One of the problems with UMPCs is that they are small and portable and they go everywhere and get placed in dangerous positions. I’ve had the Pepper Pad 3 in the bath, the Kohjinsha balanced on top of the TV and the i7210 on the top of a microwave oven. This morning the Kohjinsha was on the sofa and as I went to open it up it slipped out of my hand and fell to the hard floor I have in my lounge. I looked at the screen and saw a bubble in the middle of the screen gradually fade away like a final heartbeat. Because I had opened the lid, it had started to resume and the disk had been spinning. Now, the only sound it makes is a click….click….click. The drive is dead.
Fortunately everything else is OK. Including the screen. It boots from my DSL USB stick and works as normal so my loss is now your gain, readers, because I’ve had to take the device apart to pull the HDD out and now you get the naked images and a How-To! I’m relieved that it really is a 2.5″ drive inside because it means a replacement will be easy and cheap. I’m also relieved that I do most of my work online and via network drives and that there was no important data on the disk.
Read on for the How-To
How to replace the hard drive on the Kohjinsha SA1.
Its not an easy job to replace the hard drive on the Kohjinsha SA1 so don’t attempt to do this unless you are confident. It goes without saying that this operation voids your warranty and that I can’t guarantee that these intstructions are perfect. Click on images for larger versions.
Start by removing the battery and flipping the unit over. There are 7 easy-to undo screws and three hidden screws. Two of them are under the rubber feet as shown in this image.
The third is only accessible after removing the keyboard. To remove the keyboard you have to remove the two-part plastic part that surrounds the swivel mechanism. First take the center piece out.
Then swivel the screen through 90% and make sure the screws are already undone. You should be able to prise the longer plastic cover away with your fingers. To remove it, lift it up from the front.
The keyboard is fairly simple to remove. There is a bit of sticky tape underneath it but a gentle lift separates the keyboard from the tape. Angle the keyboard up from the back and look behind it, you’ll see the ribbon cable.
By lifting up the light part of the ribbon cable connector, you can release the cable and remove the keyboard.Watch out for all those bagel crumbs!!
You can also remove the connector to the left of the keyboard ribbon cable.
There’s the secret last screw!
Next is the horrible bit. You have to unscrew the screen swivel mechanism. Remove the two rear screws and then position the screen flat before you remove the front two. Loosen the mechanism and lay the screen on its back. At this point you can carefully prise the two halve of the casing apart with your fingernails. Look carefully at this image. You will see that the two halves of the case are separated but you can not remove the top half. You have to rotate it anti-clockwise through 90 degrees and finally you get access to the hard drive.
You have to remove the whole drive casing which means releasing the ribbon cable. Unlock it by lifting the black part up and towards the front.
Once it is free, you can remove the drive and casing. The ribbon cable and a black plastic molding comes away from the drives IDE connector. Prise it away carefully.
Now all you have to do is put the new drive in and put it all together. Putting it together is easier than taking it apart. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to replace the drive as I need to order one but after putting it back together I booted DSL from a flash stick and it appears to be working OK. Phew!
Now I have the option. Do I go for a big hard drive that I probably won’t use or do I drop in a 4 or 8GB flash drive and improve ruggedness, power consumption and speed. With the CF and SD slots available I’m pretty tempted to go the flash drive route. Whatever i do I need to do it quickly as I’m planing to use the Kohjinsha as my main device at CeBit in 4 weeks.
I’m searching for instructions on wireless card replacement for my Kohjinsha SA1. I realize that this was posted about 11mos. ago, but I’ve lost the wireless on it and to send it back to Asia (I’m in Canada, is complicated. If it is at all reasonable- I’d like to try to fix it myself. Do you have any images or when you were changing the HD, did you see where the wireless card is? What did you replace it with? SSD?
Thanks- Barb
The wireless/BT combo card is show on the fourth picture on Chippy’s post. When you lift the long plastic up, you will see the module.
Here in Mexico, there is a clonic seller (http://www.sensusmexico.com.mx/S18touch.html) for this Kohjinsha notebook, call them, maybe they can help you
Thanks for the link- I tried it and couldn’t get anywhere in it- I’d like to email them and see if I could buy a replacement wireless card- I’ve had mine out and unplugged and put back in- and it still won’t work. No driver will install- insists that there is no device installed. So I figure that the wireless card is faulty. If you have a email address that I could contact them that would be great!
thanks for the help.
Barb
Hi Barbara!
Well, you´re right, there is no email address, but there is an address for a reseller (ventas@techevolution.com.mx) (http://www.techevolution.com.mx/computo.html), before you try to buy the hardware replacement, give it a try to the driver located at this address:
http://www.synnex.com.mx/micrositios/sensus/drivers/s18/Wireless%20LAN.zip
Good Luck!
