Things To Look Out For When Troubleshooting a Toshiba Laptop

You've been using your Toshiba laptop for a while now when all of a sudden it starts crawling like a tortoise...Just like any complex machine, Toshiba laptops suffer from all kinds of problems  and require TLC. All that is left for you to do is to diagnose what the problems are. Here are a few things to look out for when troubleshooting a toshiba laptop.

Check The Power of your Laptop
Check the power of your laptop while it is on. Then check whether the brightness settings iare up or down. Make sure the brightness settings is not all all the way down and creating the impression that the laptop is not working when in actual fact it is.Then check the battery indicator light on the laptop aor laptop AC adapter. Then unplug the adapter from  the wall outlet to another to check for possible problems. If it's still not powering on, move on to the next step.If the power is still not switched on,it it is possible that the battery may be dead and may need replacing .  For information on how to replace a laptop battery, click here.

Now assuming the laptop is still receiving power but the screen is blank, listen up for the laptop fan. If the laptop fan is working Then it's likely the video card  is faulty ands needs to be replaced. If it is not the video card, then we're looking at  motherboard /power failure which should be fixed.For information on how to replace a video card, click here.For information how to change a motherboard, click here

Test on the Monitor
Now we are going to do a test on the monitor. Get a VGA cable and connect it to an external monitor. Switch on both the laptop and the monitor to see whether the monitor display works. if the monitor works  then it means the makeup of your monitor is faulty and should be replaced.Assuming all the above problems don't exist, the next probable cause is your hard drive. In that case,  get it replaced and make sure it is the right size.Once you've purchased the hard disk go and unscrew the screws at the bottom of your laptop, take out the old hard drive and insert the new one. Make sure you refer to your manual while fixing the hard disk.


That's a wrap for  "A Few Things To Look Out For When Troubleshooting  a Toshiba Laptop."  Hopefully, you will find no difficulty troubleshooting all the bugs in your Toshiba laptop

Till then take care

If you are here and you want to learn how to fix laptops as a career or past time, Download Laptop Repair Made Easy

How To Swap a Dead Laptop Battery For a New Laptop Battery

Now we all love our laptops to death. I know I do! I  can work at home with it, and if I want to, I could work on the beach with it.  Left to you alone, some of you wouldnt mind working in a cave with it..(Let's hope it doesn't come to that).  The bad news is that with time your laptop battery loses its charge.  If you want your laptop to last stay close to the wall outlets. But not to worry, even if your battery goes dead you can swap for a new one. Here is how to swap a dead laptop battery for a new laptop battery.

• First, buy a new laptop battery.
• After  accomplishing this task, turn your focus on your laptop. First flip your laptop over abd locate the battery compartment.  Release the latch and take out the old battery.  
• To install the new laptop battery , align its receptor pins with those of the battery compartment.  Push down the opposite end of the   to snap in place.
• Tighten the latch by sliding it to its original position.
• Plug the laptop to charge the new battery  . It should take 24 hrs to charge  the battery.  But subsequent charges  should take abt 30 minutes.

That's a wrap on How To Swap a Dead Laptop Battery for A New Laptop Battery. .  This shoudnt take too long to accomplish...Hopefully you'll find this battery swap a walk in the park

cheers!


If you are a laptop owner looking learn how to fix laptops including fixing laptop batteries, try either of the following laptop repair training products:

• Laptop Repair Videos
• Laptop Repair Made Easy

For further  explanation of laptop terminology and graphical illustration of troubleshooting procedures, Click to Purchase The Laptop Repair Workbook: An Introduction to Troubleshooting and Repairing Laptop Computers

How To Swap An Old Video Card For A New One.

Now we all like the  nice sound effects emanating from your laptop when you turn your laptop on...Those sound effects are courtesy of the video card or graphics card. However, one day you turn your your laptop on and, although the battery indicator is on, your screen is blank. Then  a small voice  whispers in your ear saying"It's your video card. You need to change it." So now that we know the cause of your bank screen, here is how to swap an old video card for a new video card.

