Taking apart Toshiba Satellite A60 or A65 laptop
Toshiba Satellite A60 and A65 used to be a very popular laptop a few years ago, many people still have these laptop. This guide will show you how to take apart these laptops.
I’ve seen many Satellites A60/A65 but it looks like all of them have very similar problems:
1. Laptop tends to overheat. In this case you can remove the keyboard and clean up the fan and heat sink with compressed air.
2. Onboard memory failure. Sorry guys, if that’s the case then you’ll have to replace the motherboard.
3. Power jack failure. This problem is fixable but you’ll have to take the whole thing apart and replace or resolder the power jack.
You can find more information about these common failures here.
January 13th, 2011 at 2:40 am
Hi there,
How can I replace the back-up battery.
Where can I find it, on the motherboard?
November 19th, 2010 at 9:18 am
Like entry #49, I too found this bushing the first time I turned the motherboard over and it fell out. It is about 1/4″ in diameter and about 1/2 inch long. I assume it helps support something when everything get screwed back together.
Any ideas as to where it goes? This is on a Toshiba A65.
I’m in the process of replacing the broken DC jack and am waiting for parts.
Great site by the way.
Thanks, for any help, Bruce
August 8th, 2010 at 10:17 am
Just a word of warning- when removing the dvd drive , be sure that you use the correct screw size when refitting (b8) as if you use a longer screw you could finish up damaging the motherboard as the screw will touch the motherboard and can short out the keyboard so that the arrow button,and some on the right hand side will no longer function.
May 15th, 2010 at 7:59 am
@Puppybarf… the problem could be the CPU fan. You can check it by removing the securing strip and lifting the keyboard (remove the 2 screws holding it in place) … no need to “detach” the keyboard. Just lift on one side (monitor side). Turn the power on and observe if the CPU fan is working. I just opened a Satellite A60 last night with the same symptom/sign as yours and I found out that the CPU fan is not working. it will not boot to protect the CPU from overheating.
April 16th, 2010 at 9:38 am
Hi everyone,
I have a question regarding a Toshiba A65-S126. I’m doing a DC Jack repair and when removing the fan cable from the motherboard, the connector broke off from the MoBo.
Soldering is possible. However, to much heat may ultimately cause a failure.
On this particular MoBo, there is only ONE cooling fan (for the heat sink and main CPU) but there are 2 connectors. From the pictures used to show how to take this unit apart, 2 cooling fans are shown (page 2, steps 12 & 13).
So here is the question…Can I use the second connector for the main CPU cooling fan? I have a disposable email address and I look forward to hearing from anyone that can help.
Thanks very much in advance,
Scott F.
March 26th, 2010 at 8:30 am
I was looking for information regarding the Equium A60 and how to take out the DVD drive to replace it. The Matshita drive failed in my old A60 which was otherwise in good working order, still with the restore discs, on Windows Home.
IF you need to replace the DVD drive on the Equium A60 you need only remove one screw with the number s8 stamped next to it on the underside of the laptop.
The Satellite a60 has 3 screws which might confuse you. But the Equium and Sat are different models!
Simply unscrew this screw and open up the drive door and pull it out. You need to unscrew the small holding plate – I used a 1.4mm flat head, (had no phillips) but be gentle.
Hope this information on the Equium a60 is useful to some.
March 25th, 2010 at 9:27 am
Dave,
check out this fix: http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2009/11/17/fix-broken-keyboard-connector-on-laptop-motherboard/
March 24th, 2010 at 3:55 am
ARRGH!
When STEP 8 says-
Disconnect the keyboard cable from the system board and remove the keyboard
************
you need to place a RED WARNING WARNING WARNING that you could easily damage and need a new motherboard…
****************
and not bury it in a “few things to know BEFORE” you dissasemble
this laptop.
at least the info is there, a tad LATE for me but hope to get the sticky tape repair to work.
MAN
that stankied
CAREFUL WITH THIS PEOPLE!!
March 20th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
Thanks a lot for this guide, really useful. I broke the clip that secures the keyboard connector in place, it’s not obvious that you need to be so careful when dismantling it. It seems to just press back into place fine though, even without the little clips.
March 8th, 2010 at 8:53 am
Hello,I want to run a game which need A128MB video card with support for Pixel shader 2.0 in my laptop Toshiba-Satellite A60 , but I receive a massage about upgarding , but I don’t know what is video card of my laptop and what should I do.
your reply is appreciated by me.thanks
January 7th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Thanks cj, I’ll try everything I can.
January 7th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Puppybarf,
This laptop has only one RAM slot. One memory module is integrated into the motherboard and it could be your problem. Onboard memory fails a lot on this model.
Here’s more help for troubleshooting problems in Satellite A60/A65 laptops:
http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2007/04/27/toshiba-satellite-a60-a65-problems/
Go through the comments. You’ll find lots of useful info.
