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 26th, 2006 at 11:15 am
I had the flaky DC jack problem with my Toshiba M35X-S149. I sent it in to a local repair center, and the repair center (with the help of Toshiba) replaced the motherboard free of charge. There is no more flaky DC jack issue.
However, every time I turn on the laptop, it seems as if the case fan and power LEDs turn on, but not everything else (hard drive, CD/DVD drive, LCD.. basically the motherboard.) But when I twiddle with the DC jack (regardless of if it’s plugged in or not), then it powers on.
Maybe I should get another service order on it.
August 20th, 2006 at 11:36 pm
John Moore,
First of all, check if the heatsink is clean and it’s not causing the problem. Does the fan start spinning at all when you turn on the laptop? If the fan start spinning on start up and then goes off and never comes back, then it might be a system board related problem. Some circuit responsible for turning on the fan is not working properly. Or it could be just a bad fan. What are your symptoms?
August 19th, 2006 at 2:26 pm
I have a satelite toshiba laptop and it works for a while and then I have to turn it off because it overheats and the fan has stop working.
Is there anything that I can do to fix this problem?
August 17th, 2006 at 11:35 pm
Hey Mel,
I totally agree with you. It’s not just a Toshiba problem. I’ve repaired Toshibas, Sonys, HPs, Dells. All of them had the same failed part – the power jack.
August 17th, 2006 at 11:28 pm
can i just say, this is not just a toshiba problem! fujitsu has it as well. and my fd who uses dell had it too (didnt know until i told him my problem) and coming to think about it, thats the reason another fd of mine replaced her toshiba laptop years ago -_-”’ just looks like its an overall LAPTOP problem. everyone i know who’s had this problem chose to buy a new one. the laptop companies just dun wanna perfect the design so more customers would come rolling in!!!
August 17th, 2006 at 9:02 am
I am nowhere near as good with home repairs as everyone else seems to be. I just bought a replacement battery for my laptop because it wouldn’t hold a charge and I don’t trust myself with a DIY job. If anyone else out there would rather just skip the fix and replace the problem part, I would highly recommend the site I used – laptopsforless.com It was really affordable and works great. Hope it can save someone else from a lot of frustration.
August 15th, 2006 at 10:24 pm
Hi, I’m having the same problem with a HP zv5000 laptop. I need to replace the dc power jack. Does anyone know how to do that one? Is it the same way as the Toshiba one? Please anyone help!!!!thanks. missy
August 15th, 2006 at 12:07 pm
Hey!
Thank so much for your help on the website. I used to info you had for disassembling a Toshiba Satellite A70 that was having problems with a buggy AC connector. You saved me $450!
The Toshiba repair place I brought the laptop to said that my motherboard needed to be replaced, for $400 + install + taxes!
This way, I brought it to a plain old electronics repair shop, and the guy did a bit of creative soldering.
In any case, thanks a million for sharing your knowledge.
August 13th, 2006 at 6:01 pm
Thanks so much for the informative site you have here. I spent an hour and a half today adding the pigtail replacement power jack, rather than resoldering the old one and hoping it lasts a few months.
In less than two hours, my laptop was up and running, charging the battery as if it was brand new. I did make the pigtail with jack attached very short, so it almost seems as if it was manufactured that way. No long wires hanging out to be snagged or pulled.
I am quite pleased, and surprised at how easy it was.
Thanks again
Dave
August 11th, 2006 at 2:45 pm
Do you know of a place to buy reconditioned labtop screen for a Toshiba A75 – 209 labtop, mine has gone out after 16 months of use