Unresponsive Toshiba laptop

Tenger

Hi all,

I bought my teenage son a Toshiba Satellite S55-A5279 for Christmas.

No problems whatsoever until today. Has never been dropped or banged. (We threatened him if he didn't treat is like a baby,it is to do him in College in Sept onwards)
He closed it down (as in the lid) at 12 ish. Went to use it at 5pm and found it would not start up.

The Power light is illuminated, but the light on the Power button doesn't react when pressed (or held for 30 seconds)
When a power cable is plugged in the Charging Light doesn't light up. Power jack looks absolutely fine.

If it was my own laptop (also Toshiba) I would remove the battery. However the unresponsive laptop has an internal battery. I have looked at several sites online and the recurring advice is to remove the battery and use only the power cable. Other advise involves Safe Mode and rebooting to factory settings. I cannot even get a response from the laptop,let alone get to the restart screen.

At present the Power/On light is still illuminated and has been for the last 2-3 hours.

mcw92

What do you mean by 'The Power light is illuminated, but the light on the Power button doesn't react'
As in it stays a solid colour is it?

After some googling, heres a fix for the same issue on the same laptop,

Hi, I just had the same problem. Laptop is 92 days old. Little white light in front was lit, but computer would not power-up at all. Holding power button down for 30 seconds did not resolve. I opened the back up and disconnected the battery and reconnected. Computer then started right up. A real pain so I hope this is not a frequent recurrence.

If you don't mind a little bit of messing I would try this, should only take a couple of minutes.
Should be a case of a few screws and easy enough.

Heres a video detailing it, a good few screws underneath so, then just a matter of disconnecting the Battery Connector he points to at 1min 50 seconds in. Then connect it again and put everything back in place.
No need to unscrew the battery or anything else after the case.

Overheal

Also in my retail electronics experience, teens and children *always* tell the truth about what happens to their laptops. But, the advice above is good, disconnect the internal battery lead, but I would not attempt that without first contacting Toshiba since anything you do internally may be an excuse for them to shove you out of your warranty, which this could fall under.

mcw92

Overheal wrote: »

Also in my retail electronics experience, teens and children *always* tell the truth about what happens to their laptops. But, the advice above is good, disconnect the internal battery lead, but I would not attempt that without first contacting Toshiba since anything you do internally may be an excuse for them to shove you out of your warranty, which this could fall under.

It would have warranty left alright for Toshiba to repair free of charge. But they would more than likely have it sent for 'repair' which could take a few weeks.
If there are no warranty stickers underneath the laptop to be removed or on top of the screw slots, I would defo attempt the self fix first.

Tenger

Thanks for the replies all.

mcw92 wrote: »

What do you mean by 'The Power light is illuminated, but the light on the Power button doesn't react'
As in it stays a solid colour is it?.....

I was referring to the small light on the front right of the laptop. Indicates that's is "on". Usually, when you press the power button, above right of the keyboard, it lights up or flashes quickly to indicate no battery power.

*Just checked there now and its still illuminated. That's hours now since it wouldn't turn on.

Overheal wrote: »

Also in my retail electronics experience, teens and children *always* tell the truth about what happens to their laptops. But, the advice above is good, disconnect the internal battery lead, but I would not attempt that without first contacting Toshiba since anything you do internally may be an excuse for them to shove you out of your warranty, which this could fall under.

To be fair I was with him at the time. he came in from exam and tried to power it up in the kitchen where he left it. (Now if it was 1 of the others I may not believe them) He does actually treat it really well. Possessive little OCD bollix doesn't let anyone else even touch it. (Still has plastic cover on mousepad)

mcw92 wrote: »

It would have warranty left alright for Toshiba to repair free of charge. But they would more than likely have it sent for 'repair' which could take a few weeks.
If there are no warranty stickers underneath the laptop to be removed or on top of the screw slots, I would defo attempt the self fix first.

I need to try to find the receipt. Hopefully I will. Obviously its under normal Toshiba 12 month warranty. It was bought in the USA so I didn't get specific insurance cover for it.

My own laptop has an easily disconnected battery, however this one does not. Has approx 10 screws on the back. So I would have to open it up to disconnect battery (as advised in the info I found online) This would I assume void the warranty, hence my apprehension. no stickers on any of the screws however.

mcw92

Tenger wrote: »

I need to try to find the receipt. Hopefully I will. Obviously its under normal Toshiba 12 month warranty. It was bought in the USA so I didn't get specific insurance cover for it.

My own laptop has an easily disconnected battery, however this one does not. Has approx 10 screws on the back. So I would have to open it up to disconnect battery (as advised in the info I found online) This would I assume void the warranty, hence my apprehension. no stickers on any of the screws however.

If there is no warranty stickers or etc. then the warranty would not be void if you were to open it up.
If you don't mind the possibility of having to wait for Toshiba to sent out for collection and repair and then delivery, then I would send it away.

But if you have ever opened up any sort of electronics I would attempt the battery fix yourself. Thats just my opinion, as I couldn't go too long without my laptop. :P

Overheal

usually a photograph of the receipt satisfies companies: take one and store it digitally and safe

Tenger

Thanks again for all the replies.

I was going to get my precision screwdrivers and open it up today but we* have a recovery. I looked this morning and the "power/on" light was dark. So I plugged it in an voila it showed orange on the battery/charging light. I left it charge for approx 30 minutes and it then powered up normally.

I guess it got stuck in some sort of 'loop' as it was powering down and the battery died?

Seems absolutely fine now. I have instructed him to make sure to Shut Down the laptop from now on rather than just closing the lid. Hopefully that will present a reoccurrence.

Thanks again folks.

cozski

I have a Toshiba Satellite and this exact problem has been recurring for several years. I did once take it to the PC Repair who charged me 125 euro to fix it. This worked for around 3 months and then the same problem. It's basically a problem of getting the power to the Motherboard, which the on/off button often fails to do. It's a common problem on these models and the Internet is littered with people having similar problems.

I have found now that if I just repeatedly keep pressing the button in very quick succession it eventually 'sparks' and boots up. I've been known to sit in fron of the TV doing this for over an hour. Other times it boots on first touch (but rarely). If you're within warranty you need a replacement laptop - a repair will not resolve the basic problem. If it's out of warranty I would simply keep pressing the button repeatedly until it boots, back everything externally then sell it for it's hardware.