January 7th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Hallo, thanks for well-done guide.
I’m trying to repair this Satellite A60; it came to me without power supplier, but I’ve found a compatible one and it seems to work: CC IN LED lights up and battery starts to charge.
My problem is that this notebook starts for a while, heatsink begins to rotate, all LEDs light up normally but, suddenly everything turns off after 2-3 seconds.
I’ve observed that this machine has only a free RAM slot but, I can’t see any other RAM module (I don’t know if it has been removed before)… maybe is this the problem?
Could someone help me?
January 1st, 2010 at 1:37 pm
THANKS again for all your help, a life saver. I will be making a small PayPal donation.
December 28th, 2009 at 9:13 am
Vignesh,
Most likely the drive is not connected properly to the motherboard. Try reconnecting the hard drive. Make sure it’s plugged correctly.
I’ve seen this happening on Satellite A65 laptops before. Again, make sure the hard drive is connected correctly.
December 28th, 2009 at 3:14 am
Hi guys,
Recently i removed my laptop to clean. After that i reassembled everything correctly but it says there is ‘No Drive’..I don know what to do now. How to put that hard disk can anyone tell me
December 21st, 2009 at 6:49 pm
I have most of the screws out, but the ones hidden by the DVD drive, and the ones in the battery compartment seen to be screwed in with blue locktite. The are at least 7 screws I can’t get out. Any ideas?
November 13th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Your guide dimantling the A60 laptop is excellent! my only grip is when i come to taking out the CD drive i’m not quite sure what i’m sposed to do to sucsessfully remove it. any help would be super!!! cheers.
April 14th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Allen,
In Satellite A60/A65 laptops you should use PC2700 memory modules.
April 14th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Dee, HV,
The CMOS battery is soldered to the motherboard.
You can see the battery in the disassembly guide on the step 17. It’s between the modem card and ATI chip.
January 19th, 2009 at 4:27 am
I have managed to sucecessfully dismantle my Toshiba Satellite Pro A60, BUT, the cmos battery I was told to fit it is a CR1220 size.
I cannot find WHERE on the M/bo the battery goes and the only place that looks correct, currently has a sealed item in it which looks smaller that the CR1220 battery.!
Can anyone please confirm the correct Mo/bo battery size and it’s location on the board.??
Thanks in advance
Dee
December 13th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Hi, Your instructions are quite good!
I am trying to find the CMOS battery without disassembling the whole laptop. I have gotten to step 6, and am trying to find the CMOS battery.
Thanks!
October 31st, 2008 at 12:50 am
Great website,
Totally noob at this kind of things, I have a A60 Model PSA60L series can you kindly show me how to upgrade the memory since it only have 256MB of RAM and I would like to add or replace it to around 1GB or more…
Besides that is there any chance of me knowing what type of RAM my laptop has? Because when I went to a computer shop the salesman told me first to know what type of RAM my laptop has…
Much obligued.
September 17th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
I have a good thing I have a big problem A/60 which embromo the window you put the disc that brought recupercion but I do not work, then format the disk with another window xp but I am not finish in 92 percent cut in the flow and Ashore I said he had no operating system that I ???????
September 16th, 2008 at 8:03 am
can anybody tell me what size are the 2 big screws that hold the lcd screen hinges to the laptop base please
September 11th, 2008 at 6:26 am
I have a Toshiba A60 and the DVD/CD burner isn’t working properly – it takes ages to burn a CD and when it does, I opnly hear the first few tracks clearly before a clacking sound comes in and then after a few more tracks it stops playing them altogether. What is going on? Anyone?
August 13th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Just an addendum to the Memtest thing;
The UMA IGP reserved size is 64MB and memtest doesn’t test video RAM, just system RAM, which passes without errors. However, I too have the Radeon instability which leads me to think that the on-board memory has failed but at a reserved address for IGP.
Removing the Radeon driver leads to a boot everytime and system works ok. Obviously installing the driver loads the reserved memory and causes a failure, rebooting in safe and giving the error message.
Any tools that can test the reserved area?
Oh, BIOS > ALL doesn’t work on this laptop.
August 9th, 2008 at 7:03 am
This guide is great but when I was taking apart my A65 I found a a small bushing about 1/4 inch long where does this go. Thank You
July 20th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
I was following the guide however i was stuck on the removing the DVD drive step….there are no screws.
Any hint on how to remove it? My purpose only was to clean the fan of dust.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:54 am
thanks for the guide to take apart my toshiba equium a60-181. it now sounds like new and not like an aircraft taking off! i do have a problem though, i took the dvd drive apart thinking that was the way to take it out only to have a small piece of metal and spring fall out. any chance you could put a picture or send me by email a picture of the dvd drive opened so that i know where these pieces go. many thanks again.