Getting inside Toshiba Satellite P20 and P25 laptop
This guide will help you to get inside a Toshiba Satellite P20 or P25 laptop. Let me tell you guys up front that taking this beast apart is not for beginners. Lots of screws, lots of connectors.
Some basic stuff like removing the hard drive, DVD drive, both memory modules, wireless card, modem or even the cooling fans with heatsink is not difficult, because all these part can be easily accessed from the bottom of the laptop. But removing and replacing the motherboard is kinda tricky.
If the laptop overheats – clean the heatsink. Just remove the cover and blow off the cooling module with compressed air. It’s not necessary to remove the heatsink in order to clean it up. In most cases cleaning it with compressed air will help you to fix or prevent the overheating issue.
You’ll have to remove the heatsink only if you are taking the whole thing apart, replacing the processor or applying new thermal grease on the processor. Be careful. When you pull the heatsink, most likely you’ll pull the processor too. It will come out attached to the heatsink. Carefully separate the processor and install it back into the socket. Make sure you unlock the socket before inserting the processor and lock it after it is installed. It will help you to keep the processor safe.
Here’s another guide. You can use this guide for taking apart the display panel. In this guide you’ll find illustrated instructions for removing or replacing LCD screen or inverter board.
Need spare parts for your laptop? Search here by the laptop model and part name or number.
January 17th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
Hi
I have a P25-S607 which had a broken AC jack.. I took it to a repair place and after they fixed the jack, the laptop wont boot… when I press the start button, it comes on for a few seconds and you can hear the fans running, and then it just stops. The power button stays lit up but nothing comes up on the screen and none of the drive LED’s light up… I saw some other posts with this same problem when I read through… any idea what the problem could be? Motherboard? RAM? CPU?
Thanks
Dan
January 11th, 2010 at 11:22 am
I took the 2 silver screws off the hinge for the display
now I cannot get it open, even putting the screws back in
I can only open about 1 inch.
Any ideas how to get the display open?
Thanks
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:07 am
My notebook Toshiba satellite P20-771 gave me a problem with the ram of graphic Nvidia GeForce Go5700 (only 64MB instead of 128MB) and I think that a banc of ram is damaged (infact if I disinstall Graphics driver there is no problem instead if I use Nvidia Driver the computers doesn’t work and after few minutes stops himself). How can I change it?
Thanks and beg your pardon for my english.
Bye
Steeve
November 28th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Garry Cook,
Yes, it’s a different type of connector. There should be a tag on the video cable connector.
Simply lift it up by the tag.
Similar to this: http://www.insidemylaptop.com/images/Dell-Latitude-D620-LCD/remove-replace-lcd-screen-08.jpg
November 28th, 2009 at 8:36 am
I have a bad power port, and am taking my Satellite P25-S676 apart. All is well so far, but I can’t figure out how the display cable disconnects from the motherboard. It doesn’t seem to be the same type connection as the keyboard cable connector. Can you explain how to get it to release?
Thanks!
Bye the way, awesome site!
November 26th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Hi there – very useful article.
Does anyone know where I can get a HDD bay adaptor to add a second hard disk drive. I have seen them on-line but every time I try to buy one the websites say they are out of stock!?
Thanks – Dave
September 12th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Sarah,
If you are replacing just the LCD screen, it is not necessary to replace the inverter board.
September 12th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Hi, I’m trying to replace the LCD monitor and your post is really helped me a lot. But I am wondering when I replace the monitor, Should I replace inverter together? I am very confusing.. Please let me know~~ Thank you/
August 25th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
David,
I believe it’s normal for this model. The center fan starts separately from two other fans.
Laptop overheats? Try cleaning the heat sink using compressed air. It’s easy. Remove the fan cover and spray compressed air into the fans until all dust is gone. Should help.
I’ve seen many units from Iraq. Most likely it needs a good cleaning.
August 16th, 2009 at 9:02 am
My Toshiba PS25 series has recently started overheating and “locking up”. Of the three fans on the bottom only the outside two fans run for less than a minute then cycle on and off every few minutes. The center fan never runs. Is this normal operation or do I have a bad fan(s). Another PS25 I looked at seemed to have the fans run a two different speeds and ran constantly although the center fan on it never seemed to run either.(It saw some rough, dirty treatment in Iraq)
Thanks
July 10th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
I have a TOSHIBA Satellite P25-S526 that is not working well. The screen is black and only shows characters like the old DOS computers used to. It doesn’t seem to get into the graphics mode. My guess is that the video board is damaged or that the BIOS program stored on the CMOS got scrambled because of a virus or due to physical damage. My first guess will be to remove the CMOS battery for a while so the BIOS reprograms itself. Where is the CMOS battery? (to what step number of your excellent guide do I have to go?). The other set of questions is: is the graphics board integrated into the motherboard? if so I guess that the motherboard needs to be replaced. Is it worth repairing it? (I have other computers)and where can I find a reliable not expensive source of such parts? Thanks for your attention to this and let me congratulate you for your excellent work with this series of guides. They truly are a lot of help.
May 29th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Hey hi i was here earlier here is a picture of my laptop.
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj204/toxic_addictions/249516vb.png
May 29th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Hey, I have a problem i don’t know if someone can help me. i just reinstalled windows xp on my laptop P20 P25 but i can’t find the wireless driver if someone please can send me the driver will be great. Maybe if u can upload by http://www.rapidshare.com . Thank you. Or if you know some website where i can find the driver. I been looking in so many websites but it seems impossible to find this driver.Anyway here is my email carlosjalba@gmail.com I will be so thankful.
May 11th, 2009 at 8:25 am
Jamal,
Usually Toshiba prints the part number on a sticker which could be found close to the memory slots. The part number looks something like that: K000014070.
Yours could be different. Find the part number and google it.
May 11th, 2009 at 2:28 am
I have a bad motherboard (Toshiba P20E) and i need to replace it . how can i identify motherboard nr. And where I can find a good price where to buy…thanks
A lot of complements to you giving clear instructions, I found it very useful …many thanks
JK
April 17th, 2009 at 8:48 am
ENRIQUE,
Are you asking about the connector board between the optical drive and motherboard for a Satellite P20/P25 laptop? The board which connects the optical drive to the motherboard?
Here’s the part number: K000005900
Google the part number and you’ll find it.
April 16th, 2009 at 4:25 am
NEED TO GET A NEW CONNECTOR (IDE) FOR THE DVD PLAYER IT WILL NO LONGER WORK AND ONLY WILL PLAY ONLY IF I HOLD IN THE ENTIRE DISC DRIVE AT BOOT UP,WHAT PART# IS IT AND WHERE CAN I GET IT?
April 14th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
canchi,
Yep, sounds like a problem with the graphics card. Is it integrated into the motherboard? If it’s dead, you’ll have to replace the motherboard.
I would suggest getting an external IDE enclosure. The data transfer will be way easier this way.