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.
November 25th, 2009 at 7:59 am
Nikki,
The backlight bulb mounts INSIDE the LCD screen. Check out this post: http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2007/12/09/replace-laptop-backlight-ccfl-lamp/
November 25th, 2009 at 7:10 am
I replaced the inverter for my failed Backlight problem – it was not the issue, has to be the bulb. I bought a bulb… and I CANNOT FIND THE BULB inside my laptop! (Toshiba M105) I don’t get it… does anyone know WHERE it is located?!?!?!? Due to the Holiday and my lack of a Laptop when I’m not at work… would be great if anyone knows this. THANKS!
November 8th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Sounds like bad power jack.
Kurkotain Says:
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:48 pm
hello, first of all, excellent guide, helped me remove a ton of dirt and dust from the processor fan on a toshiba satellite m105 s3011 i have, but sadly it didn’t solve my problem, by the way, my m105 does this weird thing when i turned it on the other day, first it started by turning off randomly when on windows and i thought it was a thermal issue, but i got a chance to run thermal monitoring software before a shutdown and the processor was like 50c which granted, its not cool for a yonah but its not really hot either, then the laptop refused to even show a post screen, when you turn it on, the power led will stay on for maybe 5 – 10 secs and then it will turn itself off, its not a batery problem, does that when purely on ac power too, and aparently its not a thermal problem since i disassembled it and replaced the thermal paste on both the processor and chipset, cleaned the exhaust and the whole laptop, but the thing is the power led does this strange thing when you try to turn it on: the led will cycle between blue, orange and a bright blue/white and will do this until turned off, its not a memory issue, i tested it with other memory modules and in both the memory sockets i personaly think its the mobo or the processor…any help deciphering the led code please?
September 7th, 2009 at 10:41 am
Alex Daudsyah,
These cable are antennas for the wireless card. You’ll have to connect both cable to the wireless card. White cable – main connector. Black cable- auxiliary connector.
September 7th, 2009 at 10:22 am
I love this site! Awesome instructions and I was able diassembly by following all 32 steps.
I’m having problems putting everything back together in step 17.
I inadvertantly unplugged the wire from the LCD screen that goes somewhere. It is the two black/white wires with very tiny round ends. Where does this round ends plug into? I’ve looked everywhere on the motherboard and cannot plug this wire back in during assembly.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!
August 29th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Thank you so much for this guide.
It helped me remove dirt on the fan so than my old M100 computer works fine now.
July 22nd, 2009 at 12:35 pm
I followed a subset of the directions in order to get to the memory module under my keyboard. Battery out, then picking up with keyboard bezel, keyboard, memory cover.
Here’s a couple of clarifications.
1) I found that in prying off the keyboard bezel, a much better place to pry with a flat blade screwdriver is just above the top row of keys. Starting with the rightmost keys, as you depress the keys, you’ll see a spot that accepts a flat blade screwdriver. Slide it in the depression and lift and twist. Work your way to the left.
2) The instructions made me aprehensive about removing the keyboard connector (if you damage the connector, you need a new motherboard), so I tried to carefully follow them exactly as written. So please understand if it appears I’m splitting hairs.
The keyboard connector “lock” is actually a pair of locks, left and right, independent of each other. To unlock, the tabs are moved to the rear (towards the hinges), not “up” as in the instructions.
The ribbon cable moves in the same direction (toward the hinges) in disconnecting.
July 7th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Thank you for this great guide! Without it my husband would not have been able to upgrade the RAM in his laptop …
But what bright spark at Toshiba thought that having to pull a computer apart to upgrade RAM was ok?
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:48 pm
hello, first of all, excellent guide, helped me remove a ton of dirt and dust from the processor fan on a toshiba satellite m105 s3011 i have, but sadly it didn’t solve my problem, by the way, my m105 does this weird thing when i turned it on the other day, first it started by turning off randomly when on windows and i thought it was a thermal issue, but i got a chance to run thermal monitoring software before a shutdown and the processor was like 50c which granted, its not cool for a yonah but its not really hot either, then the laptop refused to even show a post screen, when you turn it on, the power led will stay on for maybe 5 – 10 secs and then it will turn itself off, its not a batery problem, does that when purely on ac power too, and aparently its not a thermal problem since i disassembled it and replaced the thermal paste on both the processor and chipset, cleaned the exhaust and the whole laptop, but the thing is the power led does this strange thing when you try to turn it on: the led will cycle between blue, orange and a bright blue/white and will do this until turned off, its not a memory issue, i tested it with other memory modules and in both the memory sockets i personaly think its the mobo or the processor…any help deciphering the led code please?
June 2nd, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Its a Satellite M105-S3041
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.