Laptop shut down by itself while working. Since then it is dead and doesn’t power up.
My Toshiba laptop shut down by itself while working. All light indicators were out. clicking the power button did not help. After few minutes, I pressed the power button, the laptop came on but shut down again after few moment. Since then it is dead and does not power up. Any idea what could be the problem?
Test the power adapter first. Plug the adapter into the laptop and check if the power LED lights up. If the LED is still off, most likely the adapter is bad. Here’s my guess. The power adapter died while you were working on the laptop. After that the laptop worked for a while until the battery got discharged and finally shut down. The laptop will not power up anymore because you have a dead adapter and empty battery. Find a voltmeter and test if the adapter puts out any power at all.
February 9th, 2010 at 4:34 am
I have a Acer Travelmate 5730, I was using it and it shut itself off. I since then have managed to get it on long enough to reformat it, afraid that it could have been a virus. It didn’t help. I cannot turn it on at all today. The AC cord is plugged in, the battery light stays lit up. I push the power button, it lights up, along with an icon with a lightbulb(guessing the power)…the fan runs for a second, shuts off and then so does the laptop. Less than 2 seconds the machine stays on. Any suggestions?
September 18th, 2009 at 10:58 am
Hello I need help, and am not sure how to post a question on here. I spilled about 2 lbs of water on my bed and my laptop was right in the middle of the water. As soon as the water touched my laptop it immediatly shut down and wouldn’t comr back on. I took my sisters hear dryer and dried off as much as I could and it still wouldn’t turn back on. I unscrewed the 2 bottom peices and dried them out as well. I’m not sure how to open my laptop or check if there’s any more water in it. If someone can help please e-mail me at jadenduelist@yahoo.com. By the way my laptop is an IBM Think Pad.
August 22nd, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Retrieving dead laptops that have faulty power circuits
I was a satisfied owner of a Qosmio G35-AV650 until after about two years service the mains power light went off and the unit continue to run until the battery ran flat. After that point the machine would not run at all other than with a charged battery, which of course one can no longer obtain.
I had my unit tested by three different repair people and they all stated that a replacement motherboard would be required(which would be expensive) and the unit was not worth repairing as one could obtain similar performance at much less cost with a new unit. I thought this was a bit rough considering the unit is only two years old and retail pricing at that time was about $6000) but I did purchase a replacement (Toshiba A200) which offers much the same performance at a considerably lower cost (and lack many of the bells and whistles.
The solution: a Mains-powered battery unit
I got to thinking about the problem a few days ago and the essence of the solution is based on the fact that the unit can still run from a charged battery. As I saw it, if one could adapt a battery pack by removing the actual batteries while retaining the internal circuitry and then provide DC power to the appropriate points in the circuits (using the original AC/DC power supply) there was a possibility it could work. Incidentally, this technique might well work for other brands of laptop provided they are exhibiting a similar fault in the power supply system,
I realised of course that the catch was in the phrase the appropriate circuit points, which might have been difficult to determine. However, after carefully separating the batteries at their attachment points on the internal circuit board and metal circuit straps, it turned out to be fairly straightforward.
Shown below in Fig.1 is a photograph of the first mains battery that I built which was actually overdeveloped in that it had 2 DC power supplies coming in: I thought I had found an intermediate takeoff in the middle of the battery chain and it seemed possible that this might be vital to some monitoring function. When tested without the secondary power supply unit it functioned perfectly, so this element is redundant and can be omitted. The following figure (Fig.2) shows the wiring harness out of its enclosure so that the connections are clearly evident.
Fig.1 The Mains-Battery cell
Fig.2 Circuit wiring
Procedure
• Carefully separate the two halves of the battery casing using a sharp knife or screwdriver and endeavour to preserve the integrity of the two parts so that they can later be glued together.
• Detach the batteries from the wiring harness taking great care to ensure that the harness itself is not damaged in the process. This step requires the use of a soldering iron with reasonable heat capacity so that the solder in the joints can be melted sufficiently to enable the attachments to be levered off.
• Prepare the input DC power lines by cutting off the plug that normally fits into the rear of the computer and preparing one set of positive and negative connections. The power supply can then be connected into the circuit either via a connection block or by direct linkage into the circuit. The positive input links with the resistor on the end of a chain of components and the negative input links with the terminal located at the base of the circuit board (see Figs.2-3).
• To ensure that the components do not get damaged subsequent to assembly, I recommend lining the base of the battery casing either with double sided adhesive tape or non-conductive foam plastic.
• Finally, reassemble the battery casing with the necessary amounts of either superglue or PVC cement and modify the battery holder sufficiently to permit the cable to exit on the underside of the computer.
