How to take apart Toshiba Satellite A300 or A305 laptop
In this guide I will be taking apart a Toshiba Satellite A305 laptop. Also this guide will work for a Satellite A300 series. Basically Satellite A300 and A305 laptops have a similar design but different names.
I start the disassembly process with removing the keyboard as it shown in steps 1-5. Be very careful with the keyboard cable connector on the motherboard. If you break this connector, you’ll have to replace the whole motherboard.
Steps 6-9 explain how to access and remove the hard drive, both memory modules and the optical drive. Fortunately, in this model both memory modules could be access from the bottom making the removal/upgrade process very simple.
In steps 10-14 I’m removing the laptop top cover assembly. By the way, both touch pad buttons are a part of the top cover. If one of the buttons feels loose, most likely the plastic bridge connecting this button to the top cover is broken. In order to fix this problem, you’ll have to replace the whole top cover assembly.
In steps 15-25 I proceed with removing the motherboard. I would like to mention that the cooling fan is mounted under the motherboard. If you would like to replace the fan, you’ll have to remove the motherboard first.
In the next post I explain the LCD screen and inverter board removal procedure.
Need spare parts for your laptop? Search here by the laptop model and part name or number.
March 5th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
It would be great if you could add a note in the disassembly tutorial of the keyboard bezel. My computer seems to differ greatly from your A305D. I have a Toshiba Satellite A300D (AMD 64bit processor and Ati Radeon 3600 card in it, bought in Canada) but there were three screws holding the bezel (I broke them) that were accessible from the battery’s place (didn’t know that until I break the bezel). Also I don’t know how to remove the keyboard plug from the motherboard since its lock is different from your model.
Is there any other way to get the nearest possible of the fan and heat-sink? (like unscrewing the parts under the machine) I don’t want to break my laptop any further.
January 30th, 2010 at 7:00 pm
I am taking apart this laptop L305D-S5895 I am trying to take out the dvd drive with no sucess I have the cover taken off but I don’t see any screws fastening the dvd rom to the laptop??
January 30th, 2010 at 1:41 am
I have a Toshiba Satellite A300 15D and I am not very happy with its performance lately. Therefore I was wondering if I can take it apart and put better CPU and stronger Graphic card say Nvidia GTX series and 2.8 or 3.0 GH processor. I was searching for the service manuals in internet but unfortunately I couldn’t find them so I can see the schematics.
January 24th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
I was ganna ask i have this laptop but the fan makes a lot of noise any ideas why? Please help
January 19th, 2010 at 9:38 am
I own a toshiba Satellite A300D 15B.
I am having trouble with USB ports located on the right hand side. When I connect a mouse (or any other USB device) the device lights on the mouse come on but the mouse pointer does not move. Windows Vista makes no attempt the locate the device and install the drivers. So I suspected a faulty USB port.
How do I replace the USB ports on a toshiba A300D 15B?
do I need to remove the Memory, Hard drive and DVD drive just to change the USB port board?
January 18th, 2010 at 9:49 pm
hello there,
I have to replace my A300 screen and found your manuals very handy. The only question I have is that about compatibility.
Is it possible to use old model’s Toshiba A70 screen for A300?
The screens are similar, 30 pins, the only different are the screen model numbers printed on a back.
January 14th, 2010 at 11:32 pm
Hi,
How to replace the bottom cover assembly with a new one?
January 3rd, 2010 at 2:16 am
hi, i have a toshiba equium a300d 13x with a second HD bay which has connectors for esata or sata i think, wanted to find out if connecting a HD would work and also where can i find a caddy cause i have searched everywhere cant seem to find one, thanx
January 2nd, 2010 at 7:11 am
Very good Site, helpfull for all of us !
There is one thing which is not explained when keyboard bezel must be removed:
1. Remove the Akkupack
2. You will see then inside >>3 little silver screws<< inside there.
!!!Remove all of them BEFORE you lift up the keyboard, the bezel will be dameged without doing this before.
Many thanks for your guide, so I was able to clean my laptop from coke inside.
Best regards, Ronnie
December 28th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Hello,
I have followed your guide in pulling apart my Toshiba A300, and I have got up to the keyboard. When I try to lift the keyboard out of the case, it seems that there is some resistance, or something that is holding it down in the center, a little to the left. The right side of the keyboard will come out of the casing slightly, but it is prevented from being removed completely by this object, or screw, or some from of retention. I have not pulled hard, as I do not particularly want to damage the computer.
Have you experienced this during your session of pulling it apart? What would you recommend I do to get past this?
Thank you,
Jason.
December 10th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
I have problem with Toshiba Satellite A305 it doen’t start right. When it starts, it starts for 3 seconds and turning off and do for 2 more times. The screen doen’t show anything. I would appreciate it if you could look into this matter.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Hello thanks for the info.
i have done all as per the procedure…but how do i get my bios cleared.
please can u give me correct directions.
i need this lap for my projects and my bro messed the bios pass up now cant do anything…3 entries for pass and if wrong the lap gets shut down..
please can you give directions on how to clear cmos
November 29th, 2009 at 5:40 am
Thx for the quick reply. Yes mine does have the 1 inch (ish)connector just like the Hd on the other side. what kind of drive could i put in there? I currently have the 289gb
thanks again
November 28th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Hello! Amazing guide with great info! I’m having two problems with 2 different models of A300d (mine and my gf’s). First, both seem to overheat like crazy as of recently but I’ll try out compressed air as you suggested to someone else earlier. The second has to do with mine specifically. My screen is flickering every now and then, especially if I move it. Even right now I have to move it around in order to make it stop. Can that be the connector? My model is an Equium A300d-13X.
November 28th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Roy p,
Yes, you can install a secondary hard drive into some Satellite A300 laptops, but not in all models.
Remove the secondary hard drive cover and take a look at the motherboard. Do you have a hard drive connector on the motherboard? If not, the secondary hard drive cannot be installed.
November 28th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Hi there, first of you have an awesome site for information.
I was curious what the second empty slot was on the bottom of the a300d? it looks very much like an additional HD location. If this is so do you have an iclination which Hd would fit in there? thanks
Roy p
November 21st, 2009 at 10:25 am
demure,
Not just the keyboard, but also you have to remove the top cover assembly.
Buy a can of compressed air or find an air compressor. Spray air into the air intake on the bottom until the dust stop coming from the side. This will remove most of the dust from the cooling fan and heat sink.