my toshiba satellite laptop L355-S7812 crashes when running with the power adapter plugged in whether the battery is removed or not. but it always runs fine if the battery is charged first and then is allowed to run on battery only, i.e, the adapter is unplugged after the battery is charged. it wasn't like this when it was new. any idea why? tia.
When you say it crashes, what do you mean? Does it blue screen, power off, reboot, or what? Are you using the original AC-to-DC adapter? Does this still happen if the battery is out? Are you using the latest BIOS version? Does this happen when booted from a Linux LiveCD?
crashes means mostly repeated reboots and sometimes freezing or blue screen. without battery and with adapter plugged in, the crashes happen 100% of the time. adapter is original. bios is latest. crashes happen regardless of OS (linux, xp, or win 7). the battery can be charged with the same adapter with no problem (as long as the laptop is not powered on).
it does not look like there is problem with cable. but charger putting out voltage over specs does seem possible cause of problem. if this is the case, will charging the battery with this charger also be a problem? not able to borrow another adapter for testing.
what would it take to be able to really determine if this adapter is outputting out of specs voltage w/out using another adapter? thx.
thx. i did the power cord tests already and it doesn't seem to be the cause of the problem. what happens to the electricity that flows out of the adapter into the laptop? is there further "processing" of this electricity? is it similar to the desktop setup where the power supply provides different cables for the different components inside the desktop pc.
The only further processing of the power inside the lap top is done through chips/diodes/capacitors/etc. and aren't serviceable by the average user.
I have the same problem with the same computer I have had this Toshiba for a few years and the problem started about 6 mounths ago and I still don't know what causes it. I have two other Toshibas and tried the AC charger from both and the same thing, it would keep restarting. I have not tried updating the BIOS but I know mine is not the AC adapter maybe the plug in or something inside. Good luck Ken
hangs when using the charger, it usually occurs when the NEC Tokin capacitor is damaged, NEC Tokin position is behind the processor socket
Sounds to me like, maybe, your battery's built in controller is faulty or dead, this could cause the Laptop to cut out when AC power is supplied. I've seen this happen twice due to dead batteries, but have also seen this problem when the DC jack is not grounded properly or shorted by a split in the DC to motherboard wire etc. My advice would be to get it looked at by someone, maybe ask around if any friends know to fix tech; as shop prices can be expensive.
A Solution Many models of Toshiba laptops that contain NEC/TOKIN Proadlizer (a capacitor) are known to have this problem and the solution lies in replacing it. However, your model does not seem to have a Proadlizer as seen on irisvista L355 disassembly photos. Instead of a large Proadlizer your model seems to contain several small capacitors. I have seen similar problems being posted on a couple of forums. You can find various links by first searching for "A200 shutdown".