Toshiba Satellite 205 repair help request

[digitalwanderer]

Ugh. The tech working on my jeep sent me his laptop home to see if I could get it to work. It's a dead stick, totally nothing happens.

Stats:

Toshiba
Satellite A205-S4587 SYSTEM UNIT
MODEL NO. PSAF0U-02K009

I got a new battery and charger today and tossed 'em in feeling hopeful, but nothing. Took the laptop apart, and it is without a doubt the most dirty laptop I've ever worked on. It was his shop laptop to look at stuff while working on cars, so I spent a good deal of time just cleaning the grime off the outside before opening it up and blowing out the inside. Pulled it all apart and took the cable out that is the power inlet port to the motherboard and it's working fine, pulled out my multimeter and actually checked.

I'm really not sure what to do next. Normally I'd pull the battery and let the BIOS reset and hope for the best before ordering a new motherboard, but it does not have a normal CMOS battery that I can find. It's a little one that is actually soldered to the board with one contact and then pressed on to the other contact...if that's the CMOS battery like I think. Gonna leave it separate for a while and see what happens.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Pictures:




I've never seen a battery like this before, very weird.

 

[pcchen]

I've heard that some Toshiba laptops use rechargeable CMOS batteries and this looks like one of them.

 

[orangpelupa]

grab a multitester (multimeter?)

plug laptop to power outlet without battery

check one by one by following the power trace, until you found where it didnt give power

EDIT:
oh and please record everything. if it goes kaboom, you have a video that may surpass electroboom!

 

[orangpelupa]

some pdf that may be relevant

Elektrotanya for electronics experts

Electronics forum for electronics experts to repair defective appliance.

elektrotanya.com

Elektrotanya for electronics experts

Electronics forum for electronics experts to repair defective appliance.

elektrotanya.com

Elektrotanya for electronics experts

Electronics forum for electronics experts to repair defective appliance.

elektrotanya.com

try looking more on that website. it sometime have obscure service manuals and diagrams

 

[digitalwanderer]

Got it all put back together and it's still dead. I tried. Talked to Jay and he's not really interested in replacing the motherboard but he did admit he'd like me to teach him how to clean out his current garage laptop to prevent it from happening again. I told him and I'll walk him through it when I next see him.

Thanks for all the help, very appreciated!