Mario.
Thanks so much for the email address and website- I’ve emailed my request to them- hopefully I will get a favourable reply! I did try the Sensus S18 driver, and got the same- “no device installed” message with that one as well.
Hopefully I can get a new card- it takes nothing to pop out the old one and replace it- the time is in the removal of the housing under the screen- but I’m getting faster at that too!
Thanks,
Barb
So I don’t need to remove the keyboard? That’s fabulous! Do you know if it is a release clip? The bluetooth still works, and I was wondering if I just removed the card and then put it back in, the unit could see it! I have the driver for it, but it won’t see it and refuses to install. I find the USB wireless in the way since I like to rotate the screen and hold it like a book.
any other suggestions would be welcome.
It is BT/Wireless combo (I might be wrong). If your BT still works, my suspicion is that you may not be using the correct driver. Also you need to activate Wireless by pressing the Fn + F4 keys. You may go to http://www.kohjinsha.com.sg and download the WLAN driver for the SA1.
You may try remeoving the card and reconnecting it if all things failed. When you remove the long plastic piece (you only need to remove the middle screw on the underneath nearest the battery), you will be able to see the module and the wire with the connectors to the motherboard.
Hope this helps.
I’m at the “all things failed” point now ~ The driver I’m trying to install, came from the kohjinsha.com.sg download page, and it says that there isn’t an installed device, so won’t install itself. The Fn + F4 key works and turns on the green LED, but still the device isn’t found. I had the bios set to start the wireless on boot, but after it stopped working, I changed it back to off (on boot). I’ve re-installed the OS twice to see if I had something interfering with it- no joy- now I don’t have the touch screen (that is minor- as long as I can rotate the screen, touch isn’t needed.) If taking out the wireless card and then putting it back in doesn’t work, then I’m going to have to figure out where to find another one. One step at a time- I guess.
Thanks for your help – it is much appreciated!
Barb
hello
I bougth a used SH8 when I went to Japan 2 month ago, but when I looked for more options in bios, accidently I turned on a bios password… Now my SH8 doesn’t want to boot without this password… Is somebody know a “super admin” password for this type of machine ? or maybe a method to clear cmos ?
I am very sad… I was so happy to bring this laptop from the other face of the earth, and now I can’t use it…
Hi, I had a similar problem with my VYE S37 which seemed to have a dodgy BIOS version but once I received the latest version and used the below all is now great :
I used “Some Toshiba’s can be convinced to bypass the startup BIOS password if you hold down the key while booting the system. ” BUT this only happened after 3 failed attempts (power-on, press enter 3 times when prompted for password) – REPEAT THIS 3 TIMES and WHEN you see the RED bar at the bottom left of screen, press ENTER. Go down to “Security Environment” (or something like that – 3rd from top), then enter current password (which is what I set in the first place), enter new password (can be the same), confirm new password and then it boots your OS.
I suggest you upgrade your BIOS if you get to boot your OS.
Failing the above, you could try and open it up and remove the CMOS battery for a couple minutes and re-insert.
typo, missing “SHIFT” Key. So thats “hold down Left SHIFT Key” ->
“Some Toshiba’s can be convinced to bypass the startup BIOS password if you hold down the key LEFT SHIFT while booting the system. â€
Barb why don’t u just put in a pcmcia wireless card in the cardbus clot I believe is on the right side of the notebook did this for a friend and it worked OK or a wireless USB adapter—cheaper and easier than tearing the thing apart
I am using a USB wireless adapter now- but I either loose it or it is clunky when I want to swivel screen to read books on my lap or in bed. Have you seen any pictures of where to put in a pcmcia wireless card – and where the cardbus slot is? I’m pretty good at following explanations, but I need a visual reference. I’m getting pretty slick at getting at the wireless card on the left side of the swivel housing but haven’t recognized any cardbus slot.- probably because I don’t know what to look for!
I really appreciate the help that’s been offered- I follow through on all of them. So thanks for the advice!
Barb
Hi Barb!!!
In this case, this kohjinsha model, doesn,t have a pcmcia slot, so, the only possible solutions are replace the damaged hardware or use an usb adapter like the one you tell us about. Saludos!
Mario
Please would you publish this info on other websites especially SCRIBD.COM also under the same VYE S18?
Your assistance is appreciated.
(or, can I do it for you?)
n55
Thanks a lot for the tutorial. It was great, but when I use another HDD it just says “attempting to boot a hard drive” =(
What should I do??
Can somebody tell me where to find new ribbon keyboard connector.
E-mail: sashosasho3@abv.bg