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!
December 25th, 2006 at 7:26 pm
William Bensinger,
I think you can use it now. Here are two quotes from the Toshiba Settlement Website:
If you have any questions, you can call Toshiba customer service or contact your local authorized service provider.
December 25th, 2006 at 7:17 pm
Knight Arthur,
It sounds like your battery is dead. When you have a dead battery it might appear that it is charging when the AC adapter is plugged into the laptop, but when you upplug the adapter the battery discharges very quickly, almost immediately. I think you have a bad battery.
Just in case reseat the battery and make sure the contacts are clean (if you can access them).
December 25th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
I have a blown IC chip in my HP ZE4400. That baby looks like toast. Trouble is , I cannot read the chip to see what a replacement should be. I can see the numbers 4800. It is an 8 pin chip. Any additional help please. and right near the power connector.
December 22nd, 2006 at 3:55 pm
I read the details of the settlement suit. You can file a clain immediately but its unclear whether you can actually USE the warranty service until the suit is settled. It appears there will be a hearing on Feb 9, 2007, but if Toshiba opposes the payment of attorney fees, it looks like the suit6 could drag on for months..years? The warranty extension ends Nov 2007, but in the meantime can we actually use it?
December 22nd, 2006 at 1:09 pm
Somebody help me!!!! My battrey is not capable of powering my travelmate for a second. I really don’nt know how to go about such a problem. A look at my power meter indicates that ia have about 86% or at times 100% and yet my battry wont last for a second. I really need help
December 21st, 2006 at 2:01 pm
I have a hypothesis for my battery charging problem. Someone please let me know if this is way off, or actually plausible. I got my Toshiba m35x’s power jack repaired after it had come loose, like a lot of other people here. The jack seemed to be working perfectly, but the battery would not charge. So I got a new one. That one did not charge either. I figured that it was defective. So I had it replaced and I received another brand new one. That one also appears to not be charging. However, last night, after I had let it charge for about 8 hours, it said it was at 3% capacity, exactly what it said before I started charging it. So I figured I would completely discharge it and try to charge it again. It lasted for at least 30 minutes. That cannot be possible on only 3%. I tried again today. It said it was at 0% battery power but it stayed on for 20 minutes. I let it charge for half an hour, and then unplugged it and the battery lasted for 2 or 3 more minutes. My question is whether or not it would be possible that the battery is actually charging but my computer cannot or will not recognize that somehow. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
December 17th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
Considering the explanations I solved my problem. Some additional explanations can be helpful for others. I did not changed the connector but the problem I faced is just the same given on the schematic on the update. The multilayer printed circuit board can not work fine with a damaged via. You can resolder the connector at the solder side and resolder at the component side. The key point is extended soldering duration can help solder element penetrate well enough to solve the problem.
December 15th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
There is a class action lawsuit against Toshiba for problems on certain models. See this website: http://www.a70m30xsettlement.com/
December 14th, 2006 at 12:54 am
[...] I think you might have a few different problems at the same time. First problem: the laptop switches to battery power even with connected AC adapter. Most likely you have a faulty power jack. It’s either broken or loose. It’s a known issue with Satellite A70/A75 laptops and you can fix it by replacing/resoldering the power jack or relocating it outside laptop case. It also could be a problem with the power cord. Find a multimeter and check the AC adapter. See if the power cuts off when you jiggle the power cord. If it does, replace the adapter. Second problem: the battery will discharge from 100% to 90% and then jump to 0%. It sounds like a bad battery. [...]
December 10th, 2006 at 10:33 am
Just wanted to thank you guys for the great help!
I bought a couple of A70′s from Laptop Depot in Calgary, not being at the time that they were refurbished, not new.
No wonder they were only $1,000 each. With one of the laptops, I had the crashing problem from day 1, and not too far off,
the battery charging problem. Eventually after 7 months it wouldn’t charge at all, so I brought it back, just to find out
my warranty was only 3 months long. Since I was from Canada, the 12 month extended warranty from Toshiba was also ineffective…
they told me so.
Laptop Depot told me it’d cost $45 to determine the problem, and when I pried some more, they said when they have problems
like this, it’s always a motherboard replacement fix, which usually runs $500-600. Furious, I took my laptop home, and found
this article on the web. I bought 4 DC Jacks from ebay for $30 including shipping, a soldering iron for $20, and used some
wire I had laying around. The first solder job lasted less than 24 hrs, the 2nd about the same, the 3rd has been working
for days now. The trick… clean the motherboard and connection well with fine steel wool before soldering, use 63/37 solder,
and 15 watt iron.
Many thx again!!