Fig.3 Circuit board
If all is gone well, you may then experience the delight I felt when I plugged the battery case into the computer and the power source into the wall and saw a blue light appear awhen I pressed the start button.
I hope this solution worked for you, but if it fails please remember that I was unable to provide any guarantees other than the fact that I built two of these cells for a Qosmio G35-AV650 and they both worked.
Good luck!
Tony Holland-Batt
PS I see that pictures are not accepted in this document, so if any fellow sufferers out there who would like full copies of the article, feel free to contact me at my e-mail address are provide them.
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:29 am
my toshiba was shutting off due to over heating so i did my best to keep it cool. Now this last time it shut off i cant get it to stay on for more then a few sec. it lights up showing that it is plugged in and charging but when i turn it on it starts fine then shuts off. all the lights flicker for a few min. then go out. i have to take out the battery and put it back in to get the lights back on. do you think it could be the battery? or something else. wana know be4 i spend a 120 dollars for a new one
April 16th, 2009 at 11:38 am
I have a Toshiba a135 With the battery only it will do nothing. When you plug in the a/c power the blue power on led just blinks. no sounds when you try to turn on the computer by the switch just blinking blue led a/c power indicator.
April 11th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
I have same issue as many above with Tosh Sat A100
PSAANA-04E005 – was a great laptop , just outside warranty ,( 3 months ) battery had been working fine – Laptop was charging Ok , all systems normal . UNTIL !! – Battery power message was displayed ( whilst plugged in ! ) and eventually laptop turned off . That was the last I iver had the laptop going . Charger is OK – tested at shop & and have Flashing Orange LED 10 times , but no boot . Seems like a bad motherboard power controller chip . I have traced power from the jack point while p[lugged in , via fuses & inducttors on the Mboard , that eventually go to what is described as a Power controller IC ..this IC is used to charge the Battery and control the powerflow to the rest of the PC . Its a universal IC , that is programmed in the factory to be used for what ever battery type / and or voltage / cells etc used on various models today . EVEN IF , I get a new IC , its a BLANK IC , and woint be programmed to suit the TOSH A100 . Sadly I feel that the Warranty conditions on laptops are just not acceptable for the price you pay for the hardware ! Im major pissed off about the failure of this A100 – it was and is a fantastic performer when it was powered up . The cost of the motherboard is at least 550 – 600$ NZ . It should be $100 for the reliability that people are getting . Toshiba I feel are not what they used to be – ive used them for years , and feel this time ive been ripped of big time .
March 10th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
i tried to fix a friend’s tecra 2100 which has blinking power led.when i was putting it back together conector from vga to lcd got “accidently” came off….
any idea how i soldered it back with a regular soldering iron. or should i gave it to the pro
March 1st, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Emma,
It’s either a bad battery or motherboard. Try replacing the battery first.
February 28th, 2009 at 12:14 am
My dell computer isnt working properly. The battery simbol on the bottom claims that its plugged in but not charging. Unfortunately, whenever I pull the charger out, my laptop immediatly shuts down.
Help please and thanks.
February 20th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Laptop Freak,
My Toashiba Satellite A100 was running hot for several weeks, but nothing dangerous.
One day, it decided not to turn on. No LEDs flashing or anything, without the power supply.
With the power supply connected, even after charging for hours, the battery LED flashes 10 times, but still fails to turn on.
Any help would be great! Thanks
February 1st, 2009 at 6:27 am
I have a toshiba laptop it was upgraded on line from service pack 1 to service pack 2. However i was not anble to update it on required expire date now it still not update yet . How do i go about updating on line when its due date expired? Please i really need your assistance.
January 31st, 2009 at 2:35 am
I have a Gateway MT6840. I was using it yesterday in the office. It was even playing music while working on it. It was running on battery. Then, when i decided to plug it instead, it suddenly shut down on its own. I think it sparked for a second. I could not power it up even when plugged in, without the battery. No lights are coming on. What do you think happened? The laptop was still functional until yesterday. I always put it on Hibernate Mode. The battery life has diminished over the past 1 year and 3 months so I’m using the adapter now more often for power. Is my laptop still “save-able”? Is the hard drive damaged already? I’m really worried. I have a lot of files on the hard drive. HELP! Did my laptop just short-circuited? What should be done? It really can’t power up any way that I know of. Hope you can shed some light or give advice. Thank you.
Paige
January 29th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
My toshiba laptop has the same problem.
But I find my problem—it’s overheat because the fan doesn’t work nicely
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:24 am
an video image appears on the screen of my pc at the time of getting it started or shut it down. I want to delete that image. Please advise.
