The "Help Scinik Revive a Toshiba Laptop" Thread

[Scinik]

Hi all.

I'm trying to revive a non-responsive Toshiba Satellite T130D (model PST3LC-009006).

History: Screen stopped responding for the owner (<--- not me). He took it to a local service place (was still under warranty) after hooking it up to an external monitor to retrieve critical data. They got it working, but as he was walking out, the strap on the bag he had it in let go, sending bag and contents to the deck (so much for any further warranty claims :P). Hasn't booted since. No external signs of damage.

Symptoms: Battery's dead (been sitting on a shelf for a year or so), so plug in external brick, and:

-External power LED in front of mouse pad comes on, steady green.
-Battery light (same place) slowly flashes amber (not unexpected), tiny "click" sound when LED extinguishes.
-nothing else.

Push the power switch, and power LED comes on (green) then goes out (every two or three tries, there's a brief flicker from the backlight) but's that all. No other signs of life.

What I've done so far: juggled the memory cards (a 2GB and a 1GB) between the slots, all combinations tried, no luck.

So before I dig into the entrails with my rusty spoons, any hints at what I should be looking for/at?

My computer repair experience is almost completely gaming-tower related, where components can be swapped out for evaluation and testing. Can't do that with this thing. I'm not shy about trying stuff, but may need detailed explanations of whatever.

And FWIW, the "service agreement" I have with the owner absolves me of any responsibility but I would really like to get this going again (having a good "in" with the owner might open some business opportunities).

Thanks in advance for your replies.

[selldoor]

Re: The "Help Scinik Revive a Toshiba Laptop" Thread

Check the cmos battery is ok.
Does the fan start or kick at all.
Checked over boards for cracked joints.
Any beeps.

[Scinik]

Re: The "Help Scinik Revive a Toshiba Laptop" Thread

Check the cmos battery is ok.
Checked over boards for cracked joints...

I'd rather do whatever I can before opening the case, but those are on list for if/when I do.

...Does the fan start or kick at all.
Any beeps.

No signs of life at all, aside from power LED coming on briefly then going out, and a flicker of backlight every 2-3 attempts.

And thanks to admin who moved this thread to the appropriate place.

[stj]

Re: The "Help Scinik Revive a Toshiba Laptop" Thread

remove the battery and harddrive - probably both bad.

remove and then re-install any plugin stuff.
ram, wifi etc.

then see what it does.

[selldoor]

Re: The "Help Scinik Revive a Toshiba Laptop" Thread

If external probing doesnt help here is a dissassembly guide if you havent seen it.
http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptop...assembly-1.htm

[Scinik]

Re: The "Help Scinik Revive a Toshiba Laptop" Thread

If external probing doesnt help here is a dissassembly guide if you havent seen it.
http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptop...assembly-1.htm

Found that site just now, VERY useful!! Haven't even broken anything (yet).

remove the battery and harddrive - probably both bad.
remove and then re-install any plugin stuff.
ram, wifi etc.
then see what it does.

Battery registers 2.875V, is that good? No spares in that size to swap for testing.

Harddrive will get put in main PC for checking (but that'll be after dinner). I'll let you know.

Aside from those, all looks fine (and surprisingly clean) inside (Bluetooth module isn't there, I'll ask owner about that). Anything else I can check easily?

[Scinik]

Re: The "Help Scinik Revive a Toshiba Laptop" Thread

Hard drive is responding fine in my main machine.

Next step: re-assembly to check if it was just a loosened connection somewhere, or is there something else I should look at first?

Going over boards with magnifier in the meantime, but nothing obvious.

[Scinik]

Re: The "Help Scinik Revive a Toshiba Laptop" Thread

Can't find any issues with the hard drive, and even with a magnifier the boards show no cracks, scorches, burned components, etc.

The power cable input (from the brick) is pretty loose, but if power wasn
t getting in, LEDs wouldn't come on at all.

I'm stumped right now.

[Scinik]

Re: The "Help Scinik Revive a Toshiba Laptop" Thread

And now the little baggie I so carefully put all those teeny tiny screws in has disappeared... fuggit tackle it again tomorrow.

[vinceroger69]

Re: The "Help Scinik Revive a Toshiba Laptop" Thread

Can't find any issues with the hard drive, and even with a magnifier the boards show no cracks, scorches, burned components, etc.

The power cable input (from the brick) is pretty loose, but if power wasn
t getting in, LEDs wouldn't come on at all.

