5 y/o Toshiba. Self repair,repair or bin!

the keen edge

Looking for some technical advice.

My 5 year old toshiba equium a300d 13x has pretty much died:(

Last week I closed the screen down and on opening the screen back up the laptop didn't come out of sleep mode.
What I know:

• It is receiving a power supply
• The led visual indication that flashing when the hard drive is processing is now not flashing after the machine is apparently turn on.
• The screen is completly blank.

What has been suggested by a techie guy.

• The memory is probaly OK.
• The cpu may be toast.
• The motherboard may be toast

These possible faults were kindly suggested by a repair guy who has a shop in my college he suggested I bring the laptop to his main shop(in town) as he hadn't any cpu's in stock or a price list.

So I'm just wondering if it would uneconomical to replace either of these pieces of hardware in a 5 year old machine? I'd hate to replace a cpu; only to find out the motherboard is shot. Is fitting a new cpu something I could do myself?

I'd really appreciate some advice on what route to take in repairing the laptop, or should I just bite the bullet and get a new machine.
I'm a student so money is pretty tight and also I know little to nothing laptops.

If it is obviously a case that I should replace rather than repair can anyone suggest a machine for ~€400 similar to what I had.

Much thanks in advance!

bennyc

the way I normally look at these things , look on adverts and see what a working model of your laptop is going for , then see how much to repair. If you were fitting the mobo your self it will be close to 100e if your lucky . Prob 150 for someone to fit one. You could try a home brew reflow as a last resort before shelling out cash. Basically strip the mobo out and bake it for 8-10 mins @ 180 degrees. I did that on a gaming machine months ago and its working a charm since. Look up youtube videos of replacing the mobo on your machine and give it a go if you feel up to it.

U_Fig

if it turns out to be the motherboard you could try find a second hand one and replace it but it's a big job and could cost up to €200 in a repair shop...

if its the CPU depending on whether it's soldered into place or not you may not be able to replace it without the whole motherboard.....and again may not be cheap..

for a 5 year old machine if it's gonna cost more than €100 I'd strip out the working parts of the old one sell them and put the money towards a new Laptop depending on your needs you could get a good one for between 300 - 500 that'd do for browsing but i'd be inclined to go a bit higher for a more powerful machine that will be useful for longer

machiavellianme

For a 5 year old AMD turion x2, I'd be inclined to bin it and get a more modern machine anyway. Its not worth putting anymore money into that one.

zenno

the keen edge wrote: »

Looking for some technical advice.

My 5 year old toshiba equium a300d 13x has pretty much died:(

Last week I closed the screen down and on opening the screen back up the laptop didn't come out of sleep mode.
What I know:

• It is receiving a power supply
• The led visual indication that flashing when the hard drive is processing is now not flashing after the machine is apparently turn on.
• The screen is completly blank.

What has been suggested by a techie guy.

• The memory is probaly OK.
• The cpu may be toast.
• The motherboard may be toast

These possible faults were kindly suggested by a repair guy who has a shop in my college he suggested I bring the laptop to his main shop(in town) as he hadn't any cpu's in stock or a price list.

So I'm just wondering if it would uneconomical to replace either of these pieces of hardware in a 5 year old machine? I'd hate to replace a cpu; only to find out the motherboard is shot. Is fitting a new cpu something I could do myself?

I'd really appreciate some advice on what route to take in repairing the laptop, or should I just bite the bullet and get a new machine.
I'm a student so money is pretty tight and also I know little to nothing laptops.

If it is obviously a case that I should replace rather than repair can anyone suggest a machine for ~€400 similar to what I had.

Much thanks in advance!

The techie also forgot to say that it could be the GPU that has failed as when the on-board GPU fails the laptop will not load up and you will get no monitor output so it could be the GPU that is the problem. The cpu rarely fails.

Usually adding an extra copper heat-sink to the GPU can fix this problem.

If it is the GPU then i wouldn't bin it as it is an easy job to fix.

Lardy

I'm just about to put a Toshiba Equium on Adverts if you're looking for parts. Has no HDD or RAM, but everything else is working perfectly.

Cork24

Toshiba laptops do come with problems, the biggest problem that Toshiba face is the Cooling System.

seen that your laptop is 5years old i would say that the Cooling System is after going, causing the CPU to over Heat,

to protect the CPU from damage the computer would shut it self off, leading to your computer dying or Dead..

New Toshiba products, have seen better results with their Cooling systems
Taken into account the age of the laptop and the value of it now i would say bin the Laptop and buy a new one make sure you take the Hard Drives out before you do

What you Could do is take the Screen out the RAM and the CPU and sell them and people may be looking for them as parts.

