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