Toshiba Satellite M35X and Satellite A75 power jack and battery charge problem
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 are tired of fixing your laptop and want to sell it for parts you can do it here:
Any Notebook Part - free classifieds. Only laptop stuff.
Entry Filed under: Toshiba Laptop Problems
602 Responses to “Toshiba Satellite M35X and Satellite A75 power jack and battery charge problem”
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Pages: « 61 … 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 [1] Show All
February 10th, 2006 at 9:18 am
My previous post should read: “I have NOW” instead of “I have NOT” completely disassembled the A15. Sorry.
February 10th, 2006 at 2:22 am
I have not completely disassembled the A15 and see no bad solder joints (there’s really no place they could be bad the way the plug for the harness is attached). Since I can’t test the unit while it’s in pieces, I detached the harnes plug from the board and ran it through the body of the laptop so I could try to see if the harness had a short.
When I got it back together, I still have no power at all. When I try to wiggle the plug within the harness sticking out the back of the laptop, I can’t even get the power light to flicker or anything. Even if the harness is bad, it seems like at least enough contact would be made to get the power light to blink on at least occationally.
I assumed the problem was at the DC jack/harness since prior to the laptop failing, wiggling the cord while it was attached would allow it to begin charging temporarily until finally I could no longer get any power.
Is there something I’m missing?
February 8th, 2006 at 12:45 pm
The DC jack doesn’t have a part number because it’s a part of the system board. I just searched on eBay for A30 DC jackand found plenty of them. By description on eBay it should be the same DC jack for the following laptops: Toshiba Satellite A10, A15, A30, A60 and A65.
February 8th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
I have the same problem with a Satellite A30, bad DC jack. So I took it apart (I used cj2600 guide to take it apart, thanx).
I first tried to resolder it, and as I usually do on al my “projects” I did a simple continuity test with my multimetre - nothing. Not only was the solder connection broken, but the pin from the back just fell of when I desoldered it and took it out.
So my question is, is it the same DC jack as the M35X or A75? I figure I’ll get it on e-bay, but I just want to make sure. Or if someone has a part number for it, then I could try to find one somewhere else?
Thanx in advance for your help.
February 6th, 2006 at 1:50 am
[…] This email I received from one guy last evening. He had a problem with DC jack on his Toshiba Satellite 1900 laptop and fixed the problem by resoldering the DC jack on the system board. The problem is very similar to Toshiba Satellite M30X, M35X, A70 and A75 power jack issue. […]
February 5th, 2006 at 1:12 pm
It’s hard to say. It’s possible that DC jack is bad itself. I’ve seen a few A15 laptops with damaged DC jacks and the power problem was fixed by replacing DC jacks. I cannot say exactly without testing the laptop.
I think that’s a good idea to wait until you get power and then test the keyboard. I wouldn’t guess until I test it.
February 5th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
Thanks again! Is it likely the harness or the connection at the board? I know there is no way of knowing until tested, but wondered if the board connections tend to break down due to heat.
On the keyboard connection, I could not get anything to “unlock” and eventually, the tape slid out of the connector. I got it to slide back in, but on the base where it attaches to the board it is loose on one end and can actually be pulled up off the board slightly. I can’t tell if the connection to the board has tiny pins which go through to the other side or not, so I don’t know if I’ve damaged the connection.
I’ll probably just wait until I get power restored and see if the keyboard works before I go messing around with it any more. If for some reason the connector at the board has been damaged can is be re-attached or would the entire board need to be replaced?
Thanks so much for the help,
Tim
February 5th, 2006 at 11:56 am
In A15-S the DC jack is not a part of the system board. If you want to replace the DC jack, you should find DC in harness. I believe the Toshiba part number for DC-IN harness is: P000377330 (or P000383390 backward compatible). You can search on eBay. I would contact the seller before you buy it, to make sure the part is compatible.
Now about the keyboard. To disconnect the keyboard cable correctly, you have to open the plastic lock securing the cable first and then pull the cable. You have to be very, very careful. In your case, I’m not sure if the lock is broken or just loose. Even if it’s broken on one side it should work fine (I’ve done it myself a few times). You have to carefully open the lock, slide the keyboard cable inside the connector and lock it.
February 5th, 2006 at 11:22 am
This is great information! I have a M35X and an A15-S. I used the instructions for opening the A15-S to try to fix the DC jack, but have not yet resolved it - the Jack is not mounted directly to the board on this one.
In the process, I may have caused another problem, though. When removing the keyboard, it looks like the piece the tape connection slides into has pulled away from the board at one end. It’s not completely detached, but appears to be loose one one side.
Is there any way to repair this? I don’t yet know if the keyboard is functional because I can’t get it to power up.
Thanks for all the help,
Tim
February 3rd, 2006 at 8:53 am
excellent! am fixing the prob right now. thank you.