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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September 28th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Note that the links for settlement do not exist anymore. Does anyone know of a new site or know where to find it. Thanks.
September 28th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
We have the M35x-S149, The DC Jack gave in. We bought a new jack and soldered it in. Assembled the laptop and not nothing happens. I called Toshiba and they said that the M35x warranty is extended and told me go an authorized center. My question, have we voided the warranty by trying to fix it ourselves? Can a technician find this out and still repair it under warranty? Thanks in advance for your comments.
September 28th, 2007 at 7:23 am
I have a Toshiba Satellite M55-S325, That cuts out after a while, it seems to happen when I am multi tasking, and it is running hot.
I checked the power connection, and that seems to be solid , no flickering when I shake it around.I thought it was over heating, and a themastat was shutting it down.
could this be the case?
Any ideas?
Thanks
J
September 26th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
I tried to resolder the dc jack on my toshiba m45 however, it did not work. I used volt meter to check all the connection and the positive pin; I found no error, but the laptop did not work. It even did not show the eld light. I sent it to laptoprescuer and they fix it for me at $100. It is good to try to fix the laptop by yourselves; however, sometimes it makes worse.
September 11th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
my toshiba L25s121 can not charge the battery. i gotta new battery and a new charger. when i connect to ac power the charging light lits but the icon at the bottom right corner shows battery is charging but is not actually. when i plug off the computer it shuts off due to lack of charge. i upgraded the BIOS but still no result
September 9th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
I just redid the bottom soldier point of the + pin (even thought it looked fine before) and everything seems to work now
September 9th, 2007 at 8:32 am
My laptop will not power at all with or without the adapter plugged in.
I am following the instructions on how to fix the DC in power problem. However i ran into trouble. The DC jack unit on my laptop (M35X-S311) is glued (massively) to the system board. So there is no visual to the top connection of the + pin of the DC, the soldier point on the bottom of the system board looks fine, so i am assuming it is either the the top connection of the + pin or the whole DC unit needs to be replaced. However it looks nearly impossible, because of all the (yellow hard) glue, which is all over the DC unit, PL1 and PF1. I did not see that problem on any of the pictures above nor anybody mentioned of it.
Please advice
September 1st, 2007 at 4:00 pm
What kind of wire do you use if the traces are damaged?
Lyle
August 30th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Hi,
I have a M35x-S349. I have fixed the DC jack problem but when I disconnect the AC power and try to use battery only computer will not start. When connecting the AC power the battery seems to be charging normally and the OS reports the battery as fully charged.
Anyone experienced this problem?. Any solutions?
Thanks.
August 25th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
BT,
First of all, Toshiba extended warranty for Satellite M30X, M35X, A70 and A75 series laptops sold in the United States. So, if you are experiencing an issue with this model, just take it to the authorized repair center and they will fix it at no charge.
Second, if the laptop freezes up when you touch it, it’s a known issue with this model. Check out this post.