anyone have a toshiba 5105 'spare' geforce4 440 video card? - Page 5

Check out what I just picked up!
Gotta love that price....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=6762588951

I also just purchased an IBM Thinkpad T42 2378-FVU to replace my Satellite. The IBM has an impressive feature list and through a contact at IBM only cost me $1237 shipped.

http://www-132.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/st...arecentral.com

If the video card works as described, maybe I'll eBay the Thinkpad. Or maybe not.

Andrew

Andrew

I hope it works for you, and at least the seller says that it works well. I hope he didn't leave the end of the sentence off that says, "....as long as you don't touch or move it." That is the original problematic version of the board, though, so I personally would have spent the $105 for the brand new heavier-duty version of the board straight from Toshiba. The eBay ad also doesn't say if it is the 32MB or 64MB version, so let us know how your install goes, please!!!!

Hitek

BTW, my 64MB card was also described as a working pull.

Hi all,
Since my 5105s701 seems to be pretty stable atm I thought i'd share with you all what i'm doing with it, maybe it'll help, and maybe the more techically minded guys here like hitek and richk et al would care to say whether i'm just lucky or if I'm doing something right.

Basically I just keep it at as constant a temperature as possible, by running SETI@home all the time and (almost) never switching it off. It sits right around the 70C mark most of the time. I can still play games on it - i think because they don't push the temp up so much from where it is all the time.


Whaddya reckon?

J

Ok guys, so I made an autopsy to this toshiba 5105-s607. I have found out the problem. It seems that there was negligence on the video card . In my case, the video card seems to work perfectly fine. The heat didnt mess it up.

The video card has 4 chips in it. Only 2 are covered by a special wrapping, the other two are not. (Which I believe they are the most important because they are placed where more heating occurs) To test this hypothesis, I placed a small piece of plastic on the chips so there would be some kind of insulation and guess what? The machine loaded up and worked perfectly fine! I am thinking on placing something that is less affected by heat so it will not melt and make things worst.

The two chips on top with the "wrapping" are the RAM chips, and the copper on top is for RF shielding or heat dissipation. I have tested two bad boards with the unit apart on my workbench, and even removed and replaced the RAM chips. The defect is in the board, and generally fails when the board heats to the extent that it internally expands, or is moved or bumped. At least this was the case in my extensive tests with two faulty boards, compared to a working one....

Hitek

[SOLVED]anyone have a toshiba 5105 'spare' geforce4 440 video card?

Hi again.

I got my laptop back before a week and i it is just fine. They changed the video card with an new SAME one and it worked. Of cource i paid about 250Euro (workshop payment included) but it worth the money. I tested with both Linux and Windows but i run almost all the time Linux on it. My conlusion is that the cause is the high temp. So now i am doing the following movements

A. I don't leave the laptop always on except fot the time i use it
B. I don't put it in places that can be overheated (bedsheets for example)

I hope that everything will go fine.

Many thanks to the Greek Toshiba support center they were really professionals.

Good luck to everybody

Heres an Update. Hitek was right. It was not the memory chips. At first I thought it was because the computer loaded up for a long period of time. But then I started to move it up and Ive got the same problems all over again. I tried to cover the chips again without any result.

I am not a hardware guy and I think the best thing to do is buy a new video card. I dont know if heat is the problem. The laptop sometimes crashes at first when it is cold and sometimes it loads for several minutes. The board might have been damaged because of the heat, but it doesnt crash because the heat. Last time it loaded, I started to touch the video cables and thats when the corruption started. I think the best thing to do is try with a new video card, but I am still unsure if thats the problem

Possible class action suit

Dear friends,

My laptop worked a while with lessened display corruption for a while. However, since the past two days, the laptop doesn't power up at all. The AC-adaptor light is on and Audio-Cd's play fine with the front LCD controls. However, the membrane switch to power on the laptop fails to switch on the laptop. I've taken the laptop apart, and looked at the membrane switch which seems fine. The mobo is fine I think since the cd-drive, and the front lcd panels are working. So my guess is that cpu is fried. I took off the cooling mod and saw a darkened halo on the center of the cpu underneath the dabbed greyish cooling grease.

Upon reading the following thread where users of the satellite 6100 have had similar issues with powering up, they traced the problem to the infamous video card. Specifically, the 80pin connector between the video card and the mobo had some pins loosened.

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/26393/

One of the last messages posted was by a lawyer who claims to be looking into the problems created by the overheating in the satellite laptops. I have sent him an email and I'll wait and see what he has to say.

http://www.lorisklar.com/toshad.htm

So now, I'm not sure, whether to get a new video card, a new CPU, or a new motherboard, or all three. Or whether I should just get a Dell Inspiron 9300.

Good luck guys.

Vij

We'll find out about the 64 MB video card for s501

Well, Hitek....

I just got a call from CompUSA about my 5105 s501. They were unable to procure a 32 MB card, and instead ordered a 64 MB one. It got in today. The 64 MB is brand new, so there should be no defects or wear and tear. They are going to install it today, and will get back to me before 5:00pm to tell me if it works. Cross your fingers... especially those of you who need to be able to use the 64 MB card in an s501.

I'll post again as soon as I hear back. On the upside, if the 64 MB card doesn't work, they will replace my laptop. right on dude.

For those CompUSA buyers out there, I will post what the replacement laptop they choose is, so you can see what to expect. My bet is on the M45-551. But they may choose an M35, or something like a gateway?

Wish me luck.

I'll keep you posted.

