Repairing a laptop

I have this toshiba laptop. that laptop has given me major pains. Its basic problem is that it hangs after a few minutes of use. It was given to a laptop repair service. They changed some chip on it, the laptop worked fine for a few weeks , then reverted back to its old hanging habit.


Sometimes it hangs at the bios screen, so its not an OS problem.
the laptop has other problems as well, like random restarts , sudden blacnk screen syndrome etc.

after considering various issues , i am pretty sure its a mobo/component level problem. Its definitely not a heat/ram/HDD issue.

This is what I want to repair manually at home, the mobo. Can someone guide me here? are there guides to diagnose a motherboard problem ? check things with a multimeter , that sort of things. There are no visible marks on the motherboard btw

thanks

 

Even if you diagnose the problem (say it's a problem with the BIOS chip itself, or some other component), the real question is if you have the soldering skills to do the repair yourself properly without destroying the motherboard. What was the diagnosis that the repair shop gave you? Did they warranty their work? Did you go to a authorized repair shop or someplace else? Finally, have you checked to make sure that the user serviceable (RAM, HDD) and semi-serviceable parts (CPU, wireless) are not the culprit?

Even if it is the mobo itself, since you are asking how to diagnose I am going to assume that you probably do not have the skills to properly desolder and resolder components on the mobo. If you have eliminated the components that you can easily remove (and thus remove as culprits) and a mobo component is the cause you would probably be better off purchasing a used mobo off of eBay to replace your current one.

 

thanks for replying, although it would not be of any use. I opened the laptop , and now it won't even start.

 

What model is it?

I would take it apart and re-seat everything. Leave the CMOS battery out for 30mins (walk away and come back).

 

This seconded, but I was pretty sure the CMOS was soldered on with Toshiba laptops.

EDIT: I was wrong, but you have to pretty much remove the motherboard on a Toshiba laptop to get to the CMOS, on a lot of models. Anyway, OP has nothing to lose, so certainly give it a try.

 

yea it's hard to get access to the CMOS battery on most toshiba notebooks.
If you can find the service manual you can usually find two pads to connect to short out the battery, meaning you wont have to completely take it apart. But service manuals are hard to find.