Toshiba Satellite A200 motherboard replacment

[600rob]

Hello,

I have a Toshiba satellite pro A200 laptop which up until last week was fine for 4 years.

last week it had been switched on for about 5 hours and the machine was properly shut down without any problems.

The next day when trying to turn the laptop on it failed to boot, and does not even make it to the system test screen. the blue light comes on and the screen briefly lights up, you can hear the machine begin to power up and after about 4 seconds everything stops. The screen stays black and nothing happens apart from the blue power light remains on. All of this coincides with replacing the broken Toshiba laptop charger with an aftermarket version bout from ebay.

Anyway after taking the machine to a local shop i was told the motherboard has failed and needs replacing.

After a bit of researching, ive found a few guides on motherboard replacement and this is a job i would like to try myself as i have a new laptop anyway but want to use this as a little exercise to learn more about fixing these sorts of problems myself.

My first question is about sourcing a replacement board...

When looking for a replacement do i need to find the exact same model number as the faulty board which i remove from my machine? Or will any of the A200 series boards be compatible with the rest of my hardware?
The reason i ask is i cant seem to find any replacement parts for my laptop model number: (psae7e-01500uen) Nor can i find any information about this subject

Also can anyone recommend where abouts in the uk i can source a replacement board. Ive looked on ebay and as yet cant find an exact match for my machine.

thanks in advance
Rob

 

[ukee1593]

There should be several online retailers which will stock that particular motherboard. You however cannot go down to your local computer store and expect to find a replacement motherboard.

For example: SparePartsWarehouse apparently has motherboards for the Toshiba Satellite Pro A200. http://www.sparepartswarehouse.com/Toshiba,Satellite-Pro,A200,PSAF4U-00D004,Laptop,System-Boards.aspx PLEASE NOTE: I personally have NEVER used this retailer and do not know whether they are reputable or not. Perhaps someone else could shed some light on this ...

$300 is an awful lot of money to spend on such an old laptop. Besides the Satellite Pro A200 has been plagued with overheating issues. Personally my old Satellite Pro A200 died about a year ago due to overheating issues. I suggest that you just dismantle the laptop without ordering a new motherboard for the experience. Perhaps there may be an obvious issue such as a blown capacitor on the board that you can replace to fix the computer without using up $300.

 

[600rob]

thanks ukee,

yes its quite alot to spend on an old machine. I already have a new replacment machine but i would like to use the tosh as a means to learna bit more about these things ( self diagnosis & repair is a new area for me)

I think i will take your advice and just strip the machine down and recover the data for now. This will give some experience. Will keep alook out on ebay just in case something does turn up that provides a fix also.

Thanks