TOSHIBA_SATELLITE_L775D-S7340 died

My TOSHIBA_SATELLITE_L775D-S7340 will not start up at all.
It was working fine 'til I tried to power it up yesterday morning.
Nothing. If I power up just from the battery, the middle of the three
front LEDs lights up - and the DVD drive blinks. That's it. If I
connect to AC with the adapter, two other LEDs light up, the right one
is orange. It stays that way. No video display.

Is this a symptom of a bad battery? Or something deeper?
Maybe I should just toss it? Hate to do that.

Pete

On Mon, 29 Jun 2015 04:55:55 -0400, wrote:

My TOSHIBA_SATELLITE_L775D-S7340 will not start up at all.
It was working fine 'til I tried to power it up yesterday morning.
Nothing. If I power up just from the battery, the middle of the three
front LEDs lights up - and the DVD drive blinks. That's it. If I
connect to AC with the adapter, two other LEDs light up, the right one
is orange. It stays that way. No video display.

Is this a symptom of a bad battery? Or something deeper?
Maybe I should just toss it? Hate to do that.

Pete


Still playing with this laptop. Still dead.
I just noticed something though-
I removed the battery, and connected the power adapter, and now when
I press the on button, the screen at least flashes a Toshiba intro
screen. Tells me the screen is okay I'm thinking. The screen goes
right off however.

Should the screen stay lit, and the laptop boot from the adapter,
without the battery? Or will a laptop run withouth a battery? I
guess what I am down to is that maybe I should opt to buy a new
battery?

Thanks

Pete

I think this forum says my Toshiba shud be runnable withouts battery.

http://forums.toshiba.com/t5/Batteri...ry/td-p/337868

In which case I would waste my money buying a new battery, I'm
thinking.

Thanks

Peter




On Wed, 01 Jul 2015 07:33:39 -0400, wrote:

On Mon, 29 Jun 2015 04:55:55 -0400, wrote:

My TOSHIBA_SATELLITE_L775D-S7340 will not start up at all.
It was working fine 'til I tried to power it up yesterday morning.
Nothing. If I power up just from the battery, the middle of the three
front LEDs lights up - and the DVD drive blinks. That's it. If I
connect to AC with the adapter, two other LEDs light up, the right one
is orange. It stays that way. No video display.

Is this a symptom of a bad battery? Or something deeper?
Maybe I should just toss it? Hate to do that.

Pete


Still playing with this laptop. Still dead.
I just noticed something though-
I removed the battery, and connected the power adapter, and now when
I press the on button, the screen at least flashes a Toshiba intro
screen. Tells me the screen is okay I'm thinking. The screen goes
right off however.

Should the screen stay lit, and the laptop boot from the adapter,
without the battery? Or will a laptop run withouth a battery? I
guess what I am down to is that maybe I should opt to buy a new
battery?

Thanks

Pete

wrote:


I think this forum says my Toshiba shud be runnable withouts battery.

http://forums.toshiba.com/t5/Batteri...ry/td-p/337868

In which case I would waste my money buying a new battery, I'm
thinking.

Thanks

Peter

On Wed, 01 Jul 2015 07:33:39 -0400, wrote:

On Mon, 29 Jun 2015 04:55:55 -0400, wrote:

My TOSHIBA_SATELLITE_L775D-S7340 will not start up at all.
It was working fine 'til I tried to power it up yesterday morning.
Nothing. If I power up just from the battery, the middle of the three
front LEDs lights up - and the DVD drive blinks. That's it. If I
connect to AC with the adapter, two other LEDs light up, the right one
is orange. It stays that way. No video display.

Is this a symptom of a bad battery? Or something deeper?
Maybe I should just toss it? Hate to do that.

Pete

Still playing with this laptop. Still dead.
I just noticed something though-
I removed the battery, and connected the power adapter, and now when
I press the on button, the screen at least flashes a Toshiba intro
screen. Tells me the screen is okay I'm thinking. The screen goes
right off however.

Should the screen stay lit, and the laptop boot from the adapter,
without the battery? Or will a laptop run withouth a battery? I
guess what I am down to is that maybe I should opt to buy a new
battery?

Thanks

Pete

It depends on what you saw on the intro screen.

I have an Acer LCD monitor here, and it flashes a short
animation on the screen. The presentation is "dumb",
so doesn't indicate intelligent life is in there.

