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.
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May 29th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
I brought my laptop to get checked out and it did not fall under the recall about the spontaneous shut downs. That has something to do with an eletric shock in the speaker, or around the speaker, and is definately not what my laptop was doing.
I did end up purchasing a new laptop and the old one is now a paper weight. Toshiba is definately losing out on customers, and very rapidly for their poor customer service and lack of reliablity in their laptops. I don’t see the point in putting money into a faulty, out of warranty piece of junk! HA!
I have been searching for class action law suits for this laptop and have not found any! I would surely join, and I know others who would, too. If anyone has any information about this please post it on here! I’d be interested in the info!
May 27th, 2006 at 9:52 pm
[...] I would like to share with others a tip for repairing their Toshiba A75 laptop for the DC Jack and battery charge problem. [...]
May 26th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
JENNI
I WAS ON THE PHONE WITH TOSHIBA FOR HOURS. JUST SO YOU KNOW THERE IS A RECALL ON YOUR COMPUTER . YOU HAVE TO BRING IT TO AN AUTHORIZED DEALER . EVEN IF OUT OF WARRANTY IT IS STILL COVERED. THE RECALL IS FOR “SYSTEM LOCK OFF AND SPONTANIOUSLY REBOOTING ITSELF. ALSO FYI I READ THAT THERE IS A CLASS ACTION SUIT FOR THIS MODEL. IM LOOKING INTO IT HOPE THIS WAS HELPFUL
May 26th, 2006 at 2:03 pm
I am having the same problem with my Toshiba. Toshiba is not helping me at all The computer is not holding the charge, it was working if i remove the battery and use the ac adapter
May 24th, 2006 at 5:10 pm
Hey Jenny, to all those that have a similar problem as in post 91, my Toshiba M35X-S149 laptop also had steady green lights and would not turn on right away. The short is caused by a loose DC Jack on the motherboard. I say do not have it replaced, but rather resolder or replace the DC Jack on the motherboard. My battery was charging and the computer would turn on fine, the fan would kick in but the harddrive refused to start. I thought it was a loose connection somewhere but resoldering the DC Jack did the trick. I hope this helps.
May 21st, 2006 at 11:43 pm
Kaysee,
Both problems could be fixed at the same time. To replace the power jack you have to remove the system board. When the system board is removed it takes only 5 minutes to clean the heatsink. If you take it for repair to a Toshiba ASP most likely they will offer to you replace the system board. So, you will have to pay for the system board exchange approximately $300-$400 plus labor. So the repair might cost your somewhere around $400-$550.
You can try to find a local computer repair shop and ask them to resolder or replace the power jack. It would be much cheaper. You can also search for this kind of repair service on the Internet. I think you can get it fixed for about $120-$150.
May 21st, 2006 at 4:11 pm
I am finding these two problems with my A75-S211 (overheating + DC power jack) quite disappointing. This is my third Toshiba, and I have had more problems with this one machine than I had with either of my others.
Frankly, if it wasn’t for the fact that I want to burn CDs and upload my pictures, I would still be using my 2515CDS . . .
Does anybody have an idea how much having a ASP fix these two problems might cost?
May 15th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
Carlos– I did just thought. I purchased an HP laptop–with the extended warranty. I am hoping I have better luck with HP than I had with Toshiba.
Thank you for replying!
Do you know if I can sell this laptop for parts? Is it even worth anything? Or does anyone know?
May 15th, 2006 at 11:02 am
Jenni, Sorry to hear about your problem. I just repaired a Toshiba M35X laptop for one of my teachers and he found a motherboard online for $475.00 or $395.00 if he trades in the old motherboard. I cannot find him right now but I installed it 2.5 weeks ago and now there are new problems.
I would not recommed putting in a new motherboard. Go with a different manufactuer. You can email me above and I will have the website info for you. Those prices were estimates because I spoke with them, I just cannot find the information now.
May 13th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
I purchased a M35x s149 laptop a year and two months ago, (meaning.. its two months OUT of warranty). The other day my laptop decided to turn restart all by itself. Since then when I try to turn it back on after I have it off, it freezes up. The LED lights come on and the lights around the power key, the fan turns on, but the harddrive doesn’t. The computer will sit there for like five minutes or more and eventually turn on by itself.
I took it to a computer repair place and the guy said there is a short in my motherboard. He is waiting to get prices from Toshiba on the cost of the board. Because I paid only paid $800 I’m debating on just purchasing another laptop instead of putting nearly half or what i bought it for or more, into repairing it!!
Anyone have any idea how much it would run me to get the motherboard replaced on this laptop? Is it even worth it? I’ve heard so many complaints about Toshiba, I’m not sure I want to deal with them anymore! Otherwise it appears to be running fine. Once the computer is on, it stays on… I just have to keep it running 24/7!