Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100 notebook. How to remove and replace system board, power board and video board.
Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100 disassembly guide will help you completely take apart the notebook to remove and replace the system board, the power board and the video board. Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100 notebook has some known problems very similar to Toshiba Tecra TE2100. Overtime the video card pops up from the connector on the system board causing unpredictable video problems. If you experience a video problem try to press on the video board so it makes a better connection with the system board. Also you can experience a problem with starting the laptop. When you press on the power button the laptop will not start and the power LED flashes orange. Most of the time it happens because of a poor connection between the power board and the system board. In some cased you can fix the problem by reseating the power board. If reseating the board doesn’t help then the system board and the power board has to be replaced. One more problem – you can get the CMOS (RTC) battery error each time you turn on the laptop. If replacing the battery doesn’t fix the problem then it might be also caused a bad connection between the power board and the system board. Try to reseat the power board.
May 8th, 2007 at 11:32 am
I need help!!! This website is great, but no one has been able to help me yet. Here is my story. I bought a Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100 2nd hand, and was suppose to be in good working order before shipment. When I received it, it would power up fine, but the screen was so dim it could hardly be seen. I plugged this to an external monitor and it worked great. I ended up replacing the inverter and the LCD screen to try to fix this problem but the screen is still very very dim. If you take a flashlight and look into the screen you can see it perfectly…..please, anyone…can anyone help????
April 22nd, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Can anyboday tell details on how to remove the keyboard from the video card? I feel the ribbon cable is too fragile. Should I just pull the ribbon cable or lift it up? Does the beige plastic go with the cable? The beige plastic seems locked by two black plactics each side. Thanks!
April 16th, 2007 at 9:00 am
I do computer repair since 3 years so today i reload an opereting system for a toshiba A 100 the computer was working fin after i finsh to reload it thne my sister just close the cover with out shut it down after when i turn it on the screen becomes black i see the computer on but the screen is black after i try to connect it on an external screeen it still black so remove the screen to test it to another toshiba A100 the screen is working good
April 9th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
Thank you Thank you Thank you!
My Toshiba 6100 (4 years old) was intermitantly powering off without warning, and the power led would flash orange 8 times….long short short short long long short long. Taking out both batteries and allowing to reset to 30 seconds worked at first. But after about a week of this nonsense the laptop was just dead (except for the blinking).
So I followed your excellent directions and photos, removed the top case, and reseated the video and the power board. UP AND RUNNING! (I think it was the video board reseat that did it, the power board seemed to be fully seated).
I think the flexing of the case over time and the heating/cooling causes the video card to work its way off the socket.
Replacing the 2 connections to the Wifi on reassembly was a bit tricky. A short cut might be to leave the 2 antenna wires connected tot he Wifi card and just release the Wifi card from its slot. (Be careful not to strain the antenna wires.)
Thank you for an excellent web site. -A
April 6th, 2007 at 7:51 am
I bought my 6100S when I wasn on holiday in the US in April 2003, lives in Ghana, have had to change CPU 3 times because of flashing orange led.Eventauuly learn that deactivate habitaion or stopping Laptop from going into hibernation was the solution to my problem.And now that I need my laptop most, another problem has come up, screen going blacke with all the light incators showing working.Any help.
Sam
March 23rd, 2007 at 4:41 am
Thank you Thank you Thank you.
I have several 6100s and one just got the flashing orange LED. I found your site and called Toshiba and they extended my warrenty to June 07. They sent me to a local repair center and should have it fixed in a day. I was going to strip this laptop down for parts now I will have it fixed for free. Thanks again.
March 10th, 2007 at 5:17 am
I replace the connectors on power board and the mainboard.(Reflow of pins on long connectors also.Long connectors dont suffer from thermal expansion.)The small connector on power board and mainboard expand with heat and mechanical stress.I use Hirose High Temp reinforced connectors.
February 22nd, 2007 at 12:11 am
Hi everyone!
I have a powerproblem with my Toshiba Satellite P20. It seems that the power connection on the computer is bad, for some reason, (maybe the motherboard). It will work fine with the battery, but now the battery is almost dead. How can i attache the AC/DC to the battery pins inside the computer, or how can i recharge the battery with my AC/DC? Greatful for all help.
January 24th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
I have a Satellite Toshiba Pro 6100, i spilled water on it. I quickly dried it but now it can’t find the hard disk ,i plugged this hard disk in usb it’s healthy but when i put it back the laptop can’t find it …
what should i do ?
