A bad connection between DC-IN power jack on the system board and the system board is a very common problem with Toshiba Satellite M35X and Toshiba Satellite A70/A75 notebooks. If your laptop is out of warranty, then you can fix the problem by resoldering DC-IN jack on the system board. If it’s still under warranty, it would be fixed at no charge to you.
Problem symptoms:
- Laptop randomly shuts down without any warning.
- Power LED and battery charge LED start flickering when you wiggle the power cord or the AC adapter tip on the back or your laptop.
- The battery will not get charged.
- When you plug AC adapter, the laptop appears to be dead and there is no LED activity at all (DC-IN jack on the system board is broken).
To fix the problem, you have to take your laptop apart, remove the system board to resoleder or replace the DC-IN jack. Toshiba Satellite M35X and Toshiba Satellite A70/A75 disassembly guides will help you to remove the system board. Take a closer look at the power jack on the system board with a magnifying glass. In most cases you get the power problem because of a bad connection between the DC jack and the system board, you’ll see a crack between the DC jack connector and the system board.
Here is an example of Toshiba Satellite M35X power jack. The crack occurs between the DC jack pin and the system board.
In some cases the connection is good, but the DC jack is bad itself. You can find a new DC jack for Toshiba Satellite M35X and Toshiba Satellite A70/A75 laptops here. Search for DC jack M35X or DC jack A75.
How to resolder laptop power jack yourself.
UPDATE:
Sometimes, after you replace the jack, you can see that the system board doesn’t get power at all. The battery will not charge and the power LED will not light when you plug in the AC adapter. So, here’s a possible explanation.
When a connection between the positive pin and the motherboard breaks (cracks), the power jack gets loose. You can feel it when you plug in the adapter plug. A loose power jack can damage the trace inside the hole in the system board. Take a look at the picture.
As you see, the positive pin goes through the hole in the system board and you solder it on the top side. Right? What if the trace between the top side and the bottom side is broken somewhere inside the hole? I’ve seen it before a few times. In this case everything looks nice and clean on the top side. When you plug in the AC adapter, you get normal voltage readings between “+” and “-“ pins on the top side, but the power DOESN’T go to the motherboard at all, because there is no connection between the top and bottom sides. Test with a multimeter if there is a connection between the top and the bottom.
If the trace inside the hole is broken you still can fix it. You can run a wire to connect the top and the bottom sides. Be careful not to short something on the board.
Update:
Here’s another solution to fix the power jack problem, it shows how to relocate the power jack outside the laptop base. Check it out here: Toshiba Satellite A75 failed power jack workaround.
When you repair a loose power jack, it’s a good idea to check the jack on both sides of the motherboard. When you remove the top cover from a Toshiba Satellite A70/A75 laptop you can see only points where the jack is soldered to the motherboard as it shown on the second picture in this post, but you cannot see the jack itself as it shown on the first picture.
Removing the motherboard from Satellite A70/A75 laptop is a good idea because the jack itself might has a broken “+” pin, as it shown on the picture below. If the “+” broke off the base, you’ll have to replace the jack.
UPDATE:
Today I received another well written and well documented guide about fixing Toshiba Satellite M35X power connector issue. This guide was submitted by Stephen Macuch. Thank you Stephen for great pictures and detailed instructions.
If you find this article useful, please consider making a donation to the author. Thank you!
November 14th, 2012 at 7:38 pm
1)my toshiba l755 it was shut down in unexpected ,but not every time, around 10%.(mostly on start up the window(98%)).i thought it hv some loose bits on my adapter,so i put on my battery. but it was still happening !! but not much(5%).
2)my lp was automatically start window when i open the lid(90%).it’s not window resume,it’s really start up after i turn off.
all in normal condition(even thought the problem happened)
power led-light up but no blink.(light off when it’s turn off or automatically shut down)
battery led-light up but no blink.
adapter led-light up but no blink.
November 6th, 2012 at 3:59 am
my toshiba L300 laptop will not display anything when power adapter is connected, but has no problem when working from battery, what do i do
January 21st, 2012 at 12:07 am
@ Gia,
Here’s something to try.
Remove the battery and start the laptop just from AC adapter.
Now wiggle the power plug inside the socket. Does it shut down when you wiggle the plug?
If yes, it could be a problem with the DC jack.
January 20th, 2012 at 7:42 pm
I have the same problem as post #730.
The difference with my machine is that it charges when powered down, but if the PSU is connected when booting it can shut down and then reboot itself. This can also happen at random intervals after / if I get to login to Windows. Then it seems to happen in a loop – SHUTDOWN/ RESTART/ SHUTDOWN/ RESTART/ LOGIN/ SHUTDOWN/ RESTART etc etc.
Seems to run without a problem on battery itself.
Is this more than likely an issue with the power supply also?
December 29th, 2011 at 12:07 pm
@ steg,
Probably you can try this trick:
http://www.laptoprepair101.com.....orkaround/
What do you mean by “convert” to a tablet?
December 28th, 2011 at 10:27 pm
My Toshiba has been dead 3-4 years now with this precise issue.
I tried new battery, new power brick…nothing.
I work at a company that builds desktops and pcbs, and had a tech follow the instructions. He got the laptop working for about a month before I had the same failure reappear.
I hate to toss out a laptop where everything works.
Could we hardwire the power brick to the board? Say for example if I wanted to “convert” the laptop to a tablet and mount in my kitchen? Or any ideas at alternate uses besides scrap?
December 28th, 2011 at 3:43 pm
You guy’s (I mean that about the females also Just my way of talking)are lifesavers and your solotions are right on THANK YOU
If I wasn’t disabled and surviving on a $480.00 check for s month I would definitlly Donate and will in future when i run into some xtra cash this is not somthing I will forget about as if I didn’t get the LapTop fixed I would be out in the street due to power adapter broke on my freinds computer when I was useing it.To all the people who ain’t livin on peanuts these guy’s deserve a cash bump. just my opinion though.
Thanks You Very Much
Mr Dylan D Caamano
October 20th, 2011 at 7:40 am
@ nash,
I have no idea what you are talking about!
October 20th, 2011 at 7:38 am
@ kamal,
First, I would test the laptop with another power adapter.
It’s possible your adapter doesn’t work properly. Maybe it’s not providing enough power when the laptop is running. I’ve seen a problem like that before.
October 20th, 2011 at 7:36 am
@ davion,
Most likely the AC adapter is dead. You can check voltage with a voltmeter. If there is no voltage coming out of the adapter, replace the adapter.