Update on the 64 MB graphics card

Hitek, and fellows,

I got a call from CompUSA. They said that the 64 MB graphics card worked with the s501 motherboard. However, now my PCMCIA slot doesn't work. They are ordering the s901 motherboard to replace my motherboard, so that the PCMCIA slot will work.

Apparently only one of the slots is not working. I know for a fact that at least one of the slots was working before I sent it in. I never used two at once, but I did use one of them for a PCMCIA firewire board, and sometimes a PCMCIA wireless card. I wasn't picky about which slot I used, and I am sure I used both off and on.

So, I don't know if it is the 64MB card that is making the board not work, or if it is that my motherbaord's PCMCIA slot was already defective. I should find out by Wednesday of next week whether the new motherboard works with the entire system.

The problem with the Nvidia graphics cards is that they have weak soldering connections on the RAM chips. The RAm chips become loose after a while, and must be resoldered or replaced because they get corrupted from the connection going on and off. It is apparently very difficult to repair/replace the RAM chip connections because the graphics board has a very thin layered connection or something like that beneath them, and soldering sometimes weakens that layer.

So it requires replacing the RAM chips, and repairing the connections to the graphics board, which is hard to do, and the chips are hard to find. Basically it requires a new graphics card. The 32 MB cards are really not available, or are very hard to come by. There are 64 MB cards available, but I am not sure where from. Toshiba is taking a big hit on the graphics cards (made by NVIDIA).

It sounds like a problem that comes about because Toshiba underestimated the heat these computers would produce, or the NVIDIA graphics cards may not have met the heat specifications they stated in their spec sheet. Two forces came together and it can't be determined who is liable for the indivisible harm: that our computers don't work.

CompUSA did a system check after they replaced the graphics card, and it sounds like the only problem they found was the PCMCIA slot. It's wierd that my PCMCIA slot is not working now?

Sounds like you can replace the 32 MB card with a 64 MB card, but that you may experience other problems, and may have to replace the system board, or that the whole system may work just fine with the 64 MB card(if my PCMCIA slot is an independent problem, caused some other way.).

I'll keep you updated.

s901 bluetooth

Does anyone know if the bluetooth on the 5105 s901 is integrated into the motherboard?, or by an internal daughter card?

CompUSA rocks!

So, even though I had to wait two months to get a solution, I CompUSA pulled through big time. They decided to issue areplacemen order. Instead of suggesting a comparable laptop, they just credited me the $2,099 that I spent on the laptop. I bought a Sony Vaio FS570 with the three year TAP plan from CompUSA. Nice! CompUSA even sent me my old hard drive so that I can get my files off of it.

Happy customer here.

CompUSA came through big time.

After 2 months of waiting, CompUSA came through big time. They decided to replace my 5105-s501 with the malfunctioning graphics board. Rather than selecting a comparable laptop for me, they just credited me the $2,099 I spent on the laptop two and a half years ago. I had to use the credit in the store, but that was alright by me. I bought a Sony VAIO FS570, with the three year TAP service plan. I have to say that I am a happy customer.

EDIT:
I didn't like the FS570, so I went back to CompUSA. The salesman allowed me to return the FS570 in exchange for he new FS660 with the improved Nvidia 6600 with 128 MB of dedicated ram. He basically knocked $250 off the price, and included the 3 year TAP warranty. WOW>

That's good to hear.

Unfortunetly I purchased my laptop from Costco with only a one-year warranty. The graphics card that i ordered off of ebay was defective and I returned it to the seller (who has yet to issue me a refund)

Instead of the T42, I will now be receiving an IBM T43 laptop with three-year warranty . I guess that I can part out the Toshiba to recoup some of the cost of the new laptop, but it will be nowhere near close to the full price of the Thinkpad.

I was intrigued to hear that the computer booted with the 64meg graphics card. Since i have no need to order one, it's up to someone else to try it out themselves and see if the board operates okay or if there are indeed other problems that crop up from use of different parts.

The saga moves on...

Be careful assuming the 64MB card will work in ALL models. I tried a 64MB card in a 5105-S607 and it didn't work. It is possible that the card I tried was DOA, but the S607 and S608 models use a different BIOS from the others. I have always speculated that the BIOS was the problem. With the 64MB card, my machine displayed every other character in DOS mode (before the machine switched to windows mode and died). It was as if the 64MB buffer wasn't being handled correctly. I believe that all 5105 models except for those 2 (both 32MB video and 64MB) use the same BIOS as each other, but different from the S607 and S608.

I just joined this forum to see if anyone else had a video problem with a Toshiba 5105-S501. Unfortunately, I see I have a LOT of company. Mine had a garbled display from the moment I turn it on. It will run if I boot up with "Enable VGA Mode" but the display is filled with vertical lines and the resolution is, of course, horrible. I guess it's time to shop for a 64MB card. I have had 3 Toshibas. The first (an old 486) also had a video problem. Half of the LCD screen was completely black. I had it fixed once and 8 months later it went out again. I replaced it with a 2545XCDT, which I am now using until I get the 5105 fixed. I think I am done with Toshiba. But, it's extended warranties from now on. Interestingly enough, I bought this in early May, 2002. It looks like it died at 3 years + 1 week. Hmmmm.

sparepartswarehouse.com said that neither the 32MB or 64MB card is available. Does anyone have a source other then eBay?

well, my poor little 5105s701 finally took a turn for the worse. i can barely read the screen as i'm typing this.
is it worth sending to a toshiba PASP place? do they have the vid cards?
or is it now a 3 1/2 year old door stop?

J

Try this place: www.micsol.com

You need to make sure you get the 64MB card for the S701. Both the 32MB and 64MB card have the designation FMC2G1