Student-Contributed Wiki
An awesome team of students from our education program made this wiki.
‘’My computer is dead and when I plug it in to charge nothing happens.’’
Make sure the output values on the AC Adapter match the input values that are located on the back of the computer. An AC Adapter is part of the charging cord for the laptop. You can find the output values on the block in between the two sections of the cord. If they do not match, then you will need to find and purchase the proper charging cord.
Make sure the power indicator glows green. Looking at your front panel (the panel with the keyboard on it) the power indicator light it located in the bottom right.
Unplug the charging cord from your computer and shut it down. Flip the computer upside down and remove the battery (instructions on how to do this can be found here. Clean out any dust around the contacts inside the slot that the battery was removed from and on the battery itself. The contacts are 3 sets of little clips on each side. Place the battery back inside of the slot, plug the charge cord back in, restart your computer and allow the battery to charge overnight.
You may need a new charging port. This can be replaced by opening up the laptop, finding the charging port, and pulling it out. The replacement guide for this can be found here.
‘’My laptop will not connect to the internet. However, my phone is able to connect to the same wireless network.’’
Connect your computer to AC power (the charge cord) and make sure it is within 5 feet of wireless router. Sometimes if you are too far away from your router the device will have trouble finding a connection.
Shutdown computer, unplug the power cord into the router, and if a modem is used also unplug its power cord. Wait a few minutes, plug back in the modem, followed by the router, wait a few more minutes, and plug the computer back in. Restart the computer. If you still cannot connect go to next step.
Open up the Start Menu and type in “Connect to a network” and select the Connect to a network option to open the Wifi settings. Does the Wifi utility “see” and wireless networks? If not, then make sure your Wifi antenna is enabled. If the computer still cannot find a network to connect to, go to the next step.
In Start Menu, search “Device Manager.” Once you launch the Device Manager, under the “Network Adapters” tab, right-click on each listed device and select uninstall and follow the on-screen prompts as they appear. After you uninstall all of the devices, restart your computer and it should automatically identify the devices and reinstall all of their drivers when Windows loads. If the computer still cannot find a network to connect to, go to the next step.
Go to support.toshiba.com. Select downloads and identify your computer. Search through the downloads and download the correct driver for your device. Once it downloads, install the driver. If the computer still cannot find a network to connect to, go to the next step.
In Start Menu, search “System Restore.” Go to System Restore, click “Next”, and choose the latest restore point before your wifi issue started happening. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the restore. You may lose any recent things you have worked on, so back anything up you want on another device. If the computer still cannot find a network to connect to, go to the next step.
If signal is visible but you still cannot connect, you will need to purchase and install a new Wifi card. Steps on how to do so can be found here.
‘’While I am in the middle of doing something my computer keeps getting really hot and shutting off.’’
Make sure there is nothing blocking the vents. The vents are located on the bottom side of the computer. If there is nothing blocking the vents, go to the next step.
Make sure computer is not in a setting of excessive heat. This can add extra heat to the computer aside from the heat while using it, causing the cooling fan to have to work harder and overheat. If your computer is still overheating, go to the next step.
If you fix both of those things and your computer still overheats, you might need to replace the cooling fan. A clear indication that your cooling fan might need replacement is if you can hear it working harder than normal to cool off or if you hear it running very slow. Steps on how to install a cooling fan can be found here.
‘’There are lines across my screen making it difficult to read.’’
First things first, try restarting your computer to see if that works. Make sure that the computer is not dead or plugged into a faulty outlet. If your screen will still not turn on, go to the next step.
If problem persists and your power light is on, just not your screen, you may need to purchase a new LCD screen from the Toshiba website. Steps on how to replace screen can be found here.
‘’When I try to type, nothing is appearing on the screen’’
Try cleaning out large debris from under key(s) by blowing on the keyboard. If this does not work, go to next step.
In Start Menu, search “Device Manager.” Once you launch the Device Manager, under the “Keyboards” tab, right-click on each listed device and select uninstall and follow the on-screen prompts as they appear. After you uninstall all of the devices, restart your computer and it should automatically identify the devices and reinstall all of their drivers when Windows loads. If this does not work, go to next step.
If the last step does not work, you can purchase a replacement keyboard from Toshiba. The steps on how to install your new keyboard are found here.
If you have a missing key but the rest of your keyboard is still functioning, you cannot just replace one key. You need to replace the whole keyboard. Steps on how to do this can be found here.