If the Toshiba intro was preceded by some disk activity
and the disk drive light, it would imply the CPU played
a part in doing it. If none of the rest of the computer
had anything to do with it, you might instead supposed
the LCD did this on its own (built-in OSD).

I also have a separate Acer laptop running Windows 7
(not purchased at the same time as the Acer LCD monitor
for my desktop), and the laptop runs without the battery
present, and with the power adapter connected.

There was an era of mobile devices, where you weren't
supposed to remove the battery, and the battery was
part of a regulation scheme. So the rule is not universal.
But with modern laptops, I've noticed my own laptop runs
just fine that way.

I wouldn't waste money on a battery, unless I could access
the BIOS setup screen. As proof the processor is running OK.
You should not need a hard drive, to access the BIOS setup
screen. (And again, this rule isn't true over all history.
Compaq used to make computers, where the BIOS setup screen
actually loaded from the hard drive, and the BIOS was not
stored in a motherboard flash memory chip like modern
systems use. If the Compaq-provided hard drive died,
you had no BIOS setup screen.)

Paul

On Wed, 01 Jul 2015 10:55:25 -0400, Paul wrote:


It depends on what you saw on the intro screen.

I have an Acer LCD monitor here, and it flashes a short
animation on the screen. The presentation is "dumb",
so doesn't indicate intelligent life is in there.

If the Toshiba intro was preceded by some disk activity
and the disk drive light, it would imply the CPU played
a part in doing it. If none of the rest of the computer
had anything to do with it, you might instead supposed
the LCD did this on its own (built-in OSD).

I also have a separate Acer laptop running Windows 7
(not purchased at the same time as the Acer LCD monitor
for my desktop), and the laptop runs without the battery
present, and with the power adapter connected.

There was an era of mobile devices, where you weren't
supposed to remove the battery, and the battery was
part of a regulation scheme. So the rule is not universal.
But with modern laptops, I've noticed my own laptop runs
just fine that way.

I wouldn't waste money on a battery, unless I could access
the BIOS setup screen. As proof the processor is running OK.
You should not need a hard drive, to access the BIOS setup
screen. (And again, this rule isn't true over all history.
Compaq used to make computers, where the BIOS setup screen
actually loaded from the hard drive, and the BIOS was not
stored in a motherboard flash memory chip like modern
systems use. If the Compaq-provided hard drive died,
you had no BIOS setup screen.)

Paul

I just discovered that after I pulled the battery, left the adapter
connected, and then tried to cold boot, when I repeatedly hit esc
suddenly I had a boot display. I let it go, and W7 booted fine.
I shut down, replaced the battery, rebooted - and it booted fine.
But but but, I also now notice the power connection is faulty. I
jiggle the plug, and the display goes black.

This explains a lot I think.

Thanks

Pete

wrote:


I just discovered that after I pulled the battery, left the adapter
connected, and then tried to cold boot, when I repeatedly hit esc
suddenly I had a boot display. I let it go, and W7 booted fine.
I shut down, replaced the battery, rebooted - and it booted fine.
But but but, I also now notice the power connection is faulty. I
jiggle the plug, and the display goes black.

This explains a lot I think.

Thanks

Pete

That's some good detective work :-)

So you're not so busted after all.

On the more modern laptops, the power jack that the adapter
plugs into, is a tiny circuit board. It has the barrel connector
on one side (the side facing the user). And another kind of connector
on the other side.

The reason the sub-assembly was invented, was to make repairing
a power jack easier. You get a new tiny circuit board, probably 1x1"
or 1"x2" or so, that sort of size. And you plug that in, in place
of the broken one.

On older motherboards, the power jack (barrel type) is soldered
and swaged to the PCB. When someone tugs on the connector and
breaks the solder joints, the repair is pretty difficult to do.
It might require pouring two-part epoxy on it for strength,
and doing some soldering.

And that's why the better machines now, use a sub-assembly. It
doesn't mean the sub-assembly is easy to find, but it does
put an end to messy (attempts) at soldering one back on. The
replacement just plugs in. It might still require removing
an excessive number of screws to get at it.

