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!
July 2nd, 2007 at 9:46 pm
BMB,
Do you have a Satellite M30X or M35X laptop and you get three short and one long beep after reassembly? Check the memory man, make sure it’s seated properly.
A Satellite M30X/M35X laptop beets this way when it cannot “see” the memory. It doesn’t matter with memory slot you use, just make sure the module is installed correctly.
July 2nd, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Douglas, saw your post from a year ago:
“repaired dc connection problem for my niece. Now after re assembly i am getting post error one long three short beeps. Is there a particular side you have to install memory if you only have one stick or do i have a video problem. Screen is black and no boot up. thanks in advance.”
I am having the same problem. Did you get yours fixed? Please let me know–Thanks!
July 1st, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Walter Z,
Did you remove the processor during the disassembly process? If you did, make sure the processor is seated properly and the socket is LOCKED.
Sorry, cannot help you with the motherboard diagram.
I believe the warranty has been extended only for notebooks sold in the United States. Here’s what it covers: “Toshiba Satellite® A70, A75, M30X and M35X notebook computers contain a system defect that causes them to freeze, reboot and/or crash, shut down, and/or lock-up with a black screen due to static electricity.” You’ll find more information here: http://www.a70m30xsettlement.com/faq.php3
July 1st, 2007 at 9:56 pm
Can anyone US side findout what the extended warrenty covers. Toshi Australia are passing the buck on this one. They claim not to know anything about it.
July 1st, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Hi. A70 experiencing power jack problem. Resoldered jack in and multimeter show 19 volts on both sides of board. Fans spin up when jack plugged in. The power and battery led illuminate. Battery led remaines orange indefinately. Does not power on. Bear board with nothing but monitor and power plugged in, still no go. Any ideas? Anyone have diagrams for voltage points on the motherboard so I can test the entire board.
June 27th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Follow up on post 408. I diassembled again and on close examination saw that the two pins on either side of the + pin were loose in their solder also. It was very hard to see this. You need to grip the power jack tightly and wiggle it while examining the back side of the joints with a good magnifier. If it is broken you will see the pin move in the solder. i also examined the 40 pin chip next to the power jack. It is very small and difficult to see the connections. I bought a small microscope at Radio shack for $10 that showed it pretty good. I could not see any breaks. Most people who offer to fix this problem for a fee suggest that this chip be resoldered. That looks next to impossible for the average DIY. When I reassembled everything worked great. Has been up for a week now. I treat the power cord very carefully now.
June 25th, 2007 at 3:04 am
I have a Toshiba Satellite M45 S-165 and i have a problem. Few days ago I turned it on and it started just fine. After a few minutes the whole system was dead. When I tried to turn it on it did not work. I have tried to remove the battery, removed the RAM, removed the HDD but nothing. When I plug the DC cable in the laptop there is no LED indicating that the computer has power.
Any suggestions what it might be?Thanks
June 20th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
I have a M35X-S149. Lately I have been having some sort of power issue, but I can’t pin point it. At first, the system would not boot unless I wiggled the power cord, or smacked it if I was running it with just the batt. pack. About a week ago this method began to not work. I can get the pc to turn on, boot, and use it for a while. Either spontaneously, or if I decide to switch to battery only (which usually always has a full charge/ or no problems charging it), the pc decides to “STOP”. The screen appears as if the power is completely off. However, the blue light around the power button, and the corresponding power LEDs on the front indicate that the power is on. The HDD read/write light doesn’t even work. Therefore, I know that the HDD lost power, but the entire system didn’t. I have problems when I try to reboot from this stage. I can’t always get the system to reboot. I don’t feel that I have overheating issues, my fan is at max cooling mode, and I have a Targus Chill pad to help keep the system cool. Could my power issue be related to the DC jack? Since I am off warranty, I can operate on my sick laptop. So here is another question: How do I open the case if I can’t get all the screws loose? Some of them appear to be stripped (I can’t get a grip on the phillips head screws.).
Thanks for your help!
June 19th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
I have resoldered the power jack on an M35X as per the suggestions on here. Worked OK for a while then started the 5 second fan running with no boot problem again. I have heard that it is necessary to resolder the 40-48 pin chip near the jack to correct this. I took it apart to attempt this. Looks next to impossible for a do-it-yourself deal. I did notice that one of the ground connectors was loose. Is it possible this is the problem. My old feeble eyes cannot see a loose connection on the chip???
Any comments appreciated.
Dave
June 19th, 2007 at 11:35 am
I have a problem with my battery charging and the ac power. I am pretty sure it is not the power jack problem since wiggling the cable does not help. When I try to have the ac and the battery plugged in at the same time while the laptop is on it doesn’t detect the ac and goes on battery. When I try to charge the battery with the laptop off it shows the plug in light on, the battery light orange and then the battery light goes off and the power light goes off. Then they turn back on again. It just repeats this forever every 5-10 seconds. The top cover is new and modified and the DC Jack appears to have already been replaced and reinforced with hot glue so it doesnt move at all.
It is a Toshiba Satellite A70
Part #: PSA70C-KL100E