Here we go guys. I got a lot of requests for creating this disassembly guide for a Toshiba Satellite A35 laptop and finally I got it. A lot of people still have this model and I think this guide will be very useful for many of you.
Be careful when you are removing the heatsink, most likely the processor will come out attached to the heatsink. If you are not careful you can damage contacts on the processor.
When you assembling everything back, do not forget to lock the CPU socket or the laptop will not boot. This is a very common mistake.
Also, I received a lot of question on replacing the hard dive. It’s not hard at all. All you have to do is remove the DVD drive as it shown on the step 7 and you’ll find the hard drive under the DVD drive.
| Help and support for Toshiba laptops. Disassembly instructions, tips and tricks. |
October 26th, 2007 at 11:32 am
This is a question about a Toshiba Satellite A35. The DC/ AC jack on the motherboard broke. The little pin broke on the inside of it. So I ordered the little power box for it and disassembled the laptop. Problem is, I can’t seem to get power box off. I figured I would try and soder it off and soder the new one on myself, but it seems impossible. Like you need a special tool or something. Any advice on doing this yourself kind of a thing?
November 5th, 2007 at 9:25 am
Well, so much for any advice. However I was actually able to do this myself. Out of frustration and with nothing to lose, I roughly, but with control pried off the little jack from the mother board. I actually had to do it step by step. First cutting the top metal part. I used a pliers and pinched it apart. I can think of a better way now, but that was all I could think of at the time. Then once I divided the metal casing of the jack, I moved them each back and forth and they broke off. Then I snipped the back part of the jack that goes into the mother board. Then the jack came right out. After that I had to unsolder all 5 little pieces left in the motherboard. Then I smoothed out the motherboard in preparation for the new jack. That took a little bit of time, as I used a push pin tack to make the holes bigger. Then I put the new jack in and soldered the bottoms. I should have soldered the top side part of the motherboard better, of the lone pin that comes out of the back of the jack. I actually put the laptop back together without doing this and nothing worked as it should. I also forgot to connect the two cooling fan wires into the cooling fan and that caused an uneasy panic to come over me too. The laptop would start as normal, but shut down after 5 seconds and restart again in a constant cycle. However, first I just opened the back part of the laptop where the heatsink is and put a little bit more soldering juice on the back pin of the AC/ DC jack. That actually solved the original problem and I was once again able to get electricity to my laptop. However the laptop still did the turn on and shut down cycle of which I eventually realized I just forget to plug in the two cooling fan wires back into the cooling fan. So in the end, I had to take apart my laptop all the way again, just to plug the small wires back in. Despite all that I would say that I was jumping for joy when it was all over, as I had my laptop working as it had, before the tiny little pin in the DC/ AC jack broke off. Who would of thought that a little thing like that could cause so much pain, suffering and work to fix?
April 9th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
I sent you a donation this evening because I really appreciate your instructions. I have plenty of experience in computer networking and security but do little desktop work these days.
My neighbor had the power jack problem on her laptop and asked me to look at it. I Googled the problem and came across this site.
This is a first class guide to disassembly and it worked perfectly for me. Without the guide, I could have done it, but it would have taken forever.
One tip for others - I used two plastic ice cube trays and placed the screws and parts from each step in separate and sequential cube holders. Then once I had fitted the new jack, I just went back form the last cube I placed screws in. This was an easy way to organize bits and pieces.
Again, I appreciate the time you put into the guide and the accurate instructions.
April 9th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Joe,
Thank you very much for your generous donation.
This is a great advice. When I just started fixing laptops I was using small plastic containers to keep everything organized. I’ve fixed thousands of laptops since then but I’m still using same containers.
August 7th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Need to know how to remove the hard drive
August 12th, 2008 at 5:25 am
on my Toshiba A35 replacing damaged CPU (before I read your guide)
Should a cpu labeled SL789 replace ANY other CPU with that number. There are other numbers on it that don’t match. I damaged the pins on the original while cleaning out the heat sink. Unfortunately, with the new one it still wont boot up. I have checked the “lock”. Any ideas? Could I have fried the motherboard?
Thanks in advance.