• Buy a new video card.  
• Uninstall the current video drivers, Click on "My Computer", Select "Properties, click"Hardware" and click "Device Manager"
•  Go t the "Display Adapter section" and double click on your current video card.
• When the "Properties section shows up,  select the "Driver" tab and click "Uninstall."
• Now this next section is going to be tricky as you do not want be electrocuted. I suggest you wear an antistatic wrist strap.
• Now that we've got that covered, go ahead and physically remove the old video card
• Turn Off Your PC and disconnect the power supply
• Open the CPU case and locate the AGP slot of your motherboard just above the PCI slot.
• Now use a screw driver to unscrew the video card from the back plate and take it. out.
• Now insert the new video card firmly and completely Screw it to the back plate
• Next, install the new drivers. Your Windows operating system should guide you through the process
• For those with non-windows operating systems, click on "Start Menu and open the the Control Panel.
• Click on "Add/Remove Hardware" to activate the installation wizard. 

That's wrap for "How To Swap An Old Video Card For  A New One."  Hopefully, you wont sweat too much changing your video card.

cheers!


If you are a laptop owner looking learn how to fix laptops including fixing video cards, try either of the following laptop repair training products:

• Laptop Repair Videos
• Laptop Repair Made Easy

For further  explanation of laptop terminology and graphical illustration of troubleshooting procedures, Click to Purchase The Laptop Repair Workbook: An Introduction to Troubleshooting and Repairing Laptop Computers

How To Drain Your Water Induced Laptop

If water ever floods your laptop, start panicking. The presence of water or any kind of moisture  could render your laptop useless. If you are crazy enough to attempt to  use your laptop with water still flooded in it, you could do serious damage to your battery and damage your laptop's electronics. Not to mention the fact that you could overload your wall socket and possibly blow up your house lights. But not worry! Here is how to drain your water induced laptop.

Unplug Your Laptop
Unplug Your laptop from the mains IMMEDIATELY.  Remove the battery from the bottom of your laptop. How do you do this? First hold down the release tab next to the battery pack and free the pack from the laptop. Be careful about this as you do not want to be electrocuted. As you know, water and electricity don't mix.Next, open the laptop. To do that first, unscrew the screws holding the laptop at the bottom. Then remove the screws holding the laptop screen . These screws are located a the rear end of the laptop, next to the power outlet.

Remove the Hard Drive

Now remove the hard drive from its slot by unscrewing the screws holding both corners of the drive and then release it from the laptop. (Keep a mental note of how you took ithe hard drive out out because if you put it back wrongly, your laptop won't work.) Check the hard drive for moisture..If there is any present,  use a towel to press on it.  Do not wipe the hard drive as you will end up moving the moisture around. If there is any additional moisture, use a blow dryer to remove it.

Next, separate  the laptop screen from the laptop body by gently pulling the screen until the two silver pegs holding the screen have been removed from their slots.(Do not remove the two wires leading from the screen to the motherboard.) Then separate the two parts of the plastic body to gain access to the internal components.

Unscrew the Metal Plate
Unscrew the metal plate covering the motherboard and set it aside. If your memory doesn't serve you that well, take pictures of the inside of the laptop so that you have a frame of reference when reinstalling all the components. You can start by taking an overall picture of the inside of the laptop and then closeup pictures of the individual components.Disconnect the components one at a time and dry them out the same way you did  the hard drive. Once the components  dry out, sit them  outside to for the air to dry them out as well.

Finally, reinstall the components in the order that you removed them.(If you are having difficulty committing the order of the components to memory,refer to the pictures to help you reinstall everything correctly).Reinsert the battery pack and turn the laptop back on.Fingers crossed, So long as you haven't permanently damaged anything, your laptop should be up and running.

That's a wrap on "How To Drain Your Water Induced Laptop" Hopefully you you wont go through too much trouble draining the water out of your laptop and puting your laptop back again.

Cheers!


