Toshiba Satellite M35X. How to remove LCD screen, video cable and FL inverter board.
Toshiba Satellite M35X display disassembly guide will show how to remove the LCD screen, the video cable and the FL inverter board. Before you start taking apart the LCD screen assembly, do not forget to remove the laptop battery. After you removed the LCD mask seals and screws start to separate the LCD mask from the LCD cover with your fingers. Put you finger under the mask and carefully lift it up until you feel that plastic latches are open. Do not hurry, the LCD mask is very fragile and it is very easy to break it. Do not use a screwdriver or any other sharp object to remove the LCD mask or you can scratch the screen. When you disconnect the video cable from the screen or cables from the FL inverter board, do not pull the cables, open the connector by the edges.
August 5th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
Rick,
What is your laptop model?
Check out some tips for troubleshooting laptop video. I think you might have a bad video cable or bad screen, but first I would try reseating the video cable connectors, just in case.
August 5th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
Jasmine,
I doubt it.
It could be just a loose connection between the video cable and the inverter board. First, I would try reseating cables on both end of the inverter board and maybe spray contacts on the inverter with contact cleaner. Test again. Second, if the backlight still fails, I would go with replacing the inverter. Finally, if the backlight still fails even after inverter replacement, probably you have a faulty backlight lamp.
Unfortunately, I cannot tell you 100% that you have a bad inverter board. The only way to find out is installing a known good inverter and see if the problem is gone.
Try reseating connectors first.
August 5th, 2007 at 6:22 am
Hello. I also have a similar problem (and a slightly different notebook: Toshiba Satellite m45 – s331), however my troubles just started. It seems like my screen goes dim after a significant amount of activity (ie: opening several site windows, having Photoshop and Microsoft Word open at the same time), as if it’s telling me “Stop, crazy woman!” and overheating. I had tapped the close lid button a few times, but the screen only came up for a few seconds (and that only worked the first few times). As with most everyone else who has commented, I can see a dim outline of icons and windows. I’m wondering if my screen still requires a new inverter, because it’s the next day, and after leaving my laptop off and unplugged for 10 hours, it’s working flawlessly.
Main question: Could the screen going dim just be a result of me overworking the laptop? Or is it still an inverter issue?
August 4th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
When I start my computer or it comes out of a hibernation powersave mode the screen fades to greay and then there are a bunch of colorful vertical lines on the screen. Then it flickers and comes on. Sometimes it takes 35-40 seconds other times it takes a few minutes and sometimes it doesn’t come on at all. I plug it into my TV and it works great. Is my LCD bad or something? Tried reinstalling the driver for NVIDIA GeForce FX go5200 but it did not help. Please advise.
August 3rd, 2007 at 11:48 am
Hey all! Must say that this site has helped me a lot!! After 8 hours of travelling in 2 trains, my m30x booted up with a Ferrari red WinXP bootup screen yikessssss!! All the colors where wacked up. After being sure it was not OS related I decided to open it up, following the directions for the screen disassembly, the problem was that the LCD flat connector behind the screen was improperly seated (one side was kind of not making contact), seems with all the bumping it managed to get dislodged (note: the laptop was inside a Targus Sports backpack
shame on you Targus……..). Any how, thank u for having a great site!!!
July 11th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
i have a toshiba m35-s320 the sreen went black so my niece took it to best buy geek sqaud. they said the sceen was bad. got a neww screen,but now it only lights bright gray. any clues?
May 30th, 2007 at 8:21 am
There is a black wire on the lcd cable. Does this wire attach/screw to the right-most Fl inverter board screw?
May 10th, 2007 at 11:58 am
Hi, I have a Toshiba Satellite A105 S361. I bought it 11 months ago. Since two or three weeks ago, after 30 min of work, its display becomes gray, with some brighter horizontal lines. I’ve plugged it to an external monitor and works fine. If I do a reboot after the problem, the time to “crash” is about 5 to 10 min.
