My Toshiba Satellite A105 turns on (power button glows) with battery or AC power, but monitor shows no image at all
I just bought a Toshiba A105 – S1712 notebook computer used (almost new) from a friend three days ago. This is my first notebook computer.
Today something very strange happened (I’m terribly sad about it). Let me describe the steps to repro what happened:
1 – Machine was working fine.
2 – Started machine to see a DVD movie, but used the power button instead of Internet/CD/DVD button
3 – While WindowsXP was starting up I pressed the power button and hold until machine turned off. (Forced power off)
4 – Machine powered off
5 – Pressed the Internet/CD/DVD buttonFrom this time on the machine seems just dead. It turns on (power button glows) with battery or AC power, but monitor shows no image at all.
If I either turn on using the Internet/CD/DVD button or the power button, the same happens, machine seems to turn on (power button lights), but it does not even get to BIOS screen.
Do you have any idea on what may be happening? HELP ME please!!
Is there any way (any key to press while powering on?) to reset all BIOS data for this computer?
When you turn it on, do you hear any activity? Motors start working, fan spinning, etc…? Try to connect an external monitor and start the laptop. Check if you can get any video on the external monitor. If the external monitor is dead too, try to remove the battery and start the laptop from the AC adapter. It also might be a bad memory module or a bad connection between the memory and the motherboard. Try to reseat the memory module, move it to the second slot. If you have two memory modules, try to remove them one by one and turn on the laptop. Also, try to remove the hard drive and see if you can boot it to Toshiba screen without the hard drive installed.
There is no special button to reseat the BIOS settings. To do it, you’ll have to access the BIOS using F2 button on the laptop start up, but as you have no video, you cannot access the BIOS and set it to defaults.
I think this laptop is still under Toshiba warranty, so if you cannot figure out what’s wrong, call them and let them fix it.
June 4th, 2009 at 8:20 am
Hello, I bought a brand new toshiba laptop, i spilt literally like 3 drops of water on the laptop keyboard, went to rubb it all off rubbed all the keys down, then the laptop turned off, when i try to turn it on its a black screen, i tryed taking out the battery putting it back in, when i go to start it it starts up and lights go on and will stay running till battery dies…. Any ideaS? I was wondering if there was a combo of buttons i pushed to turn screen off… ive been looking for the right button but icant find.
May 3rd, 2009 at 6:53 pm
I have a Toshiba Satellite A105 S2236 laptop and the other day I took it to a repair store to get some work done. I brought it home yesterday and it turned on, but nothing showed up, so I had a friend take a look. He found that a black colored wire in the base of the computer underneath the keyboard was dislodged and was unable to put it back. is there an easy way to correct this so I don’t have to shell out more money for repairs?
March 31st, 2009 at 9:34 am
hi guys back to the toshibas, i have a toshiba uquium a200 1v0. it overheated due to the fan being in the most turd place ever. now when i power it on i get the power light, battery light and power cord light but no boot. a similar thing happened once before but it had just went into hibernation. i tried all the tips from the above thread and nothing worked. can some one please help??
the fan spins at a low RPM, i get the three lights described above and thats it. i get no boot, no visuals, no nothing.
March 16th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Rick – Thank you for the advice. I will try all of those things. May have to do like some of the posts say and start with a bare bones unit and work from there. Let me know if you come up with anything else. I’m willing to try anything at this point.
March 16th, 2009 at 3:22 am
Q I just bought a Toshiba A105 – S1712 notebook computer used (almost new) from a friend three days ago. This is my first notebook computer
A Did you read Rick Johnsens’ 4 posts about a105 dor switch switch? on this thread -January 2nd, 2009 at 8:56 am
Randys – Question,–Windows is loading files”, the bar on the bottom goes all the way across, but then the computer just restarts and does it again, and again, and again, forever. I have tried telling the computer specifically to boot fom the CD drive but it still just does the same thing
I presume you check boot order in set up, it’s over my head but some guess’s–bad memory or slot, bad or corupt bios chip – try to flash it, processor overheated, bad or try to re-seat it, bad Hard drive from store
March 13th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
I recently recieved a broken Satellite A105-S2712 from a friend. It had no hard drive so I got one for it. I also bought a Windows XP disc to install the OS. When I turn it on with or without the Win XP disc inserted it says “Windows is loading files”, the bar on the bottom goes all the way across, but then the computer just restarts and does it again, and again, and again, forever. I have tried telling the computer specifically to boot fom the CD drive but it still just does the same thing. Any suggestions and/or ideas will be greatly appreciated.
January 18th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Oh and also swapped the ram to a different slot. which was also no good.
January 18th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
I am having a problem with my toshiba satellitea135-s2276 trying to fix for a friend and I tried booting with battery , with just battery no backlight the laptop monitor is black.. no go on the external monitor either. Also tired without HDD no toshiba screen. Another hint that i cant figure out is that the cd tray light stays on and wont open without using a paper clip of course no dvd/cd in there. fans running fine. Stuck any help at all appreciated I think maybe the mobo just guessing though.
