المهندس: يونيو 2011

الأربعاء، 8 يونيو 2011

Tips for buying a new notebook DVD drive .

Before you upgrade or replace the DVD/CD-RW drive in your notebook, make sure that the drive you are buying is compatible with your computer. Some notebooks require an optical drive that works in cable select mode (CSEL). Some notebooks require master/slave (M/S) drives. Typically the drive is set to master or slave through a firmware flash. If the optical drive is not configured properly, it will not be detected by the BIOS or you will get IDE #1 error when you start the laptop. The best way to avoid these kinds of problems is to buy an optical drive designed for your laptop. If you plan to buy a generic drive, make sure to contact the seller and confirm that the drive will work in your computer.

In most cases you would be able to use the same connector board and DVD drive caddy (braces) from your old device. Just remove them from your old drive and install on a new drive.

Also make sure that your current plastic bezel (front panel) will fit a new optical drive. All bezels are different and very often you have to have a specific bezel for a specific drive. Do not hesitate to contact the seller and ask about the drive and the bezel computability.

How to remove BIOS password from Toshiba laptops !

You can use this plug to remove or clear the BIOS password from older Toshiba laptops. I tested the plug and it successfully cleared the BIOS password from Toshiba Satellite 1415, Satellite 1800 and Satellite Pro 6100. Using the plug you should be able to remove a BIOS password from most Pentium III Toshiba laptops and from some Pentium IV laptops. To make a password removal tool you need a DB25 plug from a parallel printer cable (cable with a plug that you can take apart), a solder gun and 30-40 minutes of your time.

Toshiba Laptop BIOS Clear Tool

Cut a DB25 connector off an old parallel printer cable and remove screws to disassemble the plug. The wires should be long enough to strip the ends and solder them.

All pins on the connector are marked from 1 to 25

and you should connect and solder together the wires from the following pins:

1+5+10

2+11

3+17

4+12

6+16

7+13

8+14

9+15

On some connectors pins 18 through 25 are already connected. If they are not connected, connect them. Do not connect a wire from pins 18-25 and a ground wire to anything, just insulate it with electrical tape and leave alone.

Carefully fold the wires, put wires inside the DB25 connector and assemble the connector.

How to use the Toshiba BIOS password removal tool: connect the plug to the parallel port on your Toshiba laptop and turn on the laptop. You should bypass the BIOS password and the laptop will boot directly to the operating system.

You can find and purchase the BIOS removal plug here. Before you buy, make sure it works with your Toshiba laptop.
UPDATE for all Toshiba owners:
Some newer Toshiba laptops can start asking for the BIOS password even if the password has never been set. This affects the following models: Satellite A100, A105, A130, A135, A200, A205, L35, M200, M205, P100, P105, P200, P205 and probably some other models.
Before you can use the laptop, the BIOS password has to be cleared.
What can you do? Read this official support bulletin for more information. In this bulletin you’ll find a full list of Toshiba laptops affected by this problem.
If you have one of these laptops and it set the BIOS password on its own, Toshiba will clear the password at no charge. Read the bulletin.

How to test a laptop or a desktop computer memory modules !

A lot of laptop and desktop computer problems are caused by a failed memory or a failing memory module. As a laptop repair technician I test memory modules every time I get a laptop for repair. I have tried many different memory testing utilities but finally I stopped on Memtest 86+. So far it is one of the best free memory test utilities and I use it everyday. You can find this utility on the Memtest 86+ homepage.

To test your memory modules you have to do next:

download Memtest 86+.

Choose Download – Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip) if you want to burn it on CD.
Choose Download – Pre-Compiled package for Floppy (DOS – Win) if you want to place the utility on a floppy disk. I usually use CD because most computers have a CD drive and it’s much faster to start the test from a CD disc.

Change the boot order on your computer to boot from a floppy drive or from a CD/DVD drive.
Insert the floppy disk or the CD disc with Memtest 86+ into the computer.
Start the computer.

If you did everything right, you computer will start from the floppy or the CD and the memory testing utility will start automatically.

If your memory passed the test, you will not see any red error messages.

I usually allow a memory module pass the test 4-5 times. I’ve seen many times that a failing memory doesn’t fail the test on the firs pass and then fails on the second or third pass.

If your memory failed the test you will see red error messages.