I'm stumped right now.

if theres bad soldered joints on this socket i guess it well could be making intermittant contact can you upload a good picture or the area where its soldered to the board. can you charge the laptop battery in another laptop or borrow one? this will eliminate the socket being bad i guess.

[selldoor]

Re: The "Help Scinik Revive a Toshiba Laptop" Thread

I am beginning to wonder if the laptop is ok and the brick is at fault?
I think we need to look close at the connector as Vince says but
perhaps more tests on the brick. What voltage does it show and if
it is 12 v can you test it with a car light bulb to see if it can maintain
12v with a load. As the battery has some charge that is good, if it has not
fallen below the voltage where will not recharge it may be good. There ae a few threads regarding re-vitalising old lithium batteries and also on the www.
Whilst they should be treated with respect it is sometimes possible to get the going by giving them a bit of a shock to start with. Will have to read up on it though.

[c_hegge]

Re: The "Help Scinik Revive a Toshiba Laptop" Thread

Have you tried powering it on without the battery installed?

[stj]

Re: The "Help Scinik Revive a Toshiba Laptop" Thread

i had a laptop once where the pin had snapped off the socket and was stuck in the plug - worth checking.

[Scinik]

Re: The "Help Scinik Revive a Toshiba Laptop" Thread

The brick (label says 19V, 3.42A, model #PA-1650-22) is putting out 19.44V (no load). The connection "looseness" I mentioned above is purely physical (the socket rattles around in the case, endemic to these according to what I've read online), the electrical connection is good.

Found the bag o' screws (I was sure I'd tossed it in the box with the rest of the bits: I had, only for it to find it's way down into a crevice where I didn't see it the first three times I looked in there :P ).

So I've reassembled it, and still no go. But, the battery LED (in the row in front of the touchpad) is now constant amber, where it was blinking on/off (about 1 Hz) before, and no backlight flicker when attempting to power up.

I think the battery's holding a charge (I left plugged in for about an hour), because with no power cord in, pressing the power button gives the same behaviour as above (but with no battery LED coming on).

Attempting to power up with no battery in: external power LED comes on, push the button, and power LED comes on for less than a second then goes out, no flicker from backlight.

[selldoor]

Re: The "Help Scinik Revive a Toshiba Laptop" Thread

Is there a led on the charger? If so does it go out when you switch the laptop on? - Maybe that is what you just said but need to clarify.

[Scinik]

Re: The "Help Scinik Revive a Toshiba Laptop" Thread

Is there a led on the charger? If so does it go out when you switch the laptop on? - Maybe that is what you just said but need to clarify.

No LED on the charger. All the LEDs I've mentioned are on the front of the laptop, below the touchpad buttons.

edit: the LED under the power button mirrors the behaviour of the power LED at the front.

[stj]

Re: The "Help Scinik Revive a Toshiba Laptop" Thread

going back to selldoor's first post,
now you stripped it - what's the condition of the cmos battery?

[selldoor]

Re: The "Help Scinik Revive a Toshiba Laptop" Thread

Pity, if it had a led it would go out indicating a short. What voltage does the battery have now? - Perhaps try to get it fully charged.

Did you see this?
http://ftp.toshiba.ca/support/isg/ts...ocid=TSB001555

[Scinik]

Re: The "Help Scinik Revive a Toshiba Laptop" Thread

Discovered the service manual for this thing online here: http://ebookbrowsee.net/portege-t130...pdf-d480569509 (despite Toshiba's best efforts at knowledge prevention, detailed here: http://doncharisma.org/2013/11/06/to...y-own-laptops/ ).

Going through the Troubleshooting Flowchart (section 2.2, p.41 of 274),

-Does the DC IN icon glow ---> Yes

-Does the BATTERY icon glow ---> Yes

Turn the Power Switch on

-Does the DC IN icon flash ---> No

-Is the Startup logo message displayed ---> No ---> Perform the Display Troubleshooting Procedure in Section 2.8 (p. 61 of 274)

I've hooked it up to a known-working monitor with both the HDMI and VGA connections (Procedure 1), no response.

Procedure 2 requires the Diagnostics disc (don't got that), so I'm going to go do something else for a bit (it's sunny outside).

[selldoor]

Re: The "Help Scinik Revive a Toshiba Laptop" Thread

OK When you get back to it can we have some pictures? Hopefully you took some when it was apart?
There are a few sites with that recall including mention that the bios upgrade to "fiX"
detects the overheating may eventually brick the machine.
Whatever you need to examine and test the inlet socket and connector to the motherboard