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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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!
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?
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 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.
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
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 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 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 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 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…
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
October 24th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
To all,
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 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 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 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 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 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 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.
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.
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 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 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 2:40 pm
Did you install “Toshiba Console for Windows XP/2000″ first?