Example 1.

Laptop shuts off when AC adapter unplugged.

When you move the cursor arrow over the battery icon while the laptop is connected to AC adapter, it show the remaining charge and says “charging”.

The power meter utility (if available) also shows that battery is connected and charging.

But… as soon as you unplug the AC adapter, the laptop shuts off completely.

Possible problems:
1. The battery not seated correctly. Try reconnecting it.
2. The battery contacts got dirty or oxidized and it’s not making good connection with the motherboard. Apply some electronic contact cleaner on the contacts.
3. If reconnecting the battery doesn’t help, most likely it’s bad and has to be replaced.
4. If you replaced the battery but the problem still exists, this is motherboard related failure. Apparently the charging circuit on the motherboard failed. In this case the whole motherboard has to be replaced (or repaired on the component level).

Example 2.

The battery not detected by the laptop.

There is a red cross on the battery icon.

If you move the cursor arrow over the battery icon, it says “no battery detected”.

Possible problems:
1. Most likely the battery is bad. You have a very good chance to fix this problem by replacing it with a new one.
2. If replacing the battery doesn’t help, this is motherboard related failure. The motherboard has to be replaced (or repaired on component level).

Example 3.

The battery discharges very quickly after it reaches some critical point.

The battery detected by the laptop and charges properly to 100%.
When you unplug the AC adapter, it take normal time to discharge until some critical point (let’s say 80%) but after that the battery discharges very quickly to 0%.

Possible problems:
This is battery failed. It has to be replaced with a new one.

Example 4.

The battery charges only if the power plug positioned correctly.

You have to wiggle the power plug in order to charge the battery. After you find the right position, it charges properly.

Possible problems:
1. AC adapter failure. The AC adapter power cable is damaged. Here’s how to test your AC adapter.
2. If the AC adapter works fine, most likely this is power jack (connector where you plug power adapter) failure. In this case the power jack has to be replaced.

I pulled out the internal copper coating (I name it a sleeve) from the inside of the “+” terminal as it shown on the picture below.

The the sleeve removed, it cannot be installed back. If you solder the DC jack back in place without this sleeve, it might work but the connection between the “+” lead and motherboard will not be reliable.

The following guide will help you to modify damaged DC jack terminal. This modification should work for most motherboards with soldered power jack.

Remove the copper sleeve from the “+” terminal on the jack.

Find a small resistor or capacitor with thin leads. Cut off one of the leads. I’m going to use it to modify the motherboard terminal.

Shape the lead as it shown on the picture below.

Put the lead on the “+” connector on the power jack.

Solder the lead to the power jack.

Now I’m going to modify the “+” terminal on the motherboard.

Carefully scrape off green varnish around the whole on the “+” terminal on the motherboard. You can use a small flathead screwdriver.

If the whole is not big enough for your modified DC jack, you can widen it with an awl.

As you see, the hole on the terminal is now larger. Apply a fresh coat of solder on the clear area of the trace.

Install the power jack on the motherboard. Make sure there is no gap between the jack and motherboard.

Here’s a view from the top side of the PCB.

Solder all pins except the modified “+” pin.

Now, when the power jack is secured, you can shape the lead as it shown on the picture below.

Solder the lead to the terminal. Remove excessive flux with an old tooth brush soaked in 99% alcohol.

Here’s a view from the bottom side of the motherboard.

Be very careful. Doing this modification you can damage the motherboard and make it unusable. Proceed on your own risk.

Let’s troubleshoot this problem and figure out if this is DC jack related failure or the AC adapter is defective.

First of all, I tested the laptop with the battery removed. It turns on and runs properly from the AC adapter but as soon as I start moving the connector inside the jack the laptop shuts off and it loses power immediately.

If you have a problem like that, most likely it’s related to the AC power adapter or the DC jack.

First of all, I tested the adapter with a voltmeter. The power didn’t cut off no matter how badly I wiggled the cord. I was reading 15.45VDC all the time. It helped me to make a conlcusion that there is nothing wrong with the adapter connector or cord and most likely there is a problem with with the power socket inside the laptop.

The next step was the DC jack inside the laptop.

In order to access the jack I had to disassemble the laptop and remove the top cover assembly with the display.

