Possibly killed my laptop - need advice

Gedalia_w

Gedalia_w

Gedalia_w

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Joined
7 May 2003
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668
Location
London
I have a Toshiba Satellite L505-144 that I bought three years ago. A very decent laptop, that's worked well.

Unfortunately, it's recently gotten to the point where any kind of slightly strenuous task has the laptop overheating and actually powering down after 30-60min.

I thought, being pretty hand with computers that I would take it apart and investigate the dust and clean it out. Being an idiot I didn't look online for any guides on dismantling it.

Everything went fine until I disconnected the cable from the power (button) board to the motherboard. Not looking very closely, I pulled it off the power board as opposed to slipping it out of the motherboard and I not only broke this ribbon/cable, but also the little plastic slot thing that holds it in place on the motherboard.

The broken pieces are as per the photo.
http://i.imgur.com/KqEYMGw.jpg

I don't really fancy paying £100+ to send it to Toshiba or authorised repair centre to fix, who will probably want to change the whole motherboard and charge me a couple hundred quid for the privilege.

Any ideas on how to source these very specific parts? Or firstly how to identify the part numbers? I've tried googling for a service manual, but came up with nothing.
 
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those pressure connectors still work even if the sides are snapped off, they are just a bit harder to push back together, have you tried just sliding it back in with the ribbon cable in place?

I can't tell from the picture what is wrong with the ribbon cable itself, did you tear it or something?
 
The problem is that the end of the ribbon that connects to the power board had about 8 thin electric strips or "fingers" (that flow through the inside of the plastic ribbon) that made contact with the power board. In my haste to try and reconnect everything, and rough handling of the ribbon, those "fingers" fell off as they were very delicate, and so there is nothing at the end of the ribbon now to make the electrical connection to the power button board.

I could try and somehow very carefully peal back the plastic of the ribbon to expose those strips again, but then the cable would be way to short, as it's a very tight fit as it is.

I've made contact with a Toshiba specialist parts suppliers who through my laptop's serial number confirmed the part I need for the ribbon. The problem is that it's attached to the whole power board module, and you can't buy the ribbon separately. They quoted £45, but then now knowing the part number, I found an alternative site that sells the whole module for £28, which I think I will go with.

I just hope that when it arrives, I can still make a stable connection what with a broken pressure connector on the motherboard.

This could end up being a very costly mistake if it doesn't work!
 
I'm sure you'll all be thrilled to know that my new part arrived, and I managed to install it successfully and put the laptop back together without any screws left over!

The laptop is humming along nice and quiet, thanks to the dust I removed for the inside of the beast.

All's well that ends well? Just £32 out of pocket and a week of the laptop being out of commission. Learned my lesson about being hasty, but still, I feel pretty proud of myself to have taken a laptop apart, sourced and replaced a normally non-user replaceable part and got the whole thing working again. That would have cost £150+ and the added hassle of having to post it and wait weeks for its return if I'd sent it Toshiba.
 
Well done I have the daunting task of taking my stepsons laptop apart as it is having heat problems, I will be having a look online before I start now.
 
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