Background: My Toshiba Satellite laptop is about 5 years old, however it is an i3 with 4 GB RAM and in general is still performing reasonably well.
Approximately 5 months ago the cooling fan had failed and I ordered a new one off Amazon. It was not an Exact fit but I got it to work. I am not an expert at taking notebooks apart, but got it back together with a little difficulty. I did not, put all the screws back in as I rarely carry the laptop around. I probably put 1/2 back in.
Approximately 3-4 months ago it was getting slow and I did a fresh format and install of Windows 8.1 from genuine disc and key.
Approximately 6-8 weeks ago I upgraded to Windows 10.
For the 1st week or two there were no problems that I'm experiencing now.
At my home I use a Dell monitor via VGA cable as an extended desktop.
At my parents home I use an old Samsung TV via via VGA cable as an extended desktop.
About 2 weeks in to having Windows 10 installed I went home to visit my parents, you have to adjust the screen resolution to get the different monitor to work, so I did. All was fine.
Upon coming back home to the Dell monitor the Dell monitor would not show a picture even after changing settings back to its native resolution. This went on for several days, I could not figure out what it was and figured it was either a Windows 10 glitch or maybe the VGA port on my laptop had gone bad, I had no idea. At the same time my computer speakers do not seem to work at all after upgrading to Win10, however, you can plug a headphone set in and get sound..
Here is another post I made about it at the time: http://www.tenforums.com/drivers-hardware/22561-hardware-problems-after-upgrading-windows-10-a.html
So a few days later the extended desktop starts working again out of nowhere. Great!
Then maybe 1-2 weeks ago my screens start flickering.
At first it was really bad, then it seemed to get better. Sometimes it will just flicker, sometimes it will go black for a minute. This is true for both the laptop screen and the dell monitor (which makes me think its something with the video card).
Okay so remember I said I did not put all my screws back in the laptop after replacing the fan, well this was especially true for the outer case screws because I was thinking about going in and dusting and cleaning ports with alocohol and maybe doing some new thermal paste on the cpu, however, never got around to it..
I noticed that when the screen was flickering or gone blank I could press down on the keyboard, kind of mashing the hardware together and the screen would come on, making me believe it had something to do with loose hardware connections or ribbons or bad grounding.
So I put all the case screws back in and I would say it has made the issue much better, however, it still flickers a bit, particularly on startup for the first 3-4 minutes, then it quits, making me believe it is a component on the verge of failing...
Any guesses what is going on?
Approximately 5 months ago the cooling fan had failed and I ordered a new one off Amazon. It was not an Exact fit but I got it to work. I am not an expert at taking notebooks apart, but got it back together with a little difficulty. I did not, put all the screws back in as I rarely carry the laptop around. I probably put 1/2 back in.
Approximately 3-4 months ago it was getting slow and I did a fresh format and install of Windows 8.1 from genuine disc and key.
Approximately 6-8 weeks ago I upgraded to Windows 10.
For the 1st week or two there were no problems that I'm experiencing now.
At my home I use a Dell monitor via VGA cable as an extended desktop.
At my parents home I use an old Samsung TV via via VGA cable as an extended desktop.
About 2 weeks in to having Windows 10 installed I went home to visit my parents, you have to adjust the screen resolution to get the different monitor to work, so I did. All was fine.
Upon coming back home to the Dell monitor the Dell monitor would not show a picture even after changing settings back to its native resolution. This went on for several days, I could not figure out what it was and figured it was either a Windows 10 glitch or maybe the VGA port on my laptop had gone bad, I had no idea. At the same time my computer speakers do not seem to work at all after upgrading to Win10, however, you can plug a headphone set in and get sound..
Here is another post I made about it at the time: http://www.tenforums.com/drivers-hardware/22561-hardware-problems-after-upgrading-windows-10-a.html
So a few days later the extended desktop starts working again out of nowhere. Great!
Then maybe 1-2 weeks ago my screens start flickering.
At first it was really bad, then it seemed to get better. Sometimes it will just flicker, sometimes it will go black for a minute. This is true for both the laptop screen and the dell monitor (which makes me think its something with the video card).
Okay so remember I said I did not put all my screws back in the laptop after replacing the fan, well this was especially true for the outer case screws because I was thinking about going in and dusting and cleaning ports with alocohol and maybe doing some new thermal paste on the cpu, however, never got around to it..
I noticed that when the screen was flickering or gone blank I could press down on the keyboard, kind of mashing the hardware together and the screen would come on, making me believe it had something to do with loose hardware connections or ribbons or bad grounding.
So I put all the case screws back in and I would say it has made the issue much better, however, it still flickers a bit, particularly on startup for the first 3-4 minutes, then it quits, making me believe it is a component on the verge of failing...
Any guesses what is going on?
