Toshiba Sattelite a105 problems

[doghills]

My friend's laptop (The laptop in question) recently died, his work gave him a new one because they said repairing it would cost around $500, because the motherboard was fried.He handed it off to me to see if I can do anything with it.

Here's the problem:
It turns on but just the blue power LED on the power button and the fan turn on. The screen stays dead and there is no output to a separate monitor. When you turn it on the only way to turn it off (Short of ripping out the power) is to hold the power button for 5 seconds. Another weird thing is the machine will "turn on" when you press the media player button.

So far I have tried taking out the RAM 1 stick at a time and switching slots. I have also tried disconnecting the hard drive. I have also tried pulling out the battery and AC adapter and holding down the power button and taking out the battery to let the system clear out. (Suggested on a thread for the same laptop having similar symptoms, and it worked for that laptop.)

At this point I am starting to think that it might actually be really dead. Any suggestions?

 

[seezur]

Hey, I am a repair tech for a shop and I am the one responsible for the laptop repairs. It does sound like a dead Motherboard. Toshibas are bad about dying for no good reason.

Unfortunatly laptop mobos can be pretty expensive. but shouldn't be $500, if you know where to look. eBay item #300220348111 is a a105 mobo current bid is at $70 and it comes with a cpu, you just need to transplant you hd, ram, lcd and optical drive. In my personal experience toshibas can be a problem. They seem to be the only brand that will just stop working out of the blue. Some of their units are good, the higher end qosmios are good but the lower end units always break.

Good luck with that laptop.

 

[dantep]

Hi seezur!

All 4 USB ports of my Satellite A105 (which I bought more than a year ago) stop working everytime I tried to plug some hardware such as printer, digicam, webcam, flash drive, etc. I mean they can't be able to recognize hardwares. The only things that work on it are my plug and play optical wireless mouse and pc slide remote controller. I called Toshiba Customer Service and I was told that the motherboard might be infected with virus. They refered me to their nearest authorized repair center and I was told that they will be charging me $60 just for diagnostic plus parts and labor.

I am not convinced by their diagnosis and I want to from you.