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.
If you find this article useful, please consider making a donation to the author. Thank you!
August 10th, 2006 at 10:07 pm
Rhard49,
By the description it looks like a software issue, but you’ve eliminated it by replacing the hard drive and reloading the software.
Test the memory. You can use Memtest86+. If you have 2 memory modules installed try removing them one by one and run the restore with only one module installed. If memory is fine, then you might have a problem with the system board.
Just in case remove the wireless card and try to run the restore without it. A bad wireless card can cause very weird problems.
During the power plug repair Toshiba replaced the system board (most likely refurbished) and it’s possible that the board had a hidden defect.
August 9th, 2006 at 6:17 pm
I have an M35x that has been repaired by Toshiba for the power plug problem. Presently the unit locks up several minurtes after staring up. If I start it in safe mode it always runs and works fine. I think its some sort of ground issue. I have replaced the hard drive reinstalled from the recovery disk, but during the recovery process it will lock up and I need to reboot it multiple times to get it to finish the install. Then will never run fro any length of time in real mode. Any Idea’s?
August 3rd, 2006 at 11:14 pm
[...] After the power jack is replaced test it before you assemble the laptop. Install the system board in the laptop base, connect the CPU and the cooling fans if you removed it before (it’s not necessary to remove the CPU and fans if you want to replace the jack). Connect an external monitor and turn on the laptop (the power button is located on the system board). If everything is OK, the laptop should start and you’ll get Toshiba logo on the monitor. Here you can find more help on removing and replacing a laptop power jack. Here’s some help on relocating the power jack outside the laptop base. [...]
August 3rd, 2006 at 2:17 pm
thanks for the input CJ.
the HD checked out fine in the advanced test. The memory has passed 10 times now, but I did notice one odd behavior that I can’t quite explain….I had mentioned previously that I can induce the computer to lock up by switching power modes during operation. On a whim I tried to see if this behavior repeated itself during the memtest, and I found that it did not. I’m not sure what that means, but I have a hunch that it means something…..
August 3rd, 2006 at 7:59 am
Not always. Yesterday I had to repair Toshiba Satellite P25; it had intermittent start up problem. I tested the 1GB memory module overnight and it failed the test. Just to make sure, I’ve tested it again (in the same memory socket) and it passed 5 times!!!
The same story with hard drives. I’ve seen it many times that a hard drive successfully passes a quick test but fails to pass an advanced test.
August 3rd, 2006 at 7:41 am
Thanks guys, this description works for me, i have fixed it by myself
August 3rd, 2006 at 7:07 am
cj,
thanks for the suggestions. I have tested the HD and it has passed the quick test, and the memory has passed memtest once. I’ll have to try again later when I have more time to take the notebook down and run the full hd test and memtest 10 times…it may take all night.
I would think that if either of those components were bad enough to cause failures as often as I see them, that they would show up rather quickly in each of those tests….but then again, I’m hardly an expert. I’ll post back later what I find when I can run the full test.
August 2nd, 2006 at 10:51 pm
Ike,
I do not think that this time your problem is related to the power jack. I think you might have a failing hard drive or a bad memory module. Yes, it might be the system board problem, but I would definitely test the hard drive and the memory module before I spend money for a new system board. Download Memtest86+ for testing the memory module. Let it pass the test for at least 10 times. It might take time and you can run it overnight. Download Hitachi Drive Fitness test and test the hard drive. Both utilities are free.
August 2nd, 2006 at 10:40 pm
Hey Matt,
Did you check the power jack itself? Sometimes the soldering is good, but the jack is broken. Very often the positive pin gets broken close to the spot where it’s coming from the jack and as a result the laptop is “dead”. But in this case it still should run from the battery power, if it charged of course.
August 2nd, 2006 at 12:04 pm
So I’m wondering if anyone can diagnose this problem for me…
I’ve had the power jack issue twice now with my m35x-s329. re-soldered the first time, and then that only held for like 3 months. replaced the jack the second time.
Now however, I have a funnier issue, which I highly suspect is related to power, but probably not the DC in jack anymore.
Now, whenever I boot up the laptop, or resume from hibernate or standby, I have about a 60% chance of having the computer freeze up not long after splashing up the windows logon screen. This happens under battery power and DC power (both with and without the battery in the system). USUALY, once I get the system to come up without locking up, it stays that way for as long as I want to use it….but not always….from time to time, it will spontaneously lock up, or restart after a BSOD…but those are somewhat more rare. I have also found that if I am working on it at work, for several hours and then take it home and immediately plug it in and boot it up, I have a much higher chance of having it come up normally.
So, one might be right to think this is a software issue, however, I do not believe it is, due to one simple fact. I can induce these lockups well into normal operations simply by switching the power mode (ie going from DC to battery or vice versa).
I’m ordering a new motherboard anyways ($590, with $295 reimbursed with return of original motherboard…for those that want the supplier its National Parts Depot), but I was curious to know what some of you might think. In my very very limited knowledge of these things, I am guessing that there is a problem with what must be some kind of backup power supply on the mother board which maintains a constant current through power switching or fluctuations, and it is my suspicion that my previous problems with the DC in jack contributed to the frying, or partial frying of this component(s) (ie, due to the “blinking lights of doom”)
So, if I am correct, there lesson to be learned for everyone here….
if you have this power problem, don’t put off the repairs just because you can eventually wiggle the cable just right to get power. Do it quick, because the situation will deteriorate, and it is possible that such a situation can damage more components on the motherboard.