You can find disassembly instructions for most laptops in their service manuals.

In my case the DC jack was attached to a cable and I easily disconnected it from the motherboard. I tested it with the voltmeter as it shown on the following picture.

When the adapter cord didn’t move, I was reading 15.45VDC.

But as soon as I started wiggle it, the voltage dropped to 0VDC.

The DC jack harness is defective and had to be replaced and the new one fixed the problem.

In some models the DC jack is soldered to the motherboard.
If the battery stops charging when you move the adapter plug, test the AC adapter first. If it pass test, replace the jack.

Disclaimer: I’ve made these instructions only for people experienced with soldering and repairing computers. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this job, please do not open the laptop or you can permanently damage your computer. Take your laptop to a professional repair shop instead.
Use this repair guide at your own risk.

For this repair you’ll need the following tools.

1. Soldering iron or soldering station. I use Weller WES51 soldering station and for this job I set temperature to about 800-850°F.
2. I use high-tech rosin core silver-bearing solder from Radioshack with diameter 0.022″ ( Catalog #: 64-013 ). I think standard rosin core solder will work just fine.
3. Desoldering pump for removing solder around component leads. I use Edsyn Soldapullt pump, model DS 017.
4. 99% isopropyl alcohol and tooth brush for cleaning the motherboard from flux.
5. A new DC power jack.

Laptop DC power jack repair guide.

As you see on the following picture, the solder drop on the positive terminal looks different than on other three contacts. That’s where the problem is. The positive pin is not making a good contact with the motherboard and because of that power to the laptop cuts off when I move the power plug inside the power jack.
I’m going to desolder the power jack from the motherboard, clean contacts on both power jack and motherboard and then solder it back in place – this is the proper way fixing the power problem.

Start desoldering process with adding some new fresh solder to all three contacts. This will make old solder more flowable, easier to remove.

While heating one of the contacts, remove the solder from this contact using the desoldering pump. Repeat the same steps with all power jack contacts until you remove as much solder as possible.

Grab the power jack and carefully try removing it from the motherboard. Most likely you will not be able to remove the power jack the first time because there will be some solder bridges left between the contacts and traces on the motherboard. Carefully wiggle the power jack without applying any significant force and at the same time heat up all contacts one by one. This will help you to remove the power jack.

The DC power jack is almost removed from the motherboard.
Be careful. Inside the positive hole there is a copper sleeve which connects the terminal on one side of the motherboard with the traces on the other side. If you are removing the power jack with force, you can pull the sleeve from the hole. You don’t want to do that.

UPDATE: If you accidentally removed the internal sleeve, check out this post: How to fortify damaged power jack connection.

So, do not apply any force and make sure the solder is melted when you are removing the power jack. I hope you understand what I’m talking about.

After the power jack is removed, clean all oxidized contacts with a knife.

Apply a fresh coat of solder to all contacts on the power jack.

The power jack terminals will look dirty because of melted flux.

You can remove the flux using the tooth brush and alcohol. It’s not necessary but it will make your job looking clean.

Apply a fresh coat of solder to all power jack terminals on both sides of the motherboard.

This side has been coated.

And this side has been coated too.

Now you can install the power jack back on the motherboard. Put something under power jack so there is no gap between the jack and the motherboard. Now you are ready to solder the jack back in place.

Solder all power jack pins.

The job is done and the laptop DC power jack is fixed. B-E-A-utiful!
Now just install the motherboard back into the laptop and you are done.

Toshiba Satellite M35X and Satellite A75 power jack and battery charge problem

Failed power jack workaround (guide for a Satellite A75 notebook similar to Satellite M35X)

Here’s another well written and documented guide submitted by Stephen Macuch. Thank you Stephen for the great pictures and very detailed instructions.

This is a view of the laptop power connector before the repair:

Inside the yellow circle is the main power connection from the connector to the board – note that you can see a dark circle completely around it, indicating that there is no solid metal connection.

Also note that it looks somewhat ‘burnt†– this is indicative of sparking taking place. This connection carries 3 amps of current. The current then passes through the component labeled PF1 ( literally ‘Power Fuse 1â€). It then is supposed to connect to this side of the part circled in red (‘PL1â€) – but notice that flexing of the board as the connector was wiggled caused a crack you can see running horizontally under this end of this part.