I believe its a hardware problem, related to temperature. I was told by the people from store’s technical service that it is a software problem, but I am not sure of that.
Have you any idea of what can be happen?
April 26th, 2007 at 3:27 am
my screen is all ok except for a vertical green line on the bottom right of the screen. can it be removed? as far as i know dead pixels aren’t green…
February 7th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Is my M35X-S114 doomed ? I went to turn it on and now all I see is a gray screen. I conected a monitor to the back and booted it up and I saw the windows xp name on the external monitor but then nothing after that. Could this be just a loose video cable or am I in big trouble ? The lcd screen never shows anything. The back light turns off if I press the little white button.
Thanks for any help..
Mike
January 26th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Alright, I couldn’t wait no longer and decided to take matters into my own hands. I took the instructions from this site and decided to open up the laptop a little bit. I reseated the connection on the back of the LCD and the video card adapter underneath the keyboard. Powered the baby back up and I got video! I hope that helps others.
January 26th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
I have the Toshiba M35X-S329. Thanks for the previous posts but changing out the FL Inverter didn’t help. I just got one in from ebay today, installed and all I get is the LCD backlight turned on, but POST doesn’t show up on the screen. It does, however, work when connected to the VGA. You might think it’s a systemboard problem?
January 22nd, 2007 at 7:05 am
I have a M35-S359, it started with a white LCD screen with faint colored vertical lines. Hooked to an external CRT it works fine. I ordered a new LCD screen and found it was not the screen. I ordered a LCD video cable, found it was not the cable. So now I am at a loss. Any suggestions? Thanks
M Winters
January 21st, 2007 at 9:36 am
What a RELIEF to find this page of postings!
I have a Toshiba Satellite M35X-329, which has suffered the same extremely dark screen–you can barely see what’s on the screen. A local computer shop told me that Toshiba no longer offers FL inverters for this model; is this true?
I’ve looked everywhere on the web, and have only found a used FL inverter on Ebay: is this a good choice, or is there a really good deal on NEW FL inverters for this model, available on-line?
Tryant’s posting (above) of Oct 28th, 2006 tells of finding an FL interter Board part# K000018860 for an M35X-S349: IS THAT PART NUMBER THE SAME AS THE ONE FOR MY M35X-S329? AND IF SO, WHERE DO YOU THINK I COULD FIND ONE?
Is there a way I could look up my M35X-S329 (Part No. PSA72U-00V00U) on line, to find an FL inverter board?
Many thanks for everyone’s time and expertise!
January 11th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
Hi,
I was cleaning my dad’s LCD computer monitor and then I noticed there was a thin green Vertical line on the far right hand side of the screen. Did this happen because of the cleaning or was it just going bad? I cleaned it with some wet wipes specifically designed for monitors, but we have had them for quite a few years. So, I wonder if those wipes are only designed for those old types of monitors. If any one can help, I would greatly appreciate it!
January 1st, 2007 at 11:41 am
Darryl,
It could be either software or hardware issue. I know it sounds pretty standard and boring, but reloading the hard drive from the recovery DVD would be the best way to find out if the problem is software related. Backup all personal files and start the laptop from the recovery DVD, follow the wizard. The recovery process reloads the laptop back to factory defaults.
If you still experience the same issue even after you reimaged the drive, probably you have an issue with the video card. The video card in this model is integrated into the system board and it might be necessary to replace the whole board.
I don’t know what you mean by ‘memory conflicts”. The problem could be related to some video memory issues, but the video memory is also integrated into the system board and cannot be removed and replaced, at lease by a regular technician.
December 30th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
Screen usuallly starts with ‘lines’ or other imperfections and then, if it starts in normal mode, has an exclamation point on the NVIDIA card in Hardware Manager.
My M30 LCD screen seems to work fine in VGA mode after starting in safe mode AND after uninstalling the NVIDIA drivers. After I re-install the drivers (from the Toshiba disc) the screen is black (no faint image at all) When external monitor attached, screen works fine but neither can handle having the screen resolution cranked up.
