sibidi

Hi all,

I have a Toshiba Satellite A30 that was overheating. I then wanted to clean the heatsink and fans.
I have managed to remove, clean and replace the heatsink/CPU block, but now the laptop won't start.

When I turn it on, the fans start spinning, I can hear it access the DVD-R drive and the HDD for a fraction of a second, and then everything stops. It then starts again, same things, and this in a loop, 10 times. The computer then completely stops.
The screen remains completely blank.
The Power LED is on for the whole time the fans spin, and off when everything stops, following the same loop pattern. The drive LEDs flash briefly at the beginning each cycle.
The timing is 3-4 seconds on, 2-3 seconds off.

For information, I also tried to dismantle the laptop to access the fans. To do that, I removed all visible screws on the bottom and 2 screws at the back, the DVD drive and HDD, the 2 RAM modules. I did not manage to open the case, and didn't want to break anything, so I just screwed everything back. I guess I might have stopped too late :-(
I did not separate the CPU and heatsink. They were stuck together, and I left them so.

I have of course tried to remove and replace every component one by one.

Does this ring a bell to anyone? Does it look like a CPU, motherboard or RAM problem?

Thanks in advance!

Ben

Spektyr

I'm new, both to this forum and laptop tinkering, and I've had a few similar experiences.

Frankly, laptops spook me just a little bit. It seems that EVERY time I take one apart and put it back together - even if I change absolutely nothing inside - the damn thing acts weird like that when I try to start it. Then, for some reason I can't explain or figure out, it suddenly starts working.

I swear... these things must be demon possessed. I like my big boxes (desktops).


My advice: first, find a manual online somewhere that explains how to take your laptop apart. The "all visible screws" thing is probably about 10x overkill. It's actually a bit elegant the way they're designed to come apart.

Second, go back and double check all your internal connections. It might just be the laptop I tinker on, but it seems that these things are extremely finicky about the cable connections.


Hopefully someone with better advice will come along quickly for you, but on the off-chance my pathetic experience is helpful I figured I'd offer it.

sibidi

Thanks for your reply and your sympathy ;-)

Of course I started with the "elegant parts", before I started on "all the visible screws", but then I still had no access to the fans.
As for service manuals, they have a curious habit to play hard to get. Unfortunately, I was kind of in a rush... Now it looks like I'm even more so

Yeah, I did that too. Over and over.
The only thing I haven't done yet is separate the CPU and heatsink, clean them completely, and paste them back together. But it's something I've never done yet, so I am a bit reluctant to do so.
If only I could be sure which component is in cause...

Ben

Spektyr

This is where I went to find my Inspiron service manual:
http://www.laptoprepairguy.com/laptop/category/laptop-service-manual/

Hope that helps.

I can't imagine how that could be causing any problems.

cho_drummer

Sorry to revive a really old thread, but i cleaned out two of these today, one perfect, one with this problem...What i found was, the locking screw to lock the CPU in place was left unlocked on the machine with this problem. Simply opened up the cover, locked the CPU screw and it worked.
Probably about three years too late for whoever wrote this, but these laptops have stood the test of time, New 250GB HDD and 2GB corsair ram installed, works great after 6 years of solid use.

I was wondering if its worth upgrading the CPU would i need more slots for a duo core CPU or would i be able to get an old P4 Hyperthreaded Xeon or something?