Toshiba Satellite Pro M10 and M15 instructions
You can use this guide for taking apart Toshiba Satellite Pro M10 and M15 notebooks. Both models are very similar.
Let me tell you right away, this notebooks tend to overheat because the heatsink easily gets clogged with dust and lint. Take a look at the step 4, you’ll see what I’m talking about.
Does you laptop shuts down without any warning in the middle of doing something? The fan runs full speed all the time? If yes, then check the heatsing. Most likely it’s clogged and your laptop overheats. You can easily fix this problem by removing and cleaning the heatsink.
Unfortunately, the cooling fan is these models is buried deep inside the case. If the fan went bad, you’ll have to take the whole thing apart. The fan is shown on the step 22.
Fell free to submit any comments and questions related to these models. If I know the answer, I’ll try to help you.
August 10th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
I need to get to the AC adapter port how do I do so?
August 13th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Matt,
Fortunately, in this model the AC adapter port is located on a pigtail cable and you can easily replace it without soldering. To get to the AC adapter port, you’ll have to remove the top cover as it shown on the step 21. The AC adapter port is located in the top right corner and you can see it on the picture.
August 18th, 2007 at 7:39 am
Where can find the CMOS battery for this model?
August 19th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
ToshibaFreak,
You mean where it’s located inside the laptop or where you can buy a new one?
Take a look at the step 23. The red arrow on the bottom points to the CMOS battery connector on the motherboard. Follow the cables and you’ll see the battery (on the right side).
August 21st, 2007 at 5:09 am
I need to replace r/h screen hinge the part that fixes to plate by a weld?? the weld has sheared through
Cannot see how to remove from spindle that attaches the screen.
Also do you know where I could buy replacement
Thanks for your brilliant dismantling guide
September 17th, 2007 at 10:54 am
I can’t to see the disassembly instructions on you website. Why not?
September 17th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
Gary Moeller,
That’s strange, I can see all instructions. The website works properly.
October 18th, 2007 at 12:52 am
Hi . got this laptop and it reset itself and asks for PASSWORD= on boot and is stuck there.. Toshiba want over £130 to reset password via a Response Code … any way to reset via shorting bios chip pins ?? Any Help pls .. thanks
October 20th, 2007 at 5:28 am
Hey,
I’ve taken apart this laptop a million times, and for some reason, it crashes whenever I shake it a little. I expect it’s a grounding issue. Sometimes it doesn’t even turn on (power light goes on, and nothing. If CD Drive is in bay, the CD light would stay on with the power light. The wireless light does not turn on)
Any suggestions?
October 24th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Louis,
You can try this. Take it apart to the bare minimum and leave only the following parts: motherboard, CPU and memory. Turn it on with an external monitor and see if the system is stable and will not crash. If it’s stable, start assembling it piece by piece and test after each installed part. This way you can find the part witch is causing the problem.
October 24th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Broken Toshiba,
I know that some Toshiba laptops can setup the BIOS password by themselves. What model you are asking about?
October 25th, 2007 at 5:14 am
Hi…
Model is Satellite Pro M10 any ideas as to what I can do ??? really stuck
Thanks
November 18th, 2007 at 3:59 am
Hi
I have a screen “dancing” and there is a line “green& red” all over the screen. Any idea what is the cause of this ?
Thanks 1st
January 5th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I’d have to completely remove everything just to replace the video card in my M15? My display looks perfect but at times reverts from 32 bit to 4 bit(even after updating display drivers),I’m thinking the video card is going bad?
January 17th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Hai, first of all i like to say thanks for people like you helping others with clear pictures etc. I’ve got a Toshiba Pro m10 and the screen is garbled. Even when i start up my laptop you can see in the bios that’s it is already garbled before running xp. I think it is the videoboard. Can it be that the videoboard is loose as i do not have such problems everytime. Guess to get to the videoboard i have to follows all the steps or is there a shorter way to get there. Many thanks for your reply.
Dave
January 23rd, 2008 at 1:20 am
hI,
Great tuts very well detailed, you know your game !!!
I tried (before i seen your tuts) to take my m10 apart as my screen kept flickring but if i pushed down on the keyboard the flickering would stop, so as you do, i attempted to take the lappy apart but now when i press the power switch on the screen wont go on at all, Doh, as i dont know diddley about laptops i will now follow your guide and hope that as it comes apart i might see a loose wire/connection ??.
Keep up the good work and all the for the future.
Jim.
February 18th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Hi,
I’m tring to find a parts supplier who sells the video card by itself because buying a mother board can cost as mch as a new computer. If you know, could you telll me/show me with a picture which one exactly is a video card?
April 18th, 2008 at 9:09 am
So, my daughter dropped(pushed) my M15 off an end table. Good news was it still worked except my wireless switch was broken. So my husband(engineer) husband and I looked at it and thought, “No big deal, we can fix this. We’ll just take out a couple screws and bada-bing, it will work. And why bother to back up any data, because we know what we’re doing.” WRONG!!! So not only do I have extra screws left but now when I turn it on it says “RTC battery is low or CMOS checksum is inconsistent Press[F1] key to set Date/Time.”
So I press[F1] and get the System Setup screen.
