HomeI have a Toshiba A105-s2716 satellite. At first the screen would start flashing. The screen went black and sometimes gray horizontal lines would appear. It would then turn black and go back to normal. After a week now, the screen will stay black after ten minutes of using my laptop. It works fine with a external monitor, many people tell me that its a hardware issue. My warranty expired so I’m trying to figure out the problem before I have it fixed. I need to fixed my laptop ASAP because i need for college.
I’ve seen this problem with Satellite A105 laptops before and I believe the culprit is the the motherboard. Even though the external video works fine, it’s still a problem with the motherboard. I think there could be something wrong with the video chip or with the video cable connector. Unfortunately both the video chip and the video cable connector are soldered on the motherboard. It means the whole motherboard must be replaced in order to fix the problem.
Update:
Please read comment 44 posted by Andy:
I tried to replace the whole LCD panel, but it didn’t help. I was going to buy a new laptop, so I just wanted to mess around with the old one. First thing I did – I upgraded BIOS to most current version. I did it just to see how BIOS upgrade works, and it fixed the problem!
It’s possible that Toshiba fixed this problem with the latest BIOS release. I tried updating the BIOS before but it didn’t help, apparently the BIOS version with the fix wasn’t available back then.
I will try it as soon as I have to repair Satellite A105 with a problem like that.
November 8th, 2011 at 5:11 pm
@ Harmony,
I think your laptop has a problem with the graphics chip. I’ve seen it failing like that – working fine with a basic driver but not working with normal driver.
It works with Ubuntu OS because it’s using a generic drive which probably not loading the graphics chip completely.
Some Satellite P105 laptops have a discrete video card. You can check your laptop specs. Unfortunately, external video cards are not cheap.
November 8th, 2011 at 4:14 pm
Does the external monitor work fine only with Ubuntu OS or it also works fine with Windows OS?
From the description I posted in quote it sounds like a problem with one of the following:
1. bad connection between the video cable and screen.
2. faulty cable.
3. faulty screen.
When I tried it with Vista and win7 the laptop and external monitor would work only with the generic video driver. Once I installed the Nvidia driver, I could not see anything on either screen. Ubuntu has a Nvidia driver but I never installed it. Right now its just using the Generic Video driver that Ubuntu installed.
November 8th, 2011 at 1:04 pm
Harmony,
Does the external monitor work fine only with Ubuntu OS or it also works fine with Windows OS?
From the description I posted in quote it sounds like a problem with one of the following:
1. bad connection between the video cable and screen.
2. faulty cable.
3. faulty screen.
November 8th, 2011 at 12:43 pm
Toshiba Sattelite p105 – I think I worded my response to you wrong. There are no problems at all with an external monitor. In fact I took this laptop when my nephew was going to throw it out. I wanted something I could hook up to my tv via the svideo and watch movies. This has worked fine even though the monitor on the laptop goes blank, gets lines, etc. I can still see a perfect picture on my tv and/or external monitor.
The HP my friend was throwing out and I took that too. (I can’t resist trying to fix things). I tried to call HP re the recall but it was only a 1 year recall and I missed it.
Since both laptops have the Nvidia chip, I wonder if they both could have the same problems?
It is just a shame to have to dispose of these laptops because of chip.
In any event, I thank you for the help. It is greatly appreciated. I will see if I can try that link you sent me. I’ll keep you posted if it works.
thanks again
H
November 8th, 2011 at 12:29 pm
@ Harmony,
There could be a problem with the graphics card on your Toshiba Satellite P105 laptop.
Could be motherboard failure. There was a recall related to the graphics card failure – known issue with some Pavilion dv2000/dv6000/dv9000 laptops.
If you have nothing to lose you can try this method: http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2011/02/23/fix-laptop-motherboard-with-failed-nvidia-graphics-chip/
November 8th, 2011 at 7:43 am
Toshiba Satellite P105 laptop running Ubuntu OS (normal mode) No problems with it hooked up to an external monitor. Its strange because when I tried to install winxp, vista or win7 on this laptop, the monitor would work for a bit, until I install the nvidia driver. Maybe I should try to install the nvidia drive for ubuntu and keep the external monitor attached?
I also have a HP Pavillion dv9000 that has a problem with booting up. I just won’t. I think it has to do with the bios or something.
the HP Pavilion dv9000 laptop does not turn on at all. The only LED light is when the ac adapter is plugged in. No lights at all when power button is pushed. I believe there was some sort of recall on these but it only last for 1 year and I missed it.
November 7th, 2011 at 5:40 pm
harmony,
Test your Toshiba Satellite P105 laptop running Ubuntu OS (normal mode) on external monitor. Does external video work normal or you see sage graphic problems? If the same problem appears on both, internal and external monitors, this is graphics card related failure.
Try removing memory modules one by one. Test the laptop with each memory module separately. If one of the modules is bad, it will stop the laptop from booting. Removing modules one by one helps to find out if memory is bad.
By the way, does your HP Pavilion dv9000 laptop turns on at all? Do you see any LED lights when you push on the power button?
No you cannot use parts, unless it’s something generic like RAM or hard drive. All laptops are different.
November 7th, 2011 at 3:47 pm
I have a Toshiba satellite p105 that has screen or graphic problems. It won’t let me run any windows system with the nvideo drive, the screen goes black. But I can run ubuntu on it and the screen works but only one side is visable. The other side has verticle lines. No Line running in safe mode.
I also have a HP Pavillion dv9000 that has a problem with booting up. I just won’t. I think it has to do with the bios or something. I was wondering if it was possible to fix one laptop using some parts from the other. Any infor will be greatly appreciated
thank you
H
October 24th, 2011 at 2:04 pm
@ saison,
It’s hard to tell what is causing the problem. Try reseating both memory modules. It’s possible they got loose when you dropped the laptop.
October 24th, 2011 at 8:32 am
I have a Dell laptop. I dropped it and the behavious has been erratic. Works fine for sometime then mouse gets disabled and streaming horizontal lines appear in four separate columns. What should be done? Please advise.