Or you could pay for a new Cooling system and replace it with the old one. But the problem with this route is it can be very hard to get your hands on a System that Toishba use's unlike DELL where parts are easy to come buy Toshiba can be hard to get. Cost me 180 euros the last time for a charger. so i could just image how much it would cost for a Cooling System.

the keen edge

Lardy: Thanks, but I dont think I need the parts you have.

Cork24: True, overheating has actually been I problem with this very laptop, I use to have unexpected shutdowns, blue screens and all that craic; however I left the machine in to get a full internal clean out about 4 months ago and according to the techie there was a lot of lint and dust surrounding the fan.
After this service the machine worked like a dream and continued to do so up until last week.

I could well imagine that it is possible that some type of excessive heat induced damage to hardware may of occurred prior to this internal cleaning; but despite my limited technical knowledge I doubt some major fault occurred last week causing the machine to die. I cant really give you a more technical critique of your suggestion other than it doesn't fit in with what I perceive as the historic record of faults with this machine, if you get what I trying to say!

Zenno, I think that I may mention this suggest to the techie repair.
Just for clarity are you saying to replace the old GPU with a new GPU and see if the machine will then reboot.

Thanks for all the replies guys!

zenno

the keen edge wrote: »

Lardy: Thanks, but I dont think I need the parts you have.

Cork24: True, overheating has actually been I problem with this very laptop, I use to have unexpected shutdowns, blue screens and all that craic; however I left the machine in to get a full internal clean out about 4 months ago and according to the techie there was a lot of lint and dust surrounding the fan.
After this service the machine worked like a dream and continued to do so up until last week.

I could well imagine that it is possible that some type of excessive heat induced damage to hardware may of occurred prior to this internal cleaning; but despite my limited technical knowledge I doubt some major fault occurred last week causing the machine to die. I cant really give you a more technical critique of your suggestion other than it doesn't fit in with what I perceive as the historic record of faults with this machine, if you get what I trying to say!

Zenno, I think that I may mention this suggest to the techie repair.
Just for clarity are you saying to replace the old GPU with a new GPU and see if the machine will then reboot.

Thanks for all the replies guys!

As far as i know, the GPU chip is soldered onto the mobo and cannot be changed for a new one.

There is a fix for this GPU problem but that would require you to take the laptop apart, then disconnect the CPU fan connector cable and power on the laptop and leave it on until it overheats and it will shut down automatically after around 20 to 30 minutes or less then you need to cut and shape a home-made heat-sink from a sheet of copper and add new silver compound to the GPU & CPU chip and original heat-sink and that would work but that is only if the problem is the GPU.

You would need to over-heat the GPU and then let it cool down for 20 minutes and connect back the fan connector cable and power on to see if it works, if it does power on after doing this then you know it is the GPU.

Most people take out the mobo and stick it in the oven and cook it for a few minutes but the quickest way of testing the GPU is to disconnect the CPU fan which keeps the CPU & GPU chips cool and let it over-heat. all CPU processors have a temperature cutoff threshold when it reaches a certain temp so there is no damage to the chip.

Let the techie know about the GPU as i would say it is this rather than the CPU that has failed.

Cork24

The Problem would still be OverHeating,

The Tech only clean the dust off the fans etc.

If you look at how a Cooling System Works on a Laptop..

Inside the Metal Rods, you have Wires of Coil inside that you have water. as the system heats up the water turns into vapor and that vapor moves along the coil, as it hits the fan it cools down and turns back into Water, this is would be a cycle of a cooling system over time, coils inside the metal rods could break due to heat.

The Terminal heat Glue that you would see that sticks to the CPU and onto the Cooling System can Crack causing the computer to over heat and shut down..

The Clean of the Dust off the computer only prolonged the issue not fix it head on.. by cleaning the dust off may have extend the time before it started to over heat, you only notice how well it worked.


Trust me i have seen all the different cause's that overheating can do to computers. and the sign of overheating.. blue screen of Death is one sign, bad Memory Issue Error code is another. The XP Label on the end of the computer is another if that's burned

the keen edge

zenno wrote: »

As far as i know, the GPU chip is soldered onto the mobo and cannot be changed for a new one.

There is a fix for this GPU problem but that would require you to take the laptop apart, then disconnect the CPU fan connector cable and power on the laptop and leave it on until it overheats and it will shut down automatically after around 20 to 30 minutes or less then you need to cut and shape a home-made heat-sink from a sheet of copper and add new silver compound to the GPU & CPU chip and original heat-sink and that would work but that is only if the problem is the GPU.

You would need to over-heat the GPU and then let it cool down for 20 minutes and connect back the fan connector cable and power on to see if it works, if it does power on after doing this then you know it is the GPU.

