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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January 27th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
take a smalll wire solder it where the pin usually goes attach it to the positive pin. the trick is you do not hook the pin to the board ok heres the pics
http://img2.freeimagehosting.n.....5e8348.jpg
this is where you bend the pin away from tthe board. i would apoxy glue it to the board. I didnt so theres some play and it wont break the botherboard. Make sure to take motherboard out to do this.like you would ram it pivots out of the case and the smart card button is the unlock
i have more pics
http://img2.freeimagehosting.n.....5db7c5.jpg
January 25th, 2007 at 12:22 am
Shahid,
Check out this post, may be Toshiba will fix it at no charge?
January 24th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
Justin,
You have to use a solder sucker tool. Search on Google-images and you’ll see how it looks like.
January 24th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
Ed Puariea,
Enter “nx6110 power jack” into the search box here and you’ll find it for about $8.
January 24th, 2007 at 11:59 am
I found this site very helping. I have Toshiba laptop. M35X. All of sudden once it turned off and did not turn on. All the indicators( LEDs ) attached with the system showing the status of the lap to show that lap top is “ON ” e.g LED under turn on switch and middle LED on the front remain ON, but nothing appears on the screen. If I turn it off and then turn ON by pressing power button, it sounds that fans are running and after some time fans sound stops and nothing appears on the screen.
After going through the instructions on this site I disassembled my lap top and did not found any thing wrong, One I assembled it again it turns on and works well but shuts down at once if I lift it up. and turns on again after few attempts. Can any one guide me what may be the problem and how can I fix that. I will appreciate for this big help.
Thanking you in advance
advance
January 23rd, 2007 at 8:31 pm
I have started to wonder if I may have damamged the main board of my M35X with heat while soldering. I re-soldered the jack on the top and bottom of the board and ohmed out the connections. I have a clean connection on both pos and neg from the ac adapter to the component side of the board (Through the previously loose Jack), but with power up it doesn’t charge. Any thoughts on other things i should check? Since I know power is making it to the component side of the board i just assumed i damaged some internal connections. Any thoughts on things i should check?
Also, does anyone have a picture of the bottom (under and opposite of the jack location) before and then after a resolder? I know the three negative connections on the bottom are connected, but should there be a direct connection from the + Pin on component side to anything else?
Cheesy Picture
- – – Three negative pins
, Some random Pin(Connect to + pin?)
+ Positive Pin coming through board from Jack
January 23rd, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Is there a certain way how to get the solder out of the holes. The solder on my board seems to be extremely hard to get out.
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:43 am
We have the A75 and after a year sent it in to Toshiba and had he motherboard either repaired or they replaced it for this DC power jack problem. It has worked fine for a year and now is back doing the same thing. Wiggle it and you might get it to come on. My wife has it plugged in all the time so I’m afraid it is going to be a problem all the time even if we send it back under warrentty again. If I mount the DC connector outside the laptop will that help matters? I also can not find a docking station for this model. Do you know of one that would allow the laptop to get power from the docking station?
Thanks for the great site
January 22nd, 2007 at 10:11 am
Can anyone tell me the component part number on the diode back of power jack for Satellite M30X?
I broken it… do you know what component can sostitute it?
Thank you!
January 22nd, 2007 at 6:54 am
I have a compaq nx6110. The pin is broke on the power jack. How can I determine what power jack to buy and where does one buy that from?