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.
January 9th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Good for you Brian.. I wasn’t so lucky. I finally received my new inverter and the problem remains. After installing the new inverter and booting my system, I Fn-F5 from an external only to a dual display and the internal LCD back light went orange momentarily and then went off.
So now I am down to a video cable LCD or motherboard
January 5th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Just wanted to leave a update for everyone.
A new cable going to the LCD from the motherboard fixed the problem.
everything works like it should now!
thanks for the tips
December 31st, 2008 at 12:56 pm
I managed to locate a used inverter on eBay with warranty. I will let you know how it works out.
December 31st, 2008 at 10:38 am
OK any recommendations for sourcing the inverter board?
December 31st, 2008 at 9:51 am
prfctpatrn,
1. Bad inverter board – most likely.
2. Bad backlight lamp (inside the LCD screen) – less likely.
3. Bad video cable – rare.
December 31st, 2008 at 9:39 am
Thanks! Of course I DID pull it up too far before I saw this post
I have my system up and working without a functional internal LCD. My keyboard cable will have to be revisited when I have another half day to screw with it.
I had run full system and video diagnostics on my laptop in the middle of all this and the video subsystem came up fine.
Since the image on the internal display seems fine except for the backlight, I suspect I just have a bad screen. Is it possible that it could be something else, before I go and drop 100-300 on a replacement?
December 30th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
prfcptatrn,
No, you don’t need a special tool for that. I just replaced the keyboard on a Satellite A105-S1013 one minute ago .
1. Lift up the locking tab about 2-3 millimeters up. WARNING! Do not disconnect the tab from the connector. Simply lift it up so there is a gap between the tab and the connector. Take a look at this picture, it’s kinda similar.
2. Insert the flat ribbon cable into the connector.
3. Push the tab down until the keyboard cable is locked inside the connector.
December 30th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
I just dismantled my A105-S4384 in trying to troubleshoot my screen problems. After using my system with a dual monitor set up for a few months my internal LCD started to cut out.
Typically, the screen would work for 15-60 minutes before it turned off. Overheating was a suggested problem but when I dismantled the laptp, the internals were quite clean and now fully blown out with canned air.
I hadn’t noticed at first that what was happening was that the back light seems to turn off. I was able to read the screen with an external light near the screen. I am wondering if it could have been a bad cable all along.
I received the same nonsensical advice other have and Toshiba was no help. The biggest technical problem I have now is getting my keyboard cable re-installed!!!!
Is there a special tool for this?
December 29th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Brian S,
In the previous comments you said:
It has to be either bad LCD cable or motherboard. If the LCD always works on startup for a short period of time and only after goes off, most likely it’s related to the motherboard.
December 28th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Ok, I tried v6 of the BIOS update, same thing.
heres a little more info.
When i try the internal LCD, before it fades out(within a min). The screen will go out to a dark blank screen w/ no lines. If I look at it from a top angle it still looks grey.
in other words the lines go away as soon as i touch the cable and it gets blank.
Does this sound like your chipset problems you had on other laptops?
thanks!