Most people take out the mobo and stick it in the oven and cook it for a few minutes but the quickest way of testing the GPU is to disconnect the CPU fan which keeps the CPU & GPU chips cool and let it over-heat. all CPU processors have a temperature cutoff threshold when it reaches a certain temp so there is no damage to the chip.

Let the techie know about the GPU as i would say it is this rather than the CPU that has failed.

Is what you're describing a reflow? And is the purpose of a reflow applying heat to re-solder circuitry?

Regarding the purpose of the copper, is it fitted to effectively provide a bath heat sink paste around the existing GPU?

So is the aim of the procedure you describe to re-establish circuitry contacts and then protect the existing GPU from future overheating events by the installation of our home made copper heat sink.

zenno

the keen edge wrote: »

Is what you're describing a reflow? And is the purpose of a reflow applying heat to re-solder circuitry?

Regarding the purpose of the copper, is it fitted to effectively provide a bath heat sink paste around the existing GPU?

So is the aim of the procedure you describe to re-establish circuitry contacts and then protect the existing GPU from future overheating events by the installation of our home made copper heat sink.

Is what you're describing a reflow? And is the purpose of a reflow applying heat to re-solder circuitry?

No. What i mean is... when you over-heat the CPU/GPU by means of force-overheating by disconnecting the CPU/GPU fan, the heat liquifies the solder so all connections are made again to the components on chip. What you mean is a re-ball or like you say 'a reflow', but you could go for a re-flow/re-ball if you wanted but adding an extra copper heat-sink after new compound is added can permanently fix this issue anyway, but as was said, that is only if it is the GPU which i'd say it is.

And is the purpose of a reflow applying heat to re-solder circuitry?

Yes this is the case.

Regarding the purpose of the copper, is it fitted to effectively provide a bath heat sink paste around the existing GPU?

The added copper heat-sink is just added to dissipate any heat giving a helping hand to the main heat-sink, also most laptop heat-sinks have a direct copper connection to the CPU, but only a metal connection to the GPU which is not good. So by adding the extra copper heat-sink to this GPU chip gives it better heat dissipation and good cooling.

I have fixed many laptops that had this GPU problem and always went with added heat-sink and these laptops are still running well. But a re-ball or re-flow is just as good if not better so the main thing to do is try and get the techie to test the GPU just to see if that is the cause of your problem firstly.

So is the aim of the procedure you describe to re-establish circuitry contacts and then protect the existing GPU from future overheating events by the installation of our home made copper heat sink.

Yes, this is exactly what it is..To re-establish circuitry contacts and to protect the GPU from overheating in future. The added thin copper heat-sink imo does the job fine but a re-ball/re-flow would fix it as well.

PS: Also if the laptop was over-heating before this problem occurred then you might want to tell the techie as well about the innards of the fan as there could be a block of solidified hardened fluff blocking the intake of cool air to the heat-sink grate... http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=82627420#post82627420

the keen edge

Thanks for all the advice Zenno, I've learnt a lot.

TBH I think that the whole repair may be outside the range of my skills, removing the battery is about as deep I've gotten inside the guts of a laptop.
In addition this procedure may be only the beginning of a long and frustrating repair job. I have visions of throwing a collection of dismantled laptop components into the bin!

The machine is five years old in the last couple of years I have noticed some display flickering when the screen is moved back and forth, say when correcting the viewing angle. It hasn't been getting progressively worst, however it's more than likely another awaiting repair job!

zenno

the keen edge wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice Zenno, I've learnt a lot.

TBH I think that the whole repair may be outside the range of my skills, removing the battery is about as deep I've gotten inside the guts of a laptop.
In addition this procedure may be only the beginning of a long and frustrating repair job. I have visions of throwing a collection of dismantled laptop components into the bin!

The machine is five years old in the last couple of years I have noticed some display flickering when the screen is moved back and forth, say when correcting the viewing angle. It hasn't been getting progressively worst, however it's more than likely another awaiting repair job!

Ah it's old but like everything else if it's well maintained and cleaned from the inside out it can last another 5 years but not to worry as a job re-balling or fixing it with extra heat-sinks would be costly anyway unless a person could do it themselves.

Maybe time for a nice new core i7 16gb ram gtx graphics card, sounds good. Sure laptops are not that expensive nowadays and you can get some very nice laptops with great spec for not much.

HelpWithIT

Just quickly read through this post but to state the obvious, did you try taking out battery, removing power cord and leave for about 30 secs, press power button to drain any residual current left in machine and then reinsert battery and connect power cord and test?

the keen edge

RepairMyPC wrote: »

Just quickly read through this post but to state the obvious, did you try taking out battery, removing power cord and leave for about 30 secs, press power button to drain any residual current left in machine and then reinsert battery and connect power cord and test?

Actually I did! Saw some geezer last night on youtube doing just that, it didn't work.