Taking apart Toshiba Satellite M105 notebook
This guide will help you to take apart a Toshiba Satellite M105 notebook. You are welcome to post any tips and comments about taking apart/fixing or upgrading this computer.
This model is very similar to any other modern Toshiba notebooks.
Hard drive, CD/DVD drive, modem, wireless card and one of the memory modules can be easily accessed from the bottom. In order to get to the second memory module, you’ll have to get under the keyboard as it shown on the steps 9-15.
In order to remove and replace the cooling fan, you’ll have to remove the motherboard. If you feel uncomfortable doing that, take your laptop to a professional repair center.
June 2nd, 2009 at 5:19 pm
my screen has turned completely red, but i can still see and use it. how can i fix the problem?
May 27th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
These are great instructions. Had my fan and heatsink replaced within 2 hours. Thank You.
May 25th, 2009 at 11:09 am
Cristian,
In a Satellite M105 the second memory slot is hidden under the keyboard. You can see the second memory slot in the disassembly guide. Take a look at the step 15.
May 25th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Hi, i have a Satellite M105-SP1031 but i can´t found the second slot for memory. Who knows where is?
May 20th, 2009 at 6:08 am
Hi, my Toshiba Satellite M105-S3041 has developed an issue where the screen dims when the screen is moved up and down or due to some vibration, there is also a buzzing noise when this happens. I have to move the screen around normally to correct it. Does this sound like I need to replace the screen inverter? or could it be the video/display cable that is faulty? or something else? It’s normally fine when there is no physical movement. Please also recommend a site to order the part from. Thanks!
May 11th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Matt J.
1. Turn off the laptop, unplug the AC adapter and remove the battery.
2. Follow steps 9-12.
May 11th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
I assume that if all I want to do it replace the keyboard, I start with step 9 and do thru step 12, then install the new by following these steps in reverse.
Or do I need to start with step 8? I also notice that in the instructions specifically for keyboard removal for another TOshiba, in the A series, it says to first remove the battery.
The latter also mentions removing some metal plate, but I assume the M105 does not have one.
So am I reading it right?
April 14th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
rita,
That could be memory related issue. Try removing memory modules one by one. Can you boot the laptop when only one module is installed? Can you boot the laptop with the second module installed into a different slot?
April 14th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Rick,
I guess the next step will be replacing the keyboard.
I guess you can wait for a few days and let it dry out. If the keyboard still not working after that, replace it with a new one.
Hopefully it’s just a bad keyboard and you haven’t damaged the motherboard because it’s possible too.
April 14th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
David,
I don’t think that your problem is related to the lid close switch. I think it’s either bad inverter (most likely) or failing backlight lamp (less likely).
If you have to guess, go with the inverter replacement first.
January 28th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
MY M105 backlight goes off and on ranomly after an hour or so or sometime longer. IT is just like when you sstart to close the screen and the backlight shutsoff just before closing. Is there a switch that turns the backlight off that might need to be cleaned that may keep the backlight on longer?
Thanks
November 16th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
To all—-
This is a great site—thank you so much (http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/Toshiba-Satellite-M105/take-apart-notebook-1.htm)
I need some advice though—-
I spilled wine on my Toshiba Satellite Laptop (model M105-S1021) last week.
I immediately doused the keyboard with isopropyl alcohol. Two days later all the keyboard came back except these keys:
J, Q, D, G, S, “, (comma)”, and ALT (left hand).
Since then I have dissembled the laptop using this site as a guide and removed the keyboard and doused again with lots of isopropyl– no effect.
I then used a Kleenex soaked with isopropyl and wet the ‘female’ connector which accepts the keyboard data cable and blew it out with ‘Dust-Off’. I did this a number of times. Next morning— no affect.
Can you please advice me on my next steps to make these keys come back alive?
Thanks very much– Rick
October 25th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
I have a toshiba satellite m105. the port on the motherboard where the cable from the lcd connects to the motherboard was scorched when something shorted out. i do not have money to replace the computer or the montherboard. is there a way to fix or replace the port?
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:48 am
I have a M305 that the DC connector seems very loose. I wanted to open this up and just check it. I have all the screws out and the DVD drive removed.
I have gotten the front part of the bezel off but the back side (screen side) seems pretty firm. Unfortunetly this model doesn’t have the screws in the back like the M105.
Any ideas?
October 19th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
“Hi..I have Toshiba Satellite M105, but I did not hear the fan on, the power led is on. How to fix it, Thank you.”
I am having the same problem. The LED for the battery and ac light up, but thats it. I changed the ram, removed HD, battery, wifi card, modem, video connection, keyboard connection and tried to start it up everytime. Nothing. Should I continue and try my luck with cleaning the heatsink? Or is this something that could be unrelated to overheating? Only other thing I could think of is the BIOS and the laptop latch. Does removing the battery clear the BIOS?
October 14th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
HELP MEEE!!!! my laptop does not go beyond the toshiba splash-screen menu and it does not even go to the BIOS menu when i press F2. I want to reset my BIOS by removing the CMOS battery for an hour and putting it back in. I dont know where the CMOS battery is situated in my M105 S3031. and i dont know if my toshiba satellite series model has a jumper to reset my BIOS.
