I have a problem with my Toshiba Satellite A215 laptop. The screen goes blank intermittently. I know this is not related to settings because the screen goes blank even when I’m working on the laptop or watching a movie. Do you know what is wrong and how I can fix this problem with my laptop?

First of all, find out which version of BIOS you have installed on your laptop, then go to the Toshiba website and find out if they have more recent version available for downloads. I’ve seen this problem with Toshiba Satellite A215 laptops before and it looks like Toshiba addresses this issue in the latest BIOS release. They do not explain what exactly is wrong but the BIOS change history says: “Corrected an intermittent black screen issue”. Read the rest of this entry »

I spilled a VERY small amount of liquid on my husband’s Dell laptop and now certain keys stopped working (Z X C V M , . / Shift Enter). I’m freaking out that I’ve broken his computer…how can this be fixed. We contacted Dell and we’re past the warranty by one week (figures)…any suggestions to make the situation better? What do we do???

Most likely you’ll have to replace the keyboard. You can find a new keyboard for your laptop here if you search by the laptop model and then replace the keyboard using the service manual. If that’s the only problem with your laptop then replacing the keyboard should fix it.

Another touchpad problem here - I stupidly spilled a drink over the touchpad and keyboard on my Toshiba Satellite A60 a few days ago, and since then the touchpad isn’t responding. I switched the computer off straight away after the spill, and opened it up to check it was dry inside and that there was no corrosion damage. There was no damage visible, and very little liquid inside the machine (just a few drops on the black plastic underneath the keyboard, but nothing on the motherboard itself as far as I could see).

Once I powered it back up, however, the touchpad wasn’t working at all, though the keyboard and everything else seems to be working OK. I checked the connection (which was a bit loose) and reattached it, but no luck. The lights at the front of the computer near the touchpad work fine. Any suggestions as to what the problem could be? Is it possible to replace the touchpad if all else fails?

Before you go inside the laptop try enabling the touchpad by pressing Fn + F9 keys. Maybe it was disabled somehow.
I think you’ll have to remove the laptop top cover and take a closer look at the motherboard. Even though you cannot see any liquid damage under the keyboard, it still could be on the motherboard.
Here are instructions for taking apart Satellite A60 or A65 notebooks, could be helpful.
Remove the top cover and check out the motherboard. If it looks clean and there is no liquid damage, probably you’ll have to replace the touchpad. Yes, it’s possible but you’ll have to remove the top cover first.

Do you think that a laptop cannot be easily damaged by static electricity? Think again! I received this interesting comment from one of the readers and decided to republish it. Here it is.

I just wanted to relay my current experience; maybe it’ll help someone else. I was using my laptop (Compaq Presario 2000) on the sofa 2 weeks ago and as I set it down my finger grazed the keyboard and I heard a static zap of electricity, about in the center of the keys. I left it for about 5 minutes and when I came back and tried to use it the keys I typed were not the characters being displayed. I rebooted thinking it some kind of software temporary corruption. On reboot I get a loud continuous beep, stuck key indicator right? Not good! Closely examine all keys, no stuck keys found. PC continues to load to Windows password screen, but I can see dots flooding the box like a key is being held down.
Reboot and try to press a variety of keys to at least make it to the desktop.
What I end up with is if I hold down the “d” key I can get the beep to stop and at least sign on and make it to the desktop. Then open Notepad to see what the keys are doing. If I then release the “d” key the “l” character starts printing continuously across the screen until I tap the “d” key a couple of times and then hold it down. If I attempt to print a “d” character then the letter continuously printing just changes to an “i” or some other random letter. Occasionally it’ll print three letters at a time like “jka”.
I purchased a used keyboard praying that somehow the static had fried a contact or something that was causing this behavior. Replaced it and there was no change in it at all.
At this point the only conclusion can be that the static went beyond the keyboard and fried the keyboard controller chip on the motherboard. So I have ordered the motherboard and I will re-post when it’s in to let you know how things turned out.
I plan to be VERY careful about static in the future and recommend that everyone else be careful too!

My laptop has green pixels where black pixels should be, so in other words when the Windows XP splash screen comes up during bootup the screen is completely green except for the logo of course. Every “true black” pixel is green colored and the problem is there when Windows is running too. I can see they are not dead pixels because all the pixels do it when a black pixel should be there. I had a friend who is a Toshiba certified technician take a look at it and he said it looks like coffee was spilled on it but the LCD is fine so it seems to be something with the onboard video. I am great with making and repairing desktops, but not laptops, though I could if I needed to. Can anyone suggest anything besides getting a new laptop or a new motherboard. The MB sounds better than a whole new laptop.
One other thing I should add is that when I bought it on eBay it was sold because of the little green pixels but it was reported as showing up here and there, when I actually received the laptop the problem was completely gone. Then I sent it to UPS because i filed a claim since they damaged the power supply and also the CD-ROM and when they shipped it back the green pixels then showed up and much worse. Nothing helps, twisting the LCD , banging it a bit, nothing at all helps it. So its weird because after I bought it from eBay UPS delivered it and the so-called problem was non-existant, then I sent it back to UPS, then they shipped it back and the problem was there. Can anyone help please??

There is no simple solution for this problem.  If the coffee went down to the motherboard, I think you’ll have to replace it.
By the way, what if you start the laptop with an external monitor? Do get the same bad video on the external screen (indicates a problem with onboard video) or the external screen works fine? If the external monitor displays normal video, may by you just have a bad video cable and there is nothing wrong with the motherboard? Test the external video before you make any conclusions.

Hi my name is Sam and was wondering if you could help me, I recently (last Friday) dropped a cordial drink on my keyboard which then soaked through. It will not power up but the DVD driver and fan will start under DVD mode (button on top near power button). Please could you give me any advice on cleaning the insides as I have been quoted £100 to get it clean which I don’t have?

Unfortunately, liquid spills are very unpredictable and any part in the laptop could be damaged. Even a part not affected by the liquid directly could go bad. A liquid spill diagnostic is expensive because the laptop must be completely taken apart for an inspection. In 99% it is not enough just to clean the system board or the keyboard; the entire part must be replaced. I think if you can fix your laptop for £100 it is a good deal. Some companies charge $120 just for the diagnostic and the price doesn’t include parts or labor charges.