Replace motherboard or buy new laptop?

[Raysyn]

My Toshiba Satelite A500 wouldn't start (powersupply ok) Took it to Udon repair shop, they tested periferals, & claim motherboard needs replacing. Cannot find another one in thailand but can maybe get one sent from Singapore for excess of 10000bt and up to 90 day wait.

Do you know where I can get a used mboard in thailand? For around 3000bt? Can I use the current hard drive, dvd burner, tv card, 4gig ram, 16 inch screen and other parts on another laptop?

Or should I look for a new laptop or tablet to do the same job?

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Why would the Motherboard need replacing? No lights at all? What is the full model number?

[Raysyn]

Model LA5361P. Tested by elimination

Usb ports, power input (19.4 ) volts

Ram, fan and other strip cords. Has rev 1.0 cpu, dual core , i5, vga card and tv tuner.

[Pib]

I expect only "one" chip/component on your motherboard has failed, but whether the shop you took your computer to has the expertise to troubleshoot to the component level and replace that bad component is another story.

I have a Toshiba A100/A105 laptop going on 8 years old that failed Nov 13...the ATI X1300 video chip/GPU failed...it wouldn't even allow the computer to boot up except for a couple seconds of activity when first turning on the power switch and off course a black screen. That chip was replaced with an ATI X1400 chip and the machine is still in use today as my backup computer....took a repair shop here in western Bangkok 4 hours to repair the computer.

Now this particular video chip consists of several hundred ball solder joints which have to be unsoldered and resoldered at the same time with a special purpose hot air heating machine...some shops will do it with just a heat gun which is by far not a good way to do it, but sometimes it does work. And some shops just can't replace such chips...they don't even try...they just say you need a new motherboard.

And actually, this chip was soldered on the video board which then plugged into a motherboard socket....you would call that a "non-integrated GPU" where a GPU mounted directly on the motherboard is called an "integrated" GPU." I could have ordered a replacement video board if they hadn't been able to replace the GPU but a replacement video board would have cost as much as a replacement motherboard based on my Ebay searching.

If you are going to order a replacement motherboard you must order the exact replacement....your Model LA5361P could actually come with numerous different model motherboards. You can google on "How to Determine Your Toshiba Motherboard Part Number", but usually the motherboard has a label on them...usually the label is in the area where the RAM modules are installed. On this label there will be several numbers but look for one that starts with a "V"....like the part number of the motherboard I had repaired is V000068150...here's a cut and paste from an Ebay ad where they showed the label for a potential buyer could confirm he was ordering the right model motherboard.

Personally, if you can't get the motherboard repaired for a fair price I would just buy another laptop unless maybe a repair shop says they can order the board for an acceptable price, get it in an acceptable time, and of course provide you at least a 90 day repair warranty. Be sure you tell them you want the old board.

You could use the hard drive on the new computer, but you just couldn't put it into another laptop and have it bootup perfectly since the operating system (OS) & its boot files/drivers were for your old laptop...and the OS may not even boot or be deactivated since it senses a new motherboard....you would probably have to reinstall everything/reactivate the OS. But hey, if your new laptop comes with a better/bigger/faster drive you wouldn't even want to use the old drive except maybe to put it in an external drive enclosure to store/backup files. Reusing parts between laptops usually don't work very well unless they are identical or very similar models. A person then usually just ends up selling the broke laptop for parts. Good luck.

[harrry]

You almost certainly will not be able to reactivate your programs as they consider a changed motherboard to be a different machine and if the program came with the laptop it is an OEM product. If you bought the full program yourself you can reactivate it by phone

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Model LA5361P. Tested by elimination

Usb ports, power input (19.4 ) volts

Ram, fan and other strip cords. Has rev 1.0 cpu, dual core , i5, vga card and tv tuner.

The laptop model number.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

You almost certainly will not be able to reactivate your programs as they consider a changed motherboard to be a different machine and if the program came with the laptop it is an OEM product. If you bought the full program yourself you can reactivate it by phone

Wrong.

[harrry]

You almost certainly will not be able to reactivate your programs as they consider a changed motherboard to be a different machine and if the program came with the laptop it is an OEM product. If you bought the full program yourself you can reactivate it by phone

Wrong.

Maybe I should go to the horses mouth for a fuller answer.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/windows/en-US/944d30f1-78fd-4486-83ec-b314e04dd49a/replace-motherboard-activation

Whether or not you can successfully reactivate Windows after changing the motherboard depends on the version of Windows.

If you have an OEM version that came pre-installed on the computer, then the answer is generally no, you will not be able to reactivate. OEM versions are tied to the first system where they are installed and generally a new motherboard is seen as a new computer. This all depends on the how much difference there is between the old and new motherboard.

If you purchased a retail version of Windows, separately and installed it, then you can replace the motherboard and reactivate as many times as you wish. You can even move it to a different computer as long as it is only installed on one computer at a time and reactivate without any problems.

Hope this helps.

Thank You for using Windows 7

Ronnie Vernon MVP

• Marked as answer by Arthur_LiMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Thursday, April 29, 2010 6:12 AM

Edited October 18, 2014 by harrry

[Raysyn]

Hey Guys

Thank you for the valuable info. You've just changed my feelings from hopeless dispair to a glimmer of hope. I will take this to the repair bod who has a little Nik noi English and get him to revisit the mother board to retest.what you are saying makes sense. It seems like Toshiba makes a different mother board for every case, it would be a shame if they made a common board for each model thus eliminating a lot of stress and problems down the track. I have a 300 km round trip to see the repair guy so it could take a while to get a result and let you guys know the outcome. Many thanks

[Jiu-Jitsu]

You almost certainly will not be able to reactivate your programs as they consider a changed motherboard to be a different machine and if the program came with the laptop it is an OEM product. If you bought the full program yourself you can reactivate it by phone

Wrong.

Maybe I should go to the horses mouth for a fuller answer.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/windows/en-US/944d30f1-78fd-4486-83ec-b314e04dd49a/replace-motherboard-activation

Whether or not you can successfully reactivate Windows after changing the motherboard depends on the version of Windows.

If you have an OEM version that came pre-installed on the computer, then the answer is generally no, you will not be able to reactivate. OEM versions are tied to the first system where they are installed and generally a new motherboard is seen as a new computer. This all depends on the how much difference there is between the old and new motherboard.

If you purchased a retail version of Windows, separately and installed it, then you can replace the motherboard and reactivate as many times as you wish. You can even move it to a different computer as long as it is only installed on one computer at a time and reactivate without any problems.

Hope this helps.

Thank You for using Windows 7

Ronnie Vernon MVP

• Marked as answer by Arthur_LiMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Thursday, April 29, 2010 6:12 AM

I will restate that you are wrong.... on two counts. Firstly, all machines that came with Windows pre-installed came with a Product key on a Microsoft COA. This can be used for telephone activation, regardless of a Motherboard change. Secondly, it is still possible to activate Windows without this key by simply recreating the conditions for pre-activation.

There is a big difference between reading what someone else has written and taking it for Gospel and actually understanding about what it is that you are writing.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Hey Guys

Thank you for the valuable info. You've just changed my feelings from hopeless dispair to a glimmer of hope. I will take this to the repair bod who has a little Nik noi English and get him to revisit the mother board to retest.what you are saying makes sense. It seems like Toshiba makes a different mother board for every case, it would be a shame if they made a common board for each model thus eliminating a lot of stress and problems down the track. I have a 300 km round trip to see the repair guy so it could take a while to get a result and let you guys know the outcome. Many thanks

Laptop full model number. It can't be that difficult.

[lostinisaan]

Hey Guys

Thank you for the valuable info. You've just changed my feelings from hopeless dispair to a glimmer of hope. I will take this to the repair bod who has a little Nik noi English and get him to revisit the mother board to retest.what you are saying makes sense. It seems like Toshiba makes a different mother board for every case, it would be a shame if they made a common board for each model thus eliminating a lot of stress and problems down the track. I have a 300 km round trip to see the repair guy so it could take a while to get a result and let you guys know the outcome. Many thanks

Laptop full model number. It can't be that difficult.

OP, you should listen to jiu jitsu's advise. Most guys at computer shops don't have any knowledge about electronics. A tiny cheap, worth 30 baht could cause such a problem.