Same view, after the repair:

The green coating covering the metal leading up to the power connector was scraped off down to the bare copper of the board, in three places – the center pin, circled in yellow here, and the connector pins on both sides (see below). All were resoldered – on the top side of the board first, then touched up on the bottom (which is not where the primary electrical contact is made). The new broader, smoothly-tapered connection will be both physically stronger, and a better electrical connection.

Inside the red circle, you can see this was done for other part (PL1), as well.

Bottom view of connector, before the repair:

Again note that inside the circled areas, you can see dark circles where there should be solid metal, indicating that the original physical connection has been broken, and the parts are only transferring power due to the fact that they are touching . In fact, the only thing even holding the connector to the board is the connection in the bottom middle (between the two lower yellow circles) and it has a crack in it, as well.

Notice, also, the dried flux residue, indicating that this bottom-side soldering was done entirely, or touched up, by hand – and not cleaned afterwards.

The actual metal that conducts the power is actually of the top side of the board, where the connector is mounted, but the fact that the solder that flowed through mounting holes has cracked indicates is was not properly soldered in the first place.

As you can see in the two views below, all solder joints between the connector and the top side copper on the board now look much better. Increasing the size and coverage of the solder joints to the metal sides of the connector will make its mounting to the board physically much stronger as well, and better able to resist any side-to-side or up-and-down forces.

Inside the red circles, you can see that both sides of that part PL1 have been well resoldered.

This bottom view of the board after the repair shows good flow of solder through to the bottom side at the time the joints were resoldered.

Here’s another common problem with this model:

Laptop locks up, freezes up or reboots when you touch the speakers

I would like to share with others a tip for repairing their Toshiba A75 laptop for the DC Jack and battery charge problem.

I have a Toshiba A75-S209 for a year now. After the first 3 months it developed the exact same problem. Battery would not charge and I had to twist and turn the power jack to make the connection. Since it was in warranty, I returned it and they repaired and sent it back to me. The problem recurred again after about 4 months and I sent it again and they repaired it and worked fine for 5 more months and it failed. This is a design flaw with Toshiba. Now that I am out of warranty, I decided to repair it myself.

Now here is what I want to share with others. Resoldering the power jack with a new one does solve the problem for a while but it will reoccur. Hence I decided to bring out a wire with the Jack outside. Of course it looks dirty but it is a permanent solution. I am attaching the photo of the repair I did. I got the DC jack from ebay and insulated it with a electrical insulation tape. Now it is working fine, I do the connection and disconnection on the dangling power jack outside the laptop and hence no chance of breaking the soldering outside.

• Coil the pair of wire one round through the ventilation grill before taking it out as shown in the picture above. This is to prevent any external shock or force being directly transmitted to the soldering joints.
• Now we need to connect a new DC Jack to other end of the wire. I purchased the new DC jack from  eBay for $6. Shown in the picture above the white wire is the positive terminal (+) and hence must connect to the inner ring of the DC Jack. Similarly the blue wire being the negative terminal (-) should connect to the outer ring of the DC jack. Refer the picture below on how the wires are soldered to the DC Jack. Be careful not to short the leads as they are very close.

• Now neatly wind a round of insulation tape over the wire and especially on the exposed DC Jack exterior. This will prevent any short-circuit and also give a better appearance.

Valued Comments.

Submitted by Binney:

The workaround relocates the jack externally. When I did this, a short occurred between the metal casing on the top cover (the one removed with the guitar pick). This happens if the solder repair is too tall. I covered my repair with electrical insulation tape and that fixed the problem. It took me quite some time to figure out where the short was and would like to save others the headache.

Comments #282, 286 submitted by Jake and John:

Size N: DC Power Jack #274-1576 from Radioshack works perfect and looks great. Costs $2.99, easier to solder, snugger fit, 5.5mm O.D. x 2.5mm I.D.

Here are some pictures of the end result of the repair with
the Radio Shack type jack. I added one of those quick release
key holder that I had lying around as a retention holder.

Here is what it looks like unplugged: Power tip unplugged.

Here is what it looks like with the adapter plugged in and
the key holder reattached: Power tip plugged.