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Step 18Chew a Hole in Your Computer
My Toshiba Satellite M35X - S161 laptop has a weak power connector.
They all do. The solder joints crack and then your battery doesn't charge and the computer stops working. I disassembled the computer and re-soldered it but it didn't stay fixed. So I took a pair of side-cutters (wire cutting nippers) and carefully cut the case away all around the connector.
Then I reflowed the solder on the connector pins with a soldering iron. I put a piece of tape over the hole so as to not short anything out.
This laptop has another weird lockup mode, where it beeps three times and doesn't boot up. The screen is blank. To fix that you remove the battery and memory simms and then plug them back in again.
The two problems get confused due to some similar symptoms, so I was always wiggling the power connector to see if that was the problem, which made the connector problem worse.
Before long I was re-soldering it every day. Fortunately for the hole I'd chewed around it, that was easy. Eventually I unsoldered the connector completely and ran a couple of wires from the circuitboard connector pads to the connector, and wrapped everything with tape.
That finally solved the problem.
By coincidence, the memory startup problem quit happening at the same time.
These dead Toshiba laptops would be cheap to buy and most likely these are the two problems they'd have. Enjoy!
They all do. The solder joints crack and then your battery doesn't charge and the computer stops working. I disassembled the computer and re-soldered it but it didn't stay fixed. So I took a pair of side-cutters (wire cutting nippers) and carefully cut the case away all around the connector.
Then I reflowed the solder on the connector pins with a soldering iron. I put a piece of tape over the hole so as to not short anything out.
This laptop has another weird lockup mode, where it beeps three times and doesn't boot up. The screen is blank. To fix that you remove the battery and memory simms and then plug them back in again.
The two problems get confused due to some similar symptoms, so I was always wiggling the power connector to see if that was the problem, which made the connector problem worse.
Before long I was re-soldering it every day. Fortunately for the hole I'd chewed around it, that was easy. Eventually I unsoldered the connector completely and ran a couple of wires from the circuitboard connector pads to the connector, and wrapped everything with tape.
That finally solved the problem.
By coincidence, the memory startup problem quit happening at the same time.
These dead Toshiba laptops would be cheap to buy and most likely these are the two problems they'd have. Enjoy!
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Jul 25, 2010. 11:16 PMjaydenthorup
says:
3 beeps comes from the power on self test POST. http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000996.htm
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Jul 30, 2009. 12:58 PMmcclelland1469
says:
Another idea that works well for this is to take a small piece of speaker wire and solder one end to the back of the power connector, and the other to the opposite side of the board. Makes for a weird shock absorber, a little cheap but it definitely works if your like me and really hard on your toys.
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