If you are a laptop owner looking learn how to fix your laptop including draining water from your laptop, try either of the following laptop repair training products:

• Laptop Repair Videos

Laptop Repair Made Easy

For further  explanation of laptop terminology and graphical illustration of troubleshooting procedures, Click to Purchase The Laptop Repair Workbook: An Introduction to Troubleshooting and Repairing Laptop Computers. 

Time To Change Your Your Old Hard Drive

After four exciting years, your laptop hard disk says "Time To Change Your Old Hard Drive. Get  me out of my misery!" Meaning it's time to get a new one. Ask most people and they'd tell you that installing a hard drive is usually a painless exercise depending on how your laptop is configured.   If you have a bad hard drive, or need more storage space, you'd do well to learn how to upgrade your laptop hardware. Let Me Show You How To Replace Your Old Hard Drive

• First, get a new hard drive . Make sure your new hard drive is similar to the old one.
• Next, open the laptop case.Open both sides of the laptop by removing the screws at the back of the tower and then slide the panels off. If your laptop is screwless, there should be  a latch or button that releases the panes. Find the said latch/button and release the panels.
• After taking your panels, locate your old hard drive. For you newbies, your hard drive is locked in a cage inside the the casing.  Find the data and power connectors and then disconnect them
• Remove the screws holding the hard drive. The screws usually hold both sides of the hard drive. 
• After removing the screws, you then slowly remove the hard drive from the cage.
• After removing the old hard drive, install the new hard drive. . The new hard drive should be placed in the same position as the old hard drive. Carefully screw the drive in and reconnect the data and power connectors.
• To replace your primary hard drive, you'll need to reinstall your software or use recovery disks to recover your data. If you don't have a recovery disk, you may have to reinstall your operating system.
• To replace your secondary drive, you will need to reload software that you installed on drive or re-copy files from your backup drive

That's a wrap on  "Time To Change Your Your Old Hard Drive."  This exercise shouldn't be too too difficult, and, hopefully, you'll have fun   replacing your old hard drive.

Cheers!
Looking to learn how to fix a laptop/embark on a career fixing laptops?


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How to Test your Laptop Hard disk for Speed and Errors

You've been using your laptop for quite a while when all of a sudden it starts crawling like a tortoise. Your data doesn't transfer as quickly as it used to and even worse, it starts to fail. Then that still  small  voice in your head says" Test  Your Laptop Hard Drive For Speed and Errors." What you need to know about your laptop hard disk is this. That the speed(or lack thereof) of your laptop hard disk affects your laptop's performance. When it starts slowing, it is forced to overcompensate which causes unnecessary stress on your hard disk. Here is how to do the test.

To Check Errors

• Click "Start" and select "Computer"
• Click The "Tools Tab" and click  the "Check Now" button under  "Error Checking" Heading.
• Now use you "check your disk" options. You'd be better off choosing the "Automatically Fix System Disk Errors' option. The other option is "Scan for For and Attempt Recovery of Bad Sectors" but that takes much longer and is a more thorough.
• Schedule a scan on the drive you you want to check for errors.  The Check Disk utility only scans when the disk is not in use.
• Click "Start" to Begin the scan.
• With the automatic option it should fix these errors without any problems.

To Check For Hard Disk Speed

• After checking for errors, Run Your hard disk testing software to test the speed of your laptop hard disk. The test should give you the results on the speed test  including important information such as the data transfer rate. And it should help speed up your PC
• If you're looking for  software  to test the speed of your hard disk try  Perfect Booster or  Seagate's Hard Drive Testing Software . They both come highly recommended. 

That's a wrap on  "How To Test Your Laptop For Speed and Hard Drive  Errors". You shouldn't experience too much difficulty with this exercise. Hopefully the above suggestions will be a breeze for you.

Cheers!


If you are a laptop owner looking to learn how to fix laptops including  testing the speed of your laptop and looking  for hard disk errors, , try   the following laptop repair training products :

• Laptop Repair Videos
• Laptop Repair Made Easy
• The Laptop Repair Workbook: An Introduction to Troubleshooting and Repairing Laptop Computers.