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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November 30th, 2006 at 9:10 pm
I own a P30. I have the same power jack issue as everyone else. I got Toshiba to pay for the board to be replaced even though the warranty had expired for 2 months. It worked for 8 months and now it’s doing the same thing (goes to battery even when AC is plugged in and working fine; jiggling helps, but what a pain!). My question is about the class action suits and Toshiba’s decision to extend some warranties that I’ve read about on here. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to apply pressure to them in this regard? Also, is my P30 covered by the agreement that applies to M30 and A70 etc? I wondered if P30 was a Canadian variation on one of these models as I don’t see it come up much. Anyone know about this?
November 29th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
I have had a a70 for over two years now, recently i got a memory error and it has never been able to boot into the os again. i ran mem test and got over 280 000 errors within a half hour.. i tried taking it apart looking for the memory but i guess it is onboard, is it possible to remove that memory and just replace it with a memory expantion?
November 29th, 2006 at 12:30 am
Jonathan,
I just pulled a list of parts for your Toshiba Satellite M35X notebook. There are 6 different motherboards listed for this computer and 5 different Pentium processors (Pentium M 710, M 725, M 745, M 755). There are no notes witch CPU goes to witch board so I assume they all should work on all boards. There is no Pentium M 735 in the list, but if I understand correct the main difference between CPUs is the clock speed. So, I think you have good chances that Pentium M 735 will work just fine. Not sure though, I’ve never upgraded CPUs myself and Toshiba will not provide any information on upgrading processors.
There is only one thermal module/fan in the list. If your upgrade will be successful then your original thermal module should work just fine.
Sounds really scary, I wouldn’t even try. Use a PC card adapter instead. If you don’t have the wireless card connector on the motherboard then probably you have no wireless card switch on the side too.
November 28th, 2006 at 11:03 pm
I needed to repair my Toshiba M35X and while I had the computer apart I was looking into upgrading some of my components and I had a few questions. My main question is will the K000019660 motherboard be able to support the Intel Pentium M 735 processor and if so will I need to upgrade the heatsink and fan? Also model did not come with an intergrated WiFi card and I see where the PCI interface should be on the board but it is not there, if I soldered one in place would it cause problems with my board?
-Thanks
November 27th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
Don,
If you are asking about thin white and black wires with small round connectors on the end then they are wireless card antenna cables. When you have a wireless card installed, you have to connect these antenna cables to the card. White cable-main connector, black cable-auxiliary connector. If you don’t have the wireless card, leave the antenna cables alone just put some electrical tape on the connectors to avoid an electrical short if they touch the motherboard.
November 27th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
Per my note # 234, the problem is fixed on my 1135. As I said, I did the resolder procedure and had problems. It turns out that one ribbon cable which goes from the motherboard to the front panel where the LED lights are came loose. I reattached that and I am in business.
Thanks for this site. The easy repair was well work the effort to save buying a replacment laptop.
BTW, still can not figure out why there are two extra cables coming out of the LCD that go nowhere. Speakers that are not on the unit????
November 27th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
Hello Cj2600,
I just want to let you know that I was able to fix the problem with my M35x-S329 laptop. This is to follow up on my post# 237. I’ve disassemble the laptop one more time and checked for any short circuit. I’ve noticed that it was just the way I put the laptop back together. I didn’t put it back properly. For those of you that had the same problem *** “I am working on my M35x-S249 Laptop yesterday because of the power jack issue (crack!!). I followed your instructions here in your website on how to disassemble my laptop. I got it all squared away and was able to solder and put the laptop back the way it was before. Unfortunately, after charging the battery and pressed power on my laptop, I heard a beeping noise (probably 3 times) and then it freeze. There is no power in the LCD but the LED light in the front shows it is on and also the power button is lit up. What do think happen?” *** don’t loose hope. Disassemble the laptop one more time and check for any short circuit. Also, it is very important to check the screws were properly put together. Wrong screws can lead to short circuit. Try powering up your laptop without the top cover. Just plug the power cable on the mother board, plug the monitor cable and make sure you insert the HD back to the motherboard and see if it makes any difference.
November 26th, 2006 at 6:54 pm
Jamesbagg,
The problem still could be related to the power jack. I’ve seen it many times before. The battery stops charging (and battery LED goes off) even though the power LED is still on.
Can you “fix the issue” if you jiggle the power plug inside the power jack or if you unplug the adapter and plug it back?
November 26th, 2006 at 2:50 pm
There is a better Singatron jack that we use on these machines and do not feel alone. The same basic jack is failing on HP’s as well. (Hardwire).. The problem is the jack itself and we get a ton in. If you need more help or info just buzz us as weve aided alot of dissatisfied HP and Toshiba consumers and will continue to do so.
November 23rd, 2006 at 6:57 pm
Hi, I have an A70 from 2004.
I appreciate all the comments about a faulty jack but this is not the issue. When plugged in on AC sometimes it will just randomly switch back to battery and start discharging.
I know it is not the jack because the AC indicator on the front stays on indicating it is still receiving power. Also, a simple reboot (without even touching the power connector) fixes the issue for another hour or so…
I would suspect some kind of driver issue or bios issue but updating does not help…
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks