Hi everyone! Was wondering if anyone had any experience in replacing laptop motherboards? I have a Toshiba Satellite A210-1CO with a dead mobo. Now I cannot find a exact number for number replacement on ebay (buying from a company seems to be same price as buying new lappy) but I have found a guy selling a tested and working motherboard from a toshiba A210-1AS. Will This work? will it have to much differences? can I use my existing HDD with it, without reinstalling windows? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Mike.
usually with toshibas and ibm's, the A***-* is the model, and the last 2 **'s are the specific pre-built "options group" ... say A210-1aa is a 1.5 celeron, with 512 ram, and the A210-1xx is the 2ghz core 2 with the 2gb ram option. generally, the motherboard only has to match the first 4 or 5 digits. ask the guy for the FRU number (field replacable unit) ... if they match, the mobo will 99% likely work.
Yep, the FRU is the key. Toshiba does not seem very open with them though. If you can ask for the FRU, I would recommend it. As for the actual labor, be prepared to tear the entire laptop down. To help keep track of the screws, I recommend paper plates and a marker. The laptio should have a sort of layer arrangement, us a plate for each layer. Draw a sort of schematic for the layer on the plate, and push the screws into the plate so you don't loose them, and have a map of where they went.
