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!
June 8th, 2006 at 12:05 am
Okay. I checked all cables and they seem to be placed correctly. I think it’s something else rather then the display. When I got into windows, I played a movie to check if I could hear it when the screen turned black. It seems like the system is shutting off or something, but the LED lights are still on and everything. The screen/system shutoff occurs when I move my laptop around. What do you suggest I do? Everything is correctly placed and tight. Thank you.
June 7th, 2006 at 11:25 pm
Peter,
I would check all connections first. It is possible that an improperly seated cable or a loose connection creates the problem. Check if all cables are seated properly, check the video cable connector.
June 7th, 2006 at 10:11 pm
Hi, and thank you for all your great help. I have the m35x-s149 model. The first problem was the common power/battery charge problem. I followed one of the guides and it turned out wonderful. But now my current problem is that my screen randomly goes black. Pitch black. All my 3 lights are on, I hear my hard drive booting up, and fan spinning. Most of the times it stays black when I turn on the laptop. Other times the bios, xp, etc. loads up fine, and then it goes black. The rest of the time I make it all the way through the log in and see my actual desktop, then it goes black. I’ve noticed that when the screen goes black, i’m no longer able to open my DVD drive, but yet the 3 lights are on. Do you have any suggestions what I should do? My laptop is no longer under warranty, and I’m really on a tight budget. Any tips/help would be much appreciated.
May 30th, 2006 at 11:21 pm
Jenni,
Check it out.
http://www.lorisklar.com/toshad.htm
http://www.classcounsel.com/news/toshiba.html
May 30th, 2006 at 11:15 pm
Douglas,
Most of the time people cannot boot laptop after reassembly because something is not seated or connected properly. Check if the CPU is seated properly, check if flat cables are connected properly. The laptop should boot with memory stick installed in any slot. Are you sure that the power jack was the only problem in the laptop?
May 29th, 2006 at 7:35 pm
repaired dc connection problem for my niece. Now after re assembly i am getting post error one long three short beeps. Is there a particular side you have to install memory if you only have one stick or do i have a video problem. Screen is black and no boot up. thanks in advance.
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