January 16th, 2007 at 5:17 am
If you do not have a bluetooth card, then the brown cable will remain free. Just make sure to tape it inside the box where normaly the bluetooth card goes. Otherwise it might get caught into the vent of the PRo6100.
Regards
electrochain
January 14th, 2007 at 10:54 am
I am in a bind.The brown cable with connector on it. From the pictures it shows this cables routing down to bluetooth compartment on back. Does it need connected somewere? I cannot find a post to connect it to. And I have no wireless signal
Thanks for your time
January 10th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Adis:
If you just need to replace the TFT screen (and use the old VGA ribbon cable), you just have to open the TFT bezel. There is a total of 8 hidden screws that you have to open first to gain access to the inside. 3 screws are on each side of the screen (the top one is covered with a plastic filling, the middle and bottom one with a adhesive sticker. You need to loosen them on both sides (left and right of the screen bezel)
Now you need to uncover the round adhesive in the front of the bezel (left and right of the Toshiba logo) and loosen the two screws.
Once you have done this, you are very close to gain access to the inside.
Squeeze a thin object (i.e. Telephone- or a credit card) between the plastic on the right side of the screen and open the cover slowly with some force. Remember to push thetiny grey switch aside when you proceed to the top of the screen.
The lower part of the screen plastics will pop out easier if you have the display as open as it gets.
Now you have full access to the inside, just pull the ribbon on the back of your TFT display downwards and unplug the jack from the FL inverter located on the bottom side.
You will see, it’s harder to describe the procedure with words, than actualy seeing it on a picture.
Just be aware, if you replace a TFT with a resolution of lets say 1024×768 with a 1600×1200 (yes, it’s possible), then you will need to replace the ribbon cable too. They are NOT compatible. In this case, you need to unscrew the whole Laptop.
Regards
electrochain
January 7th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Hi
I have a Satellite Toshiba Pro 6100, and recently water spilled on it. I quickly dried off what I could and disasmbled it drying out all the pices, though the motherboard it self was WET. I plugged in the power cable a week later and orange light blinked booted up and had the “Bad RTC and Check sum error” and sound as it failed and shutoff.
When I dissambled the laptop and resembled it a few days later I poped in the AC jack and the laptop wouldnt boot up, sounding like there was no POWER being sent to laptop, I checked all the connections, and even the one on the motherboard near the heatsync, re placed them all were fit in their sockets and yet no cigar.
So my question is what should I do now? Is this a power port issue or the issue on the mother board? Thanks.
January 7th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Thank you Cynthia.
I have a Satellite Pro 6100 that worked perfectly until about three months ago, and things just started going wrong with it. Quickly (over the course of two months or so) it deteriorated more and more, until finally just before Christmas I got the infamous Blinking Orange Power LED. Based on your comment, I called Toshiba and they extended my warranty until 6/30/07. My original warranty ended October of 2004, so I had planned on turning it into a paperweight. Your post prompted me to Call Toshiba (something I wasn’t considering beforehand), and ended up with a warranty extension and my laptop fixed for free.
January 7th, 2007 at 11:47 am
Hello,
I have the Toshiba 6100, I followed this great guide for disasembling it becuase I got that orange light blinking error, the laptop booted checksum RTC error, and shutdown.
However after I opened the toshiba upreconnceted the power cable inside connecting to motherboard and fired the laptop up again it got now power.
Any suggestion?
January 6th, 2007 at 3:11 am
Hello,
I have Satellite Pro 6100 and want to replace just the LCD because it’s bad, is there simpler directions how to do this, or do I have to take apart the whole laptop?
THX
January 3rd, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Can anyone explain in great detail the different types of cable connectors and how to remove them. The flat ribbon ones are self-evident and been explained here, but I have an assortment of tiny white and black jacks that do not want to come out and because there are so small damage is possible. There is a right way, but it isn’t explaiend and I do not seem to find the answer anywhere.
Maybe these things have a little catch or tab that I need to push/pull and cannot see.
Please help – this would be a great addition to this page.
Thanks
January 1st, 2007 at 11:46 am
Tomson,
There is no simple answer to this question. If the RTC battery is actually BAD then yes, replacing the battery will fix the problem. If you are getting this message because some connection issues between the power board/motherboard, then probably not. I hope it helps.
December 30th, 2006 at 8:38 am
I had the message “Bad RTC and Check sum error” for at least one year on my SP6100. Two weeks ago I got the famous orange blinking led. After reheating the connection to the powerboard my SP6100 is up and running again
Do you think that replacing the battery will solve the “Bad RTC and Check sum error”?