I’ve tried other NVIDIA drivers and same problems.
Can ‘memory conflicts’ be partly responsible?
Oh yeah. I thought I had isolated the problem to the video cable and so, I replaced with one from eBay. No fix. Learned a little about laptop construction (and deconstruction)
December 15th, 2006 at 6:25 pm
I have a Toshiba M35-S359 notebook, LCD screen was white except for faint colored vertical lines, found a replacement LCD screen, put it in and I am having the same problem. I understand it must be the video cable. I have taken apart the keyboard to get to the motherboard connection of the LCD cable. But how do I disconnect the cable from the motherboard, does it lift up or sideways. Cannot find a diagram that shows me. Also how do I remove the flat black cable, does the entire top cover have to come off? Thanks.
Monty
December 6th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
Hi guys, man, am i ever grateful I stumbbled onto this site. So heres the scoop. i have a Satellite M35x 14.5in screen. the lcd cracked and i got webbing. So i know i got to replace the screen.. 2nd problem, I am having “overheating” where 1st off it IS auto shut downing.. and 2nd it also takes reaaaly long to boot up. about a month back randomly, after you turn it on, blue on switch is light but nothing is on screen. wait like 20 min,.. and fans kick in and slowly boots up. ocasionally never gets to boot up. I dont know if the problems are related.. im thinking motherboard maybe.. or just cleaning the fans. what i am primarely concerned over is changing the screen right not. I Need a new LCD screen and Circuit city wants to do it for 50$. should i get a new LCD panel for it or get the whole top with case, ect..? and where’s best prices?
November 7th, 2006 at 4:57 pm
Raturton,
Your problem doesn’t look like an inverter issue. Usually, when you have a bad inverter you cannot see image on the screen because it’s very dark (the backlight is off).
I think that you might have a failing LCD screen. Test the laptop with an external monitor and if the external video appears to be fine, the problem is somewhere inside the display panel. It could be a loose video cable but I doubt it. I think it’s just a bad screen.
November 3rd, 2006 at 6:45 am
I have a Toshiba M35X S109. My lcd has a problem as well. First, a whitewashed, vertical band on the left 20% of the screen appeared. Two weeks later, an additional whitewashed band appeared in the middle 20%. Then after another 2 weeks, a thin green line (vertical) appeared on the right side of the whitewashed band in the middle of the screen. I can still read the screen, but it’s annoying and I fear the screen will blackout entirely. Do you guys think it’s my inverter that’s the issue? If so, I will scout one out on eBay. This website appears to be a big help to others with a similar problem.
October 28th, 2006 at 8:58 am
My 18 month old satellite M35X-S349 15.4″ WXGA display suddenly went dark. It took me a while to figure out that I could see a faint image of the desktop. I called Toshiba but their “generous” one-year warranty had expired. I called a certified Toshiba repair service & was told they would charge between $40 and $80 just to look at it & it would take several weeks to get it fixed. I researched online -found out this is a common problem. Found this great website and realized the cause must be the FL Inverter Board. When pressing down on the lid close switch the back light would appear for a fraction of a second. So that eliminated the backlight as the problem. I checked out buying the FL Inverter Board new from a certified dealer -the cost would be about $90. I went to eBay & bought it new for $40 plus another $10 shipping (part# K000018860 for the 15.4″). I received it five days later. I followed the instructions here. As Alobar said above, if you just replace the FL Inverter Board you can skip steps 6, 7, and 8. For me, I did not have to do step 5. I did not need to remove the keyboard securing strip in order to remove the old FL Inverter Board. Just a tip for those who are like me and not a super genius, the two screws that hold the mask are located at the bottom of the display. The four “seals” at the top of the display are not screws and do not need to be removed. The instructions on this website are perfect. They saved me a lot of money and time. I figure it probably would have cost me more than $225 to have a professional do it -I did it myself for $50. Thanks to everyone for posting their experiences and offering their advice.