January 7th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Glad to help – thought it was magnetitic switch, but glad the ram slot move worked
January 7th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Just to let you know, I figured out what was wrong with the MB. The
second RAM socket was bad, and the customer needed the laptop back in
a hurry. So I doubled the RAM size by just going to one stick.
January 3rd, 2009 at 6:56 am
Rick, will give that a shot when I get back to the shop on Monday, thanks. Will post if any results.
Laptop Freak, sorry, forgot to mention that I took each piece of hardware off one at a time until I was down to the MB, PS and switch. So without any posibilty of grounding, it still loops. I even tried another PS from another Toshiba unit. So I’ll try Rick’s idea and get back with you guys. Thanks.
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:17 am
i ment tap\whack on the underside bottom of lap –corner under where right palm rests, i held mine in the air upright/door open
the magnet is in upper right top corner of the monitor
thats why you tap the switch with the door open then try rebboot even before closing it, to check repair and know if it re-sticks again later
it may be a faulty switch and tap in won’t reset it.
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:56 am
it’s probally the magnetic door switch that turns off/on monitor, mine did exaly the same-even the loop.
it won’t boot unless the switch is working-even a external monitor, read my post a105 door switch or un plug/open screen/rap-wack on bottom right corner-where your right palm rests with lap in normal orientation-up right, it released my stuck magnitic monitor switch and works fine for 8 months
alot of people bump it while replacing other stuff and don’t even know that the bumping released the switch and that’s what really fixed it – go figure
only othe problem i’ve had was blue screen of death at boot caused by bad memory slot — just move memoty to other slot–fixed
January 1st, 2009 at 11:42 pm
Shoreline,
Sounds like a nightmare unit.
Assemble the barebone system (mobo, CPU, RAM) outside the laptop box. Connect an external monitor and start the system. If you have two CPUs, two motherboards and extra memory, you should find a combination that works. When you find it, start adding other components (HDD, DVD drive, Wi-Fi card, etc…) one by one while the laptop is still assembled outside the box. This way you can find a faulty component.
December 30th, 2008 at 9:38 am
I have a customer who brought in a Toshiba A105-S2051. When you turn on the laptop, it starts for about 2-3 seconds, then loops like that 6 times and stops. No video, so plugged in external monitor, still loops. Disconnected laptop video cable in case of short, still loops. Replaced RAM with new RAM, still loops. Checked for voltage on PS, getting correct voltage. Tried to start with/without battery, still loops. Replaced CPU, still loops. Ordered new MB, assembled, still loops. I’m stumped. Any ideas??
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Musab,
Could be bad memory. Try removing memory modules one by one. Test the laptop with each memory module separately.
If the laptop fails the same way even when you run it with each memory module separately, most likely there is a problem with the motherboard.
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:52 pm
tom Andrews,
By the blue bar you mean the Windows bar?
You have to press F2 or F12 as soon as you see Toshiba logo on the screen, not when Windows starts loading. Can you?
December 22nd, 2008 at 5:45 pm
I have a toshiba satellite a105-s1712. I try to put it on and it just starts up with the power light glowing, but it doesn’t do anything else, the monitor does not display any image at all, the hard drive light does not blink at all. Can somebody please help me.
December 17th, 2008 at 8:10 am
I have a Toshiba A105. When I start up my computer it goes to the “In touch With tommorow TOSHIBA” screen. The blue bar loads 3/4 and then stops. It just stays there. F2 and F12 won’t work. Any ideas???
Thanks
November 8th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Well, do I feel like a dummy…
I’ve got the system running fine, now, thanks to your help in this forum…
The memory stick was not “in far enough” or wasn’t seated properly.
That is now fixed and the laptop is installing the restore CD now.
AND it has been running non-stop for over 40 minutes; so the overheating issue as also been fixed.
YEA! or as my younger son says “WOOT!”
Thank you again for all your information….
From now on, asklaptopfreaks will be my first stop on troublshooting additional laptops.
BTW additional info — The external display wouldn’t work before, now it also works fine.
topbarhive
November 8th, 2008 at 7:17 am
I have recieved a Toshiba Satellite A105-S2101, from a friend to fix (it was in need of a “factory re-install).