You can see an example of one, here. $6 + shipping.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-POWER-JAC...#ht_3331wt_701

I don't see how that one, secures to the laptop casing. If the
laptop casing is cracked, the barrel connector may not be
secured properly to the casing, and remain loose.

Good luck,
Paul

On 7/2/2015 8:11 PM, Paul wrote:
wrote:


I just discovered that after I pulled the battery, left the adapter
connected, and then tried to cold boot, when I repeatedly hit esc
suddenly I had a boot display. I let it go, and W7 booted fine.
I shut down, replaced the battery, rebooted - and it booted fine.
But but but, I also now notice the power connection is faulty. I
jiggle the plug, and the display goes black.

This explains a lot I think.

Thanks

Pete

That's some good detective work :-)

So you're not so busted after all.

On the more modern laptops, the power jack that the adapter
plugs into, is a tiny circuit board. It has the barrel connector
on one side (the side facing the user). And another kind of connector
on the other side.

The reason the sub-assembly was invented, was to make repairing
a power jack easier. You get a new tiny circuit board, probably 1x1"
or 1"x2" or so, that sort of size. And you plug that in, in place
of the broken one.

On older motherboards, the power jack (barrel type) is soldered
and swaged to the PCB. When someone tugs on the connector and
breaks the solder joints, the repair is pretty difficult to do.
It might require pouring two-part epoxy on it for strength,
and doing some soldering.

And that's why the better machines now, use a sub-assembly. It
doesn't mean the sub-assembly is easy to find, but it does
put an end to messy (attempts) at soldering one back on. The
replacement just plugs in. It might still require removing
an excessive number of screws to get at it.

You can see an example of one, here. $6 + shipping.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-POWER-JAC...#ht_3331wt_701


I don't see how that one, secures to the laptop casing. If the
laptop casing is cracked, the barrel connector may not be
secured properly to the casing, and remain loose.

Good luck,
Paul

It appears that there may be more than one power jack assembly for that
model number and it also appears that there is no commonality of mounting
methods. Here is one from Amazon that looks to be quite different from the
one you linked to and which reviewers either rave about or pan for being
incompatible. Some caution appears to be called for in buying this cheap part:

http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Satell.../dp/B00CP74Q2O

On Fri, 3 Jul 2015 09:30:00 -0400, John McGaw wrote:



It appears that there may be more than one power jack assembly for that
model number and it also appears that there is no commonality of mounting
methods. Here is one from Amazon that looks to be quite different from the
one you linked to and which reviewers either rave about or pan for being
incompatible. Some caution appears to be called for in buying this cheap part:

http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Satell.../dp/B00CP74Q2O


Since I had seen similar power connection failures on other laptops
earlier, I conclude that this is a very worrisome area on a laptop -
very exposed, very subject to failure. Ergo, buyer beware. Too bad.
I really liked this laptop.

Thanks all

Pete

On 7/3/2015 6:52 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 3 Jul 2015 09:30:00 -0400, John McGaw wrote:



It appears that there may be more than one power jack assembly for that
model number and it also appears that there is no commonality of mounting
methods. Here is one from Amazon that looks to be quite different from the
one you linked to and which reviewers either rave about or pan for being
incompatible. Some caution appears to be called for in buying this cheap part:

http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Satell.../dp/B00CP74Q2O


Since I had seen similar power connection failures on other laptops
earlier, I conclude that this is a very worrisome area on a laptop -
very exposed, very subject to failure. Ergo, buyer beware. Too bad.
I really liked this laptop.

Thanks all

Pete


There should really be no reason you cannot repair the laptop -- just that
you will need to determine exactly which sort of power jack assembly your
particular one uses before making an order. The cost looks as though it
should be $10 no matter which sort it uses. Getting into some laptops can
be a confusing and frustrating experience but it is not impossible.

On Fri, 3 Jul 2015 19:11:37 -0400, John McGaw wrote:


There should really be no reason you cannot repair the laptop -- just that
you will need to determine exactly which sort of power jack assembly your
particular one uses before making an order. The cost looks as though it
should be $10 no matter which sort it uses. Getting into some laptops can
be a confusing and frustrating experience but it is not impossible.


I have done it. Been very frustrated. I am an 84-yr old, with the
usual old-man shakes. My fingers are not that steady any more. What's
worse, my tired eyes sometimes can't deal with the little black
screws. But I will try it.

Pray for me

Pete