August 25th, 2008 at 9:17 am
D.Sasivarnam,
In order to remove the keyboard you don’t have to remove any screw from the bottom.
You’ll have to:
1. Remove the keyboard bezel – plastic part above the keyboard.
2. Remove screws securing the keyboard (hidden under the bezel).
3. Disconnect the keyboard from the motherboard and remove it.
August 25th, 2008 at 9:11 am
sir, i have satalite M105 laptop its having keyboard problem, i removed all screw with as per u r websit published, but unable take out keyboard, please help me to change keyboard.
thanking you
D.sasivarnam
August 18th, 2008 at 7:33 am
CJ, I know! lol
I’ve tried scanning for viruses, synchronizing with NIST, enabling and disabling DST, changing time zones, etc. never thought about flashing BIOS though… I’m gonna give it a try. The last thing I want to do is re-install Windows, maybe repair it… sometimes is a nightmare.
Thanks for the tips!
August 18th, 2008 at 7:05 am
Carlos,
Really weird problem I’ve never seen before.
Just in case. Have you tried updating/reflashing the BIOS?
Also, that could be software related problem. Have you tried reinstalling Windows?
Try booting the laptop from Live Linux CD, Knoppix for example, it’s user friendly and looks like Windows. If your clock works fine in Knoppix, there is nothing wrong with the laptop. Probably it’s just a software issue.
August 18th, 2008 at 6:38 am
Thanks CJ, I’m actually trying to discard options for an odd problem with my system time which is: every hour the clock goes back an hour (meaning, it doesn’t move to the next one) and when that happens my wi-fi needs repair to re-gain internet connection… I think this is probably related with the CMOS battery…
August 17th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Carlos,
There is no short cut. In order to access the CMOS battery, you’ll have to go through steps 1-22. The CMOS battery is soldered to the motherboard.
Just in case. Removing the CMOS battery will not clear the BIOS password.
August 17th, 2008 at 8:53 am
In order to change the CMOS battery, do I need to go all the way down to point 26 of the guide or is there a short-cut?
Thanks!
August 11th, 2008 at 7:18 am
The screen is red but changes to normal color if I reposition the screen. However, there is still a lot of video noise. I checked the video card by connecting it to another monitor and everything is fine. Does it seem reasonable that there may be a bad connection in the cable at the motherboard? If so, do I need to disassemble the entire computer to check? I don’t want to buy a new monitor for $150 if something less expensive is to blame. Anyways, if it is a cable problem, replacing the monitor wouldn’t fix anything.
July 31st, 2008 at 10:46 am
Great manual, thank you! I used it to get to the memory module under the keyboard. I can confirm that these instructions do work for the Toshiba Tecra A6.
And for anyone else having trouble with the keyboard bezel, I also found it easier to start prying from the side of the laptop. I had been trying from the side adjoining the keyboard, but that scratched very easily and I didn’t want to push too hard. After that, it all went very smoothly. I also chose not to disconnect the keyboard. I just laid it forward since I was only opening up the memory module and that seemed to work fine.
Thanks again!
July 21st, 2008 at 5:16 am
Anyone looking to clear the Bios password…
I have had to do this also… Mine is the M105-3074 Satellie.
Found that the password did not reset the first few attemps.
Had to short the two leads of the battery soldered to the MotherBoard… Found taking apart a pain for each time I tried to short terminals…
Short-cut:
Found I coauld access the Battery without all the disassembly… By removing the screws underneath the left front corner area (around the wirless OFF/ON switch…right about where my battery is located on the motherboard), removing the hard-disk-drive, and the screws under it – holding the case halves together – it is possible to open the case enough to slide an edge of a knife in to short the two terminals, without taking unit apart any deeper. I did notice that the first few attemps of shorting the terminals might have not worked due to a possible coating of protectant on the surface. I had to use a knife to sightly scratch through the coating and everything is fine since…
SPECIAL NOTE!!!! TO ALL…
YOUR MODEL MAY BE DIFFERENT than MINE…but, most probably the battery is similarly located on MB…
ALSO!!! VERY IMPORTANT!!! READ THIS!!!
Be careful… Most probably your hard-drive is still good and intact… Once you have reset the bios password try to re-start from your hard drive before attempting any type of recovery!! MINE WORKED FINE!! and I didn’t even need to do anything in BIOS… It Was Only some kind of glitch…maybe Toshiba manufacturing knows, or caused this??
July 8th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Debra,
There is no trick. I usually pull by the cable (Toshiba says you cannot do that). Proceed on your own risk.
July 8th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
I’m stuck on the speaker cables. Is there a trick to releasing them from the connector?
Thanks again.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Debra,
You’ll have to take the whole thing apart. The cooling fan is attached to the motherboard, so it’s necessary to remove the motherboard.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
What is the minimum take apart route to get to and replace the fan in the M105? Do I only need to take apart from the top/keyboard?