Member Avatar for Saturnman60

I researched and couldn't find anything close. I have a Yoshiba Satellit A105-S101 laptop. 1 and 1/2 year old. Intel Celeron M380 1.6 ghz. 512 mb DDR 2 533 SDRam. Video ATI Radeon Xpress 200M with shared video 128mb. 60 gig HD. cd-DVD writer. Realtek ALC 861 sound card. Windows XP Home. Wireless G card. (we run it on wireless)
Has been running fine. While on Yahoo screen went fuzzy then computer died. Computer has AC light and battery charge light. When booting it will get num lock light, HD light, CD tries to test, F10 and F11 light and fan runs. It will try to start for 10 seconds and turn off. It will do this 6 times then shuts down altogether. Nothing on screen at any time. No beep codes. Can't get into BIOS.
Tried normal stuff like removing RAM and inserting 1 at a time in different slots (2-256mb modules) Removed battery for just AC power. Tried just battery. I have no spare parts to swap out.
I can't afford to take it in so any help and ideas would help. It's my wifes computer and all she does is use email and play euchre.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by crunchie

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Short expert summary and focused next steps based on the thread: the A105-S101 powering (LEDs, fan) but never showing BIOS or video, and continuing to cycle after simple swaps, strongly points away from the hard drive and toward the laptop’s power/video subsystem or motherboard-level faults. already tried obvious drives/RAM checks and a new disk; other members (, ) reported power/reset tricks that can be transient. The machine now needs a small set of methodical, non‑destructive checks to narrow the fault before spending on parts or a service manual lookup. (ifixit.com)

Practical, low-cost checks (do these first):

  • Verify the AC adapter and DC jack with a multimeter (confirm the adapter’s DC output and wiggle the tip while watching the LEDs). A flaky jack or bad adapter commonly causes intermittent power cycles. (vdoc.pub)
  • Test an external monitor/VGA while powering on (this separates an internal LCD/backlight/inverter fault from a board-level video/POST failure). If both internal and external stay blank and there are no POST beeps, the fault is likely on the mainboard. (laptoprepair101.com)
  • Inspect the motherboard (with battery/adapter removed) for obvious damage: bulging or leaking electrolytic capacitors, burn marks, or corrosion. These physical signs often explain sudden dead/boot‑loop behavior on older boards. (electrouniversity.com)

If those checks point to the board
A confirmed board-level problem usually means either component replacement (caps, MOSFETs, DC harness) or chip-level work (BGA reflow/reball for GPU/southbridge). Reflow is a specialist/temporary measure in many cases; compare a quote for a replacement donor board versus board‑level repair before committing. For reference and safe disassembly steps see the A100/A105 service guide. (blog.silverpc.hu)

Safety and final notes
Work with ESD precautions. Don’t attempt inverter or inverter‑lamp work unless comfortable with high voltages. If the repair cost approaches the laptop’s practical value, salvaging parts or buying a tested replacement motherboard can be the most economical option. (laptoprepair101.com)

References (select):

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Member Avatar for UrbanKhoja

Good afternoon and welcome to Daniweb!

I had this with a customers unit a while back, and a similar model. Have you tried a different hard disk?

As that would explain the rebooting; as windows will reboot if it is unable to find a location to boot from i.e a HDD. And in most cases will eventually give up.

What exactly do you get when you turn it on? Do you get the Toshiba screen at boot up?

Dazza :cool:

Member Avatar for Saturnman60

Thanks for helping! After your post I removed the HDD to make sure it's seating OK. I noticed a noise like something broken and rattling inside when I turn it over. I'll try to buy a new HD tomorrow.

Member Avatar for UrbanKhoja

No worries, glad to help.

Dazza :cool:

Member Avatar for Saturnman60

well BUMMER! new HD didn't make a difference. Anybody have anymore guesses?
I don't even get a flicker from the screen at any time while I'm trying to boot up.

Member Avatar for AnitaBlow

I have the same exact problem, and same laptop.

Starts up No screen just lights on the front, ya know power, ac, dvd spins then stops along with Laptop. It goes on and off on and off with nothing.

Member Avatar for adhitya

how to insert system boot ? and how to share pc to another pc?

Member Avatar for AnitaBlow

I have the same exact problem, and same laptop.

Starts up No screen just lights on the front, ya know power, ac, dvd spins then stops along with Laptop. It goes on and off on and off with nothing.

Ok I just fixed the problem, for me anyway.


(with Laptop Off and Battery installed)

I held the (power button down for 20 seconds)

I let go and it booted up, the screen turned on, no restarts.

Hope this helps.

Member Avatar for UrbanKhoja

Ok I just fixed the problem, for me anyway.


(with Laptop Off and Battery installed)

I held the (power button down for 20 seconds)

I let go and it booted up, the screen turned on, no restarts.

Hope this helps.

That's similar to a ATX reset, but for that you would take out all power sources (cable, battery etc) then hold the power button for 30 seconds.

This should solve the majority of power problems.

Dazza :cool:

Member Avatar for piping

to saturnman60...you had an overheating problem..try to clean your cpu fan and apply new thermal paste to your processor..i guess you can solve your problem this way...thanks...pip

Member Avatar for crunchie

Thanks piping, but after 3 years I would suggest that the problem has been resolved :).

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