I put in the CD (yes, she had saved the re-install CD) and started the install, I had the restore program restore to “factory fresh”, while the program was reformating the hard drive, the laptop shut down. OK so it also has a overheating problem… So I cleanned the fins with canned air (BTW, lots of dust bunnies hopped out of the fan grill), I tried the restore CD again, and the laptop shutdown within 5-10 minutes. So I figured I’d open the case and clean out the fan area, followed the directions to open the case, etc (from a link on this site.) BTW, I’ve been able to tear down laptops before and get them running again. The fan area had a dust bunny convention. Cleanned it out, and proceeded to put the machine back together again. When I was done, there is no image on the LCD (not even a ghost image). I checked the video cable by the hinge mobo connector (it was “backwards”) fixed it and still no display (no ghost image). The LEDs for the power and the HD do come on, the LED for the DVD/CD drives come on (then goes off — no disk in the drive at this time). I don’t feel the hard drive working (it was in the middle of a format when the machine powered down) so there is no OS…
What should I do at this point? (the customer has been notifed–she is NOT happy! go figure!).
Thanks for all the help in this forum.
topbarhive
October 17th, 2008 at 10:35 am
sigh* i have an a105-s4254. the display pixelized then turned black while I was doing some work. prior to that, I would have a hard time turning it on – only the lights on the wifi switch and DVD drive (both on the right side) would light up. so I would take out the battery and the AC adapter, then try to boot up. anyway, I tried W.Earp’s advice but didn’t achieve any results. I tried connecting the unit to an external monitor – no display either. is it time for board level repair?
thanks so much.
October 11th, 2008 at 7:51 am
Thank you so much very valuable info.
October 11th, 2008 at 7:14 am
I was working on a Toshiba Satellite A105-S4284 for a friend. It had been dropped from a couch to the floor and the screen was only displaying white backlight. I tried an external monitor and it worked. I initially checked the connection on the MB for the display and visually looked at the connection on the back of the LCD. The LCD connection was being supported by tape and from what I could see it looked good. None of this helped the situation.
I then found this site and decided to take a second look at the taped connection. After removing the tape I was able to see that the connection was slightly dislodged. I reseated this and placed new tape over the connection. Everything is now working correctly. Thanks for the help.
Billy
October 4th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Well Mr. Freak (Monitor Info)
Great site!
Hope this helps some of your readers
On my A-105, I tried ALL of your tests, and got lucy with my last idea, that you just mentioned.
My Toshibia, would try to boot/restart about 4 times and give up, no monitor, so I resherched where the (screen closed) switch is.
it’s a magnet under the top right corner of the screen. It raises the switch — turns off the monitor and/or turns the laptop off (if that what in is told to do in power options) —
Uhe SWITCH is under the right palm rest!
So I whacked it, with the screen open, under the switch (on the bottom), to (JIGGLE/reverse the throw, and it’s working great now!
Hope, it was just STUCK and not a connector/solder!
What do you think?
Keep up your helping us, THANKS, Rich.
July 15th, 2008 at 4:02 am
Guys, please please help me…
I’ve got Toshiba A 105- S4211.
3 weeks ago, all of sudden from nowhere, there appeared a password on the BIOS system of my laptop. After doing a week research on internet, I found out how to bypass this password: I took the laptop a part and used jumpers method) it worked fine. I recovered the whole system using recovery disk.
The Toshiba Co. has admitted that the old bios system for the models alike mine has some fault thus they produced new BIOS system and recommended to flash (update) the current ones.
So, I found a new BIOS and downloaded from Toshiba’s web site.
While upgrading the BIOS within Windows, the text box saying “please wait” appeared and stayed there for about 2 hours. I left it as it is, and left, the battery was there, and AC power was also connected.
I was aware what could happen if power goes off while upgrading BIOS.
When I come back the laptop was off. I couldn’t turn it on because, neither battery nor the AC power was available.
Later on, using AC power, I turned on, but, all I get was blue power on button, blank screen (nothing on it), some sounds of CPU (or it’s fan) and that;s it.
I realized the power went off during the BIOS flash… and I have no idea of what to do.
I created auto-run CD of the BIOS and run it on CD-Rom but it didn’t work.
I connected desktop monitor to the laptop, it stays blank anyway.
I have been using the laptop for almost 2 years, and my warranty program is over.
Please, please, help me!
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:24 pm
I have a satellite a105 and for some reason windows xp will start to load and then the computer will go into a restart. WOnt boot in safe mode or anything else. Just restarts itself. HELP!!!
May 26th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
I bought Toshiba A105-S4094.On start,the screen is black,and after few gentle hits on the both sides of the LCD shows,but flashing and has diferent colours than normal.Friend gave me A105-S2712-they look identical.I swoped the invertors-did’t help.I want to swop the LCD,but I fail to find instructions how to do this.So far i just know how to open the LCD.
Please help.Thanks in advance.
April 23rd, 2008 at 3:52 pm
To see if your screen truly is out, just remove the HDRVIVE and turn it on to load bios. You may then see if it looks normal. if so, you may have a bad HD or other components. reseat the RAM modules, and try again.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Hello, I have a Satellite A105-S2091 that is dead in the water. Nothing on the screen, fan not running, nothing… The only light illuminated is the light for when I plugged the AC adapter in. I have tried with and without the battery. Nothing..
I would like to know if it’s the motherboard or CPU. Please help. Thanx.