December 16th, 2008 at 9:11 am
I´m not sure what the problem is…I believe I may have fried something in it with a power surge or something. Anyway, I´m in Peru right now where the voltage is 220, my transformer on the power supply is rated from 120-240, so I plugged it in without the voltage converter box (converts the 220 current to the US current of 115), only using a surge protector (probably my first mistake).
The weird thing is, that it will still turn on, whether connected to the power supply or not, but when I get to my login screen to enter my password, it shuts down at the same point each time…when I hit the ´p´ key, which incidentially is part of my password. Now I can let it sit there for 30 minutes and it will sit on the login screen, but every time I hit the `p` key on my keyboard, it instantly shuts down.
Frankly, I´m completely stumped and I personally have no idea how to solve the problem. I know it´s very odd and I doubt I can find much help until I get back home next month, but I figured I´d give it a shot in here to see if anybody has ever had a similar problem. Any insight is greatly appreciated. Thanks guys, hope somebody can help
October 7th, 2008 at 3:24 am
Hi. The unsubscribe link in emails is not working. It returns a 404 page. Please unsubscribe me from any future mailings. Thanks
October 6th, 2008 at 11:36 am
hi my sons advent 7108 packed up took it to pc world and was told the motherboard was no good.we was using it one night and turned it of as normal.next day went to turn it on and there was nothing .managed to get motherboard of ebay (new)?fitted motherboard and switched it on i have no display and the fan doesnt work.the dvd rom makes a noise and the power lights are on.i have checked the fan with 6v battery and that works fine just wondered if the new motherboard is faulty as it has 30 day warranty.i have tryed taken memory/hard drive/dvd rom/out but still nothing is it motherboard or somyhing else?
October 5th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
hello everyone, my english is not so good but hope u will understand me. I have toshiba satellite pro a100 (PSAASE) and few weeks ago power button just lost function. Laptop works as well, everything work normaly but I need to start laptop on media-player button or internet explorer button. When laptop get warm then power button work but when he’s cold button don’t work. There is a problem with led too. Blue led when laptop is on sometime working normaly but sometime doesn’t work and orange led doesn’t work at all.
I would appriciate any sugestion. Thanks!!!
August 10th, 2008 at 2:01 am
Hello,
I have a similar issue regarding a Toshiba Qosmio (G35 AV600). I plug the battery in and let it charge, but when I turn it on and do something more intensive like a game, the laptop works fine for about 25 minutes then the display starts switching from a lower to higher brightness. The LED lights for the AC and the battery blink both, in unison to the display. After blinking for around half a minute the whole computer shuts off with no LEDs on. Then if I turn on the computer again. It is a mix of different symptoms, from the same screen brightness problem to the blinking LEDs.
I recreated the situation again to see if it would happen again and the computer reacted differently. The game was shut off when the LEDs started flashing and I got back to my desktop. The computer then made a click sound as if my hard drives had been turned off. The AC and Power lights were still on but the display was black. Then the fans turned on really high.
I don’t know what the problem is and can really use some help.
July 18th, 2008 at 1:50 am
Hi Laptopfreak,
Very same issue as Harry. Mine is a Toshiba A100 PSAA9H.
Noticed 2 weeks ago battery wasnt charging even though plugged in. Battery was full so spent a few minutes investigating why it wasnt showing the AC power icon, or usual LED. Adapter was tested fine. Shutdown laptop normally and then havent been able to use it since. Orange LED flashed when attept to turn on. With Battery or AC or both.
Brought to repair shop, they say needs new motherboard, which costs too much. When I took it back from them now no LED work flash, just dead. Checked they hadnt left something disconnected which they havent.
So same idea as Harry, How can I update Bios if the device wont turn on. do I need a time machine for this one?
Can the Chip be powered and Bios be updated by toshiba??
June 12th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Hi laptopfreak,
even if i get the bios update i wont be able to load it as I cant even power on the laptop
All i get is the flashing orange led on the battery LED
June 12th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Harry,
On some Satellite A100/A105 laptops Toshiba addressed this issue in the BIOS update. Hopefully, your laptop is one of those. Go to the Toshiba website and search for the latest version of the BIOS. Update the BIOS on your laptop if needed.
June 12th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Not sure if you need this but model number is PSAA9A-118038
June 12th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
I have a toshiba satellite a100 series. Basically what i noticed was when the battery went low to 5% it ask me to recharge it. I plugged in the ac adaptor and this seem to power it up and kept it on for hours and hours but the battery sign would not show it was charging which left me a bit worried.
Here is my dilema though, I turned off the laptop and had a look i removed the battery from the laptop just out of curiosity and this seemed ok. I tried to turn on the laptop after that but all i would get is the flashing orange LED by the battery icon. I put on the ac adaptor and it does the same thing also, all it does with the ac adaptor when plugged in is doesnt show on any lights on the LED, to even show its connected or powering up.
