord is also new. When i leave it to charge, the light flickers and it barely charges. I was told that the problem is with the DC jack and the entire Motherboard and DC jack needs to be replaced for $250-300 plus labor. The reason I was told was that the motherboard is attached to the DC jack in these models.
I can find a DC jack for this model on ebay for less than $10. Besides labor cost, is it necessary to buy a motherboard also?
Please advise
May 25th, 2010 at 11:13 am
I have an M35x-S149 that I’ve been battling with for the better part of a year now. Originally it was my mother’s laptop and after a while it would spontaneously freeze up. No error messages in Windows at all. Then once the DC-Jack broke free of the board, she gave it to me and never wanted to see it again. After fixing the jack I found that it would still have these freezing issues. I couldn’t even get all the way through an OS installation without it freezing (I literally spent a week trying to install ANY OS on it, only to have the thing freeze up EVERY time). Frustratingly I could do any CPU, Ram, or HDD test I wanted to and nothing would freeze it for single component testing. I let Memcheck run for 48 hours straight with no issues. It appeared that whatever was causing the problems was happening when the system was using multiple systems (IE high power drain).
Hearing about the grounding issues, I brought it to my static bench at my workplace and THOROUGHLY grounded it (Soldered wires on every offending piece and put in fresh grounding foil everywhere that needed it). Booted it up and tried to install redhat on it. It promptly froze barely 10% into the installation. I tried again with Windows xp, again it froze. On a whim I pulled the battery and tried again with windows xp. Installed perfectly. Thinking I had gotten lucky, I worked on the laptop for a few hours (Installed drivers, software, etc) still no freeze. From here I decided to do a GPU stress test (since this tends to be the most power intensive operation). I let it run for an hour, no freeze.
At this point I shut down the system and put the battery back in. I disconnected it from mains power and turned it on. It booted into windows, sat there for about 30 seconds, then rebooted. I let the system do this about 4 times before I was convinced I had the problem sussed.
In my case either the battery or the battery power circuit is bad. Having the battery and mains connected at the same time was causing the freezing when the computer drew high load. It’ll also freeze up if I pop in the battery while it’s running. If anyone else is having freezing problems, I highly recommend pulling the battery and seeing if the system starts to work again.
From here I’m going to try to purchase a cheap replacement battery (Used, 3rd party, etc) and see if I can narrow down my actual point of failure. If I get a solid conclusion I’ll share it.
April 4th, 2010 at 8:01 pm
i want to expand my memory (ram) to more than 526 mg, because when am working with auto cad it gets slowing down and a message “losing virtual memory” appears. how do i know if there’s available slot for memory without opening the back of my toshiba satelite m30′s back. thankyou
April 3rd, 2010 at 3:14 pm
sry i meant to add MY DAD has a toshiba sattelite and when
April 3rd, 2010 at 3:13 pm
when he turns it on..it doesnt go to boot sequence, he has to shut it off and turn it on multiple times to get it to turn on..what the hell is wrong? i thought it was the cd drive because he had it out of it for a while but he put it back in and it still does it, his laptop is a Toshiba satellite with windows vista home premium…and i might think its the cmos battery.
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).
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?
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.