September 30th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
R,
Satellite M30/M35 is different then Satellite M35X, but steps for taking apart the display assembly will be pretty much the same. If the LCD mask has a crack, it’s not necessary replacing it. The screen should be safe even with a cracked mask.
Here’s a part number for the LCD mask for Satellite M30/M35: P000385370
September 27th, 2006 at 1:52 am
Hi, I own a Toshiba M30, similar to M35.
I have a damaged LCD Mask.
1) is replacement neccessary to protect the lcd?
2) is removal the same and if not, any differences?
Finally I need to find a replacment mask part.
My full model number is Toshiba M30:
PSM30C-0QQ31
September 26th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
My M35X S111 showed the same symptoms as described by Satish- the screen went suddenly extremely dark, only at a close look could I identify the desktop icons. I bought a new FL inverter K000019440 on Ebay for $29 and following your fantastic instruction the baby was happily working again in less than 20 minutes (and I have never opened any laptop screen before).
Please note if you only replace the FL inverter board you can skip steps 6, 7 and 8. After step 5 (you removed the keyboard securing strip) move on to step 9. On my model there was only one screw to remove. Follow step 10 and carefully remove the cables on either side of the inverter board. Put the new board in place and close the baby.
Again, thank you so much for your help – amazing how easy it can be.
July 17th, 2006 at 3:18 pm
A friend came to me with a Toshiba M35X-S349 with the same symptoms described by Satish. Hitting the lid close switch as mentioned by cj2600 resulted in the screen coming alive for a second only. Based on all that I had read online, the FL Inverter seemed like the most logical solution.
I had my friend contact Toshiba (before I cracked the machine open and voided any possible warranty), to see about a warranty repair as this seems to be a common Toshiba problem. She was unhappy with the lack of even an estimated turn around date for the repair, so, she gave me the go ahead. I ordered the part last Thursday evening and received it today. Thanks to this site, I was able to successfully, and even easily, open the laptop to get to the offending part and replace it. Once I put it back together, the laptop booted up beautifully!
So, after all my rambling, I really just wanted to say THANK YOU, cj2600!! for putting together such an easy to follow tutorial!! This site is a wonderful resource!!
~ K ~
July 4th, 2006 at 9:15 am
Satish,
Tap a few times on the lid close switch – a small white rubber pin located close to the right hinge. Sometimes when it gets stuck, you can loose the backlight.
Most likely you have a problem with the FL inverter board. FL inverter board fails much more often a backlight bulb. I cannot tell you for sure witch part is causing the problem. I usually install a test inverter to see if it fixes the problem.
July 3rd, 2006 at 4:30 pm
Need some help. I have m35x-s329, there is no display on the lcd screen. When I watch very close I can see the display but its very dim. When I connect to an external monitor that works fine. Can you help me figure out whether the FL inverter is bad or the bulb is bad.
Thanks
satish
June 4th, 2006 at 11:59 pm
Paul,
Most likely you have a failed LCD screen. The only way to fix the problem is to replace the screen (very expensive) or use the laptop with an external monitor. There is a slight chance that the problem occurs because of a bad video cable, but I’ve never seen that bad video cable causes a green hue on the screen. I would suspect the screen itself. The best way to find a replacement is to use the Toshiba part number from the screen. You can find the part number on the back of the LCD screen and it will look something like this: K000009690
There could be more then one screen compatible with your laptop. If you give me the full model name and part number for your laptop (example Satellite M35X-S1143, PSA72U-3HJ00U) I can look it up for you.
June 2nd, 2006 at 8:40 pm
I’ve heard of the M35X Satellite laptop LCD screens going black and such, however I’m having a different problem. Basically it seems as if there is a green hue over the entire screen, almost so it looks like someone messed with the color scheme such that green is more apparent. However I’ve narrowed it down to being a hardware problem by testing the laptop with a desktop monitor and it appears to work fine. Chances are that it’s not a video card problem but the screen, I’m not familiar with LCD screens and if someone could point me in the right direction with this I’d appreciate it.