By this time i was out of patience, so i took it to a friend of mine to get looked at and this is what he said.
—————
I have used another Toshiba power supply in replace of your one, with same voltage and silmilar power capability, which did not fix the problem (Still flashing orange light after ~5mins of chargin?). Also i have tested your toshiba power seperately and it is definately working fine.
As for the input jack on the laptop, I have tested it with a multimeter, whatever power you put thru the jack, it goes to the motherboard, hence there is nothing wrong with the jack. However once it gets to the board, it gets very complicated and it is very hard to trace where the power is going/gone and where it ends up etc… due to complex design and I am unfamiliar of how the circuitry works.
All i could do is check for obvious faults on electrical components which could be tested. i.e Diode, Caps, Inductors etc.
However is not able to check any IC as there is no way of tell if they are operating correctly or not using simple equipment such as multimeter.
When i assembled it back together, the orange light was still flashing, once power button is pushed.
——————————
So now im just basically stuck as to what else I should do???
May 30th, 2008 at 8:38 am
We had a problem with our M65 not powering up, after we had to get a new power supply/plug because the original from Toshiba broke. The wattage of the adapter was to much, we got a Targus that said it would work for our laptop, but it didn’t. After we ordered the right one, it works fine now. Also, for those of you that have problems with your system restarting…SP3 has caused this problem with 2 of our home PCs, a hotfix/patch came out after and it works fine after we restarted the system in Safe Mode and looked on Microsoft for a new patch. I really hope this helps.
Good luck
May 29th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Hello
I have a Toshiba Satellite A50 laptop that will powers up for a few seconds and then shuts down. The laptop will literally be on for no more than 20 seconds and then it will shut down totally. There is no problem with the adapter, nor is there problems with the battery, but the laptop will not remain on. I have taken it to a technician (I am currently living in Honduras) and he has tested the power supplies and the cooling fan and is sure that these aren’t the cause of the problem. I have read on the internet the Toshiba laptops have common overheating problems that causes the laptop to shut down, but the processor doesn’t even have a chance to get hot before my laptop shuts off. Is this a problem that you have encountered before with Satelitte A50′s?
Do you have any idea what might be causing this to happen? Could it still be the cooling fan, or is it something more severe?
If you would like more details about the problem, please let me know. And if you happen to know what might be causing this, please help me out. Thank you
Chris
May 28th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Hi Laptop Freak,
Normally I don’t work much on laptops. I do some minor upgrading Didn’t see this issue in your past posts, or any where for that matter. I inherited a HP 2100, (2188CL), and was impressed with the toughness of the unit. I upgraded it to an 80 gig hard drive, 1 gig ram, and left the AMD CPU in it. I have two batteries for it. I have tested the charger, which has the correct amperage, and voltage. On a full charge, the batteries run for about 30 min, Windows tells me the batteries are low, machine shuts down. If I restart the machine, the batteries work great for another hour and a half, minimum. Machine dies, I immediately reboot, and it works for the full time the batteries should run it. Both of them. I recharged and tried this same sequence of events several times, to verify the issue. CPU is running cool, ram is good, hard drive checks out. I put Windows in desktop mode, so it wouldn’t go into standby or be shut down by the ACPI. Went to the drive manager, removed the items under Battery, restated to reinstall them, then put in the batteries. Cleaned the registry. Removed any ACPI and batter setting references in the registry. Tried the HP Battery Optimizer. Had the batteries tested, which shows the cell are all good, and fully charge. Any help would be appreciated. Bios is the newest version. XP is a clean install.
Stumped!!
May 5th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Ellie,
Could you please provide a better description of the problem you are experiencing right now?
The battery is not detected by the laptop or what?
May 3rd, 2008 at 9:52 pm
hey laptop freak,
in need of urgent assistance! please!
okay so i got a TOSHIBA SATELLITE A200 (don’t know if you need this but the model number is PSAF3A-0QH01N) less than a month ago and all has been well until now.
i had been playing the sims for a while when all of a sudden i noticed the orange light (battery low) was blinking. i dont know how long it had been doing that, not more than 10 minutes though. and it was plugged in and everything.
so i made sure everything was plugged in adequately and then all of a sudden in shut down on me!
i took the power supply cords out and waited a few minutes befor eputtign them back in. now everything seems to be workign properly (excpet theres no battery,its charging)
this has never happend to me before and i would liek to know if you know wat the problem was and how i can stop it occuring again?
please and thankyou!
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:54 am
It just might be fixed. Even though I memtested it a few weeks ago and it was fine, there were just too many weird errors so I stuck the memtest disk in and it started erroring straight away. One discarded stick later and the screen corruption at startup has gone. I’m just starting to install windows. Fingers crossed.