Why my Toshiba laptop suddenly shuts down by itself without warning?

“My Toshiba laptop suddenly shuts down by itself without any warning. Sometimes it works fine for hours, sometimes it shuts down in 10-15 minutes.” This complaint we hear from our customers over and over again. About 15-20% of all Toshiba laptops we get for repair, suffer from an overheating problem. Yep, OVERHEATING!

This is one of the most common problems with Toshiba laptops we deal with.

Indications of laptop overheating problem:

The keyboard and the bottom of your laptop are very hot when the laptop is working.
The CPU fans are working all the time at maximum rotation speed and operate much louder than before.
The laptop suddenly shuts down by itself without warning. When it just started, the laptop was shutting down after 1-2 hours and how it shuts down after 5-10 minutes of operation.
The laptop works fine when it runs idle, but shuts down as soon as you start using any memory demanding applications (DVD player, image editing software, video editing software, etc.).

Solution:

If the CPU heatsink is not clogged with dust and lint completely, you can use canned air and just blow it inside the laptop through the openings on the bottom and on the sides. It’s nice as a precaution measure, but it might not work if your laptop already has a problem and the heatsink is completely clogged.

Open the laptop case, so you can access the CPU fan and the heatsink. In some cases you can access the heatsink through the latch on the bottom of the laptop. Sometimes (for example Toshiba Satellite A70/A75) you have to open the laptop case all the way down.
Carefully disconnect the fan cables on the system board and remove the fan. If the fan makes unusual sound when it spins (grinding sound), I would recommend to replace the fan.
Clean the fan and the heatsink with compressed air.
I would also recommend removing old thermal grease from the CPU and applying new grease for better heat conductivity.

UPDATE: I just received a nice tip from MC N’Colorado. I think it could be useful for all of you with guys:

I decided to use a shop vac to suck the dust out and it worked. I tested it by letting the machine run all night and it worked. It’s been a couple of weeks now and I’m glad I did it. I was ready to take the machine apart, now I’m glad I didn’t. I’d suggest you use a heavy duty shop vac to clean out the fan and heat sinks first.

I agree. Try to fix the problem without taking the laptop apart first but I would recommend using a powerful air compressor instead of a vacuum cleaner.

If your laptop is still under warranty, you can take it to any Toshiba Authorize Service Provider and fix the problem at no charge to you.

Toshiba laptop disassembly guides with pictures and instructions.

Toshiba Satellite A15 Clogged Heatsink

Toshiba Satellite A35 Clogged Heatsink

Toshiba Satellite P15 Clogged Heatsink. Absolute champion!

Why Toshiba Tecra TE2100 laptop locks up or will not boot at all?

Why Toshiba Tecra TE2100 laptop locks up or will not boot at all?

One of our biggest customers use a lot of different Toshiba laptops and one of the models is Toshiba Tecra TE2100. We repaired many of these units and we noticed that some of them had very similar problems:

Laptop locks up when you move it or sometimes freezes by itself. The video is still on, but the acupoint (keyboard mouse) and the keyboard itself do not work anymore.
You can start the laptop, but you see CMOS (RTC) battery error on start up. After you clear the error, the laptop boots fine. After you reboot the laptop, you get the same error.
Laptop will not boot at all. There is no power or power LED blinking. There is no hard drive activity. There is no external or internal video.
When you press power button, laptop shows some activity, but there is no video on LCD screen.

At the beginning, when we just started working on this model, we tried to fix CMOS (RTC) battery error by replacing the RTC battery. Unfortunately, it didn’t help to fix the problem at all. We found that the main culprit of the problem is a poor connection between the system board and the power board (CMOS battery is connected to the power board). In some cases you can fix the problem by reseating the power board. Carefully disconnect if from the system board and connect it back. Turn on the laptop and see if it fixed your problem. If it didn’t help, most likely you have to replace the system board and the power board. Unfortunately, I cannot say exactly which one is causing the problem, the system board or the power board. The same story with laptop lock ups, try to reseat the power board.

You can fix a video problem by reseating the video card. We noticed, that over time the video board pops up from its connector on the system board and you can get video if you push it back in place.

Conclusion: before you start replacing parts, disassemble the laptop and try to fix the problem by reseating the power board and the VGA board. My disassembly guide for Toshiba Tecra TE2100 can help you to take apart the laptop.