December 11th, 2006 at 5:45 pm
Hi,
I have a Satellite Toshiba Pro 6100, when i plug the AC adapter it show yellow led on but whenever i try press to power on then the led light will turn orange (blinking). Any idea whats happen? For your info, the battery no longer working and has been taken out.
December 5th, 2006 at 1:17 am
Hi there, How far do I need to go to replace the TFT panel?
I have two SP6100’s here, one with a duff base unit and one with a duff monitor.
Im planning on swapping the lcd panels to produce a working laptop.
Do I need to fully strip it, and then some?
Keep up the good work.
Interested in Tecra M5 disassembly
November 27th, 2006 at 2:20 pm
I just called on my Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100 laptop, to the Toshiba Customer Service Center 800-457-7777. They told me that my Toshiba laptop has a warrantee that has been extended for an additional year, because of some issues that the line of laptops has had. They are sending me a box for UPS shipment to their repair depot, and intend to resolve the issues for me. Besides the RTC battery error you are getting, I have had trouble getting the PC to boot and power down properly. It sometimes hangs at the Toshiba logo screen, or takes a really long time to power off.
October 30th, 2006 at 4:45 am
I am hvaing trouble with my soundcard on my satellite pro 6100. There is no sound coming from it and it does not show up on device to sayn that there is any hardware. However this is not consistant as the sound comes and goes. Originally I thought it was to do with the XP service pack 2 but having removed the SP it has not resolved the issue. Does anyone thin it could be the hardware and if so what is the easiest way to get to it. i don’t want to take the laptop apart anymore than I need to.
THANKS
October 5th, 2006 at 7:58 am
i am reparing laptop for 2 years i have faced many problem and fixed them but some time fail to fix that due to un availabilty of parts. i have toshiba pro 6100 and have problem with powerboard and graphic board when i pressed both the laptop worked properly and when i shutdown the laptop for 5 to 6 hours again it will give same error want to start but onece give green light flash and atonce orange light bigun to flash. i resold connecter many times and have put paking to give the pressure powerboard, system baord as wel as to vga board. sugguest me what to do.
September 30th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
Lindsay,
I think it would be enough just removing the keyboard. As you see on the step 10, you get some access to the cooling fan and you can clean it with compressed air.
September 24th, 2006 at 5:16 am
I have a toshiba 6100 where the HD runs very hot. I have recently replace the original HD, which has helped a little but it still reaches 60 degrees Celcius under prolonged load. I would like to try cleaning the fans etc as the laptop is quite old.
How much do I need to take apart to do this? Just the keyboard, or do I need to take the whole top off?
Do you have any tips for servicing to help the air flow inside the laptop?
August 14th, 2006 at 7:42 pm
Zac,
This problem can occur because of a bad connection between the power board and the motherboard. Sometimes it’s possible to fix the problem if you reseat the power board (CRT battery is connected to this board). Disconnect the power board from the motherboard and connect it back. If it doesn’t help, then most likely the connector itself is bad but I cannot say on witch side. It might be a faulty connector on the power board or a faulty connector on the motherboard. If we repair Satellite 6100 with this problem under warranty, we usually replace both boards. I hope it helps.
August 14th, 2006 at 7:08 am
my toshiba satellite pro always hang with no apparent reason. giving me RTC bad battery and F1 check sum error whenever reoot. I have reformatted the disk but still having the same problem. then I thought its the batter problem. so I took out the battery and using the direct current.. but problem still exists. what are parts should i look into? thanks
July 10th, 2006 at 11:09 am
Hey El,
I’m not sure if you would be able to find these instructions. All keyboards are different. Even though you have all key parts, sometimes it’s hard to figure out how to put them back but it’s possible. So, here’s what I usually do when one key pops off. I carefully remove another key, so I can see how it’s connected to the base. Be careful, remove just the key (the part with letter on it) so legs stay in place and you can see how it’s assembled. Now find necessary parts for each key and put them back in place.
It’s worth trying. Even if you remove one more key and cannot put it back, I don’t think it’ll make a big difference for you.
July 9th, 2006 at 5:16 pm
Five of the keys on my Toshiba Satellite Pro 6000 series have popped off. I have all the parts and I need instructions on how to put them back on.
I have managed to put all the little parts together, now I can’t figure out how to install them so I can put the keytop back on.
Thanks