I input the correct date and time but change nothing else(since I don’t really know what any of it means). Then I hit End. It asks me if I’m sure b/c the changes will make the system reboot. I say Y. System starts to reboot then there is an Id 0 Error. Then straight to PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable; and PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel Boot Agent. Insert system disk in drive. Press and key when ready..
So my question is, do I try to take everything apart and put it back together based on the guide, do I throw in the towel and cry that the digital pictures of my children’s lives are lost forever, do I spend lots of $$ on an old laptop to have it fixed? Thanks for reading my babble.
Michelle
April 24th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Hi,
My laptop just m10 just crashed on me and i need to extract all my stuff in my c drive URGENTLY!! it says that my windows got corrupted.
any idea how i can retrieve my documents out. i cant even log on to safe mode. ive got my assignments due next week! my friend and i tried to manually remove my hard drive but we cant seem to locate it He thinks it’s hidden way inside and he doesn’t dare to further dismantle it.
your assistance will be greatly appreciated.
thanks
April 25th, 2008 at 8:01 am
Michelle,
If you set time but on next reboot you see the same message again, apparently your husband forgot to plug in the CMOS battery. If the CMOS battery is unplugged from the motherboard, the laptop will not keep BIOS settings after you turn off the laptop.
Usually you see this message over and over when the laptop “cannot see” the hard drive and it tries booting form LAN. Make sure the hard drive is plugged correctly, reconnect the hard drive. Also, you can get this message if the hard drive is dead or something is wrong with the motherboard.
No, you can try to recover your personal data using an external USB enclosure.
April 25th, 2008 at 8:10 am
joce,
You cannot find the hard drive on your Satellite Pro M10? That’s strange. You can easily access the hard drive from the door on the bottom of the laptop. All you have to do is removed a couple of screws.
After the hard drive is removed, you can use an external USB enclosure to recover all your personal files. Follow the link I posted in the comment 20.
May 27th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Hi,
Can you tell me where I can get a replacement cmos battery (two pin connector) for my Sat M10 S405?
Thanks very much
June 4th, 2008 at 4:25 am
Hi,
I need help on disassembling harman/kardon speakers on my M10. They lack low frequencies response.
Thank you.
July 14th, 2008 at 2:18 am
I had a Toshiba Satelite Comp last year and experienced nothing but trouble. I have no idea what was wrong with this machine but it would crash every time I left it standing for 5 minutes.
Now I’m a proud Mac owner and would never go back again.
Andy
August 10th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Is there a way to upgrade to USB2.0 from 1.1 on the M10? And what about upgrading from b to g on the wireless card?
Thanks!
November 7th, 2008 at 8:00 am
HI I have Toshiba M15 and when I first power it up it ask for a password, I happen to know it and enter it and it boots up & runs fine. I just want to remove the password on start up, I have tried to open the unit and pull the CMOS battery,then plug it back in same problem, is there a jumper I need to short on the motherboard, or do i need to remove it in cmos settings.If so How so i get into cmos I cant get in there either ?
Any help would be appricatted.
Thank You
January 5th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Help! I cannot turn on my m10 laptop. Weird as it was working fine.
When I conect the power lead to the laptop the ‘green’ led is on.
Now when I turn on the laptop, the same led turn ‘amber’ and flashes
The only way to stop the flashing is to disconect the power supply,
and battery. I have tried all combination(battery in/out, power in/out).
Any help will be most appreciated. Thankyou
April 14th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Bazz,
The power LED flashing “amber” usually indicates some kind of power problem on the motherboard.
April 14th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Mike Gates,
Turn on the laptop and enter the BIOS setup menu. You can clear the BIOS password in the BIOS menu.
April 14th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Cerber,
You cannot upgrade internal USB ports but you can buy and external PCMCIA card with USB 2.0 ports on it.
I think it’s possible. You’ll have to purchase a new internal Wi-Fi card which supports b and g. Read this article: Installing internal wireless card into an older laptop
May 2nd, 2009 at 7:00 pm
i have a toshiba satellite m15 -s3144 and its asking me for a hdd password what should I do?
May 3rd, 2009 at 12:38 am
roy,
You cannot recover the hard drive password. If the hard drive password is lost you’ll have to replace the drive with a new one and reinstall software from the recovery disc.
May 11th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
roy,
You’ll have to take the laptop to the authorized center. A certified technician has to call Toshiba and get the special code to unlock the laptop. That’s the only way with Satellite M10/M15 laptops. There is no jumpers on the motherboard.
Or you can replace the motherboard.
July 20th, 2009 at 2:07 am
Thank you for your excellent disassemble guide for the Toshiba Satellite Pro M10. I need to replace the cooling fan. Is there a possibility to do so after step 3 or do I have to disassemble everything to get to it from the ‘keyboard side’ (step 22)?
Thanks in advance.
Martin
July 21st, 2009 at 10:04 am
Martin,
Unfortunately not. You’ll have to go through all steps and remove the top cover assembly.
September 28th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
I have the same problem with my Toshiba Satellite Pro M15-S405. I think there is a Bios or Boot password that says Password=! Can anyone help? I really need this laptop right now going to school and all…..Thnx