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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March 9th, 2006 at 4:55 pm
I have a A75-S206 and having the same trouble. These tips are really handy. However, I have never taken apart a labtop computers before.
My warranty just expired also. Does any body know of a good place to get this fix? I would like to fix this myself,but i am not sure can handle this. Some of the places I’ve been to said I may have to replace my system board. Is that true? I hoping this works instead
Thanks everyone for all your tips
March 4th, 2006 at 4:36 pm
Thanks for the fix, resoldered both sides. Works great, was about to send this out.
Thanks
Paul
March 4th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
Hi Tim,
There is only one system board listed for your Toshiba Satellite A15. The part number is P000387490. I just searched eBay for this part number and found one working system board for $24.99 + $14.45 shipping (1day23hours left).
If you decide to replace the system board in Toshiba Repair Center, they will charge your approximately $230 for the system board + $120 labor.
March 3rd, 2006 at 10:11 pm
The serial number appears to be: A15-S1292, PSA10U-28RJRV. The 7th character is sort of scratched off, but I’m pretty sure the numbers are correct.
Thanks so much. After destroying my perfectly good laptop only to find out the adapter/cord was all that was bad, I’m finally learning how to take these little things apart – and sometimes even to put them back together.
March 1st, 2006 at 6:54 am
Ah, take no notice it just pushes out.
Thanks
Dave
March 1st, 2006 at 1:09 am
Hi CJ,
I have a toshiba a60, I am stuck trying to get the dvd drive out. I have read the disassembly manual and it says about the three hidden screws. I have looked into the holes circled in the picture and can’t see any screws any ideas?
Cheers
Dave
February 28th, 2006 at 11:02 pm
Hi Tim, you are not bugging me at all.
Toshiba says: “If the ZIF connector on the system board is broken, the system board has to be replaced”. If you give me the model-part number of your laptop (For example – Satellite A15-S129, PSA10U-0ZH6MV) I can find the system board part number. You can search on eBay by this part number and if you are lucky you can buy it for cheap. About three month ago I bought a system board for Toshiba Satellite 1135-S1553 for $49, still works fine.
February 28th, 2006 at 10:41 pm
I promise I’ll quit bugging you after this last question (see post #14). I seem to have pulled the keyboard connector away from the main board – not the lock, the actual connection between the board and the locking mechanism. Only the left side of the keyboard is functioning now. I want to re-attach the pins which are loose, but don’t know if it is possible. Are the pins too tiny to solder? Could I possibly use a drop of super glue?
Any input would be greatly appreciated. I currently am using an external keyboard. If I have to replace the main board, how much would that part cost?
Thanks.
February 27th, 2006 at 8:25 am
Hi Dave,
It is definitely possible to replace the DC-IN jack on the system board and it is pretty easy if you know how to solder. You have to buy a new DC jack, remove the old DC jack from the system board (remove the solder from 4 pins) and put in a new one.
About USB ports. It is also possible to replace the USB ports on the back. The only problem is to find a new part. USB ports are a part of the system board and I do not know where you can buy them. I guess it is possible to buy a bad system board for cheap and take USB ports from it. Re-soldering USB ports would be more difficult because it has about 14 pins.
February 27th, 2006 at 2:27 am
Hi,
I have the same problem with the DC-IN jack the middle pin as snapped off also I have damaged the 2 USB ports on the back I need to replace these is it easy to do?
Cheers
Dave