Toshiba Satellite M35X and Satellite A75 power jack and battery charge problem
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.
Entry Filed under: Toshiba Laptop Problems
626 Responses to “Toshiba Satellite M35X and Satellite A75 power jack and battery charge problem”
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Pages: « 63 … 52 51 50 49 48 [47] 46 45 44 43 42 … 1 » Show All
November 23rd, 2007 at 5:31 am
My A75 charge problem a little different. Left green power light on all the time OK. Battery light on right comes on and off. When battery light goes out, screen dims and battery discharges. Must plug adapter in and out to get battery light to come on again. Is this a solder problem? Ideas? Thanks!!
November 16th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
I have a question…. I currently own a Satellite 2435 series, and I have been having all the above described problems. Not being sure if it was the power jack or the adapter I went and purchased a new battery charger/ adpater. It is now receiving a charge and no flickering, just wondering if this is a temporary fix? The original battery charger/ adapter does not send any charge to the laptop. any info would be greatly appreciated.
November 11th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
I found the N-size power jack that is available at local Radio Shack’s for about $3 makes a great replacement. This jack mounts into the original power connector hole in the case. Instead of soldering to the board, I have scraped of solder mask near the positive connector, soldered solid-core wire to the board and jack, and mounted in this hole. This eliminates the stress on the jack and motherboard by allowing it to flex independently.
November 10th, 2007 at 2:33 am
I got a A75-s231 off of a friend. he said it was mine if i can fix the jaxk problem. it happened before, and it was replaced, and then the jack problem happened all over again, The machine would notice the power, then it wouldn’t and you have to keep messing wtih the cable to get the machine to run on direct power. i resoldered the jack, and put the thing back together and the pwr led, and batt led were flickering between each other no start. i unsoldered and resoldered the jack back on, and now it just flickers once when i hit power button. this off course is the board sitting out naked, and grounded on an antistatic foam pad.
i tried the old jack for the hell of it. the one that was originally replaced by the one i took off the unit. and same thing, power and batt led flickers once. i did the external wiring idea from teh link provided, and still wehn i tap the power button i get pwr and batt leds flickering once. now do i have two bad jacks or is it the trace being broken? i noticed that the solder made it through the holes on the positive and the negative solder points. is the flicker a good thing, and it’s just a bad jack? i don’t know what to think. i’m getting power. i mean the flicker even onces says i’m getting power right? so waht is going on? should i worry about this trace or worry about the jacks being bad? i have no meter to check them.
November 4th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
Milton Hetrick,
I think it’s necessary to remove the motherboard and take a closer look on the power jack. By the way, I just published a new disassembly guide for this model.
November 1st, 2007 at 10:20 am
I have a Toshiba a35-s209 was having issues with the battery charging and running off just the power supply towards the end if i moved the plug where it connected to the power jack to get the battery to charge all lights would flicker . Toward the end it started smoking . I pulled the heat sink out to get a better look at the jack .
The proccesser came out with it. Put proccesser back in put gel on it and heatsink back in after sleaning it . a friend tried to resodier the jack from the bottom side of the computer. Still when I plug it in it smokes and if I try to boot it The power light comes on the fans come on then everything stops is there any hope?
October 26th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
I fixed soldering both parts of motherboard, see picture
October 25th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Melanie,
If you still have the same problem then they didn’t fix it. It’s possible they installed a “new motherboard” with the same problem, it happens.
Send it back to the Toshiba depot or any local authorized repair center and list all problems you are experiencing with this computer. It’s still under warranty until November 7, 2007.
No, I don’t think so. In this case Toshiba replaces the motherboard.
October 25th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Thank you for having the information that I needed.
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:07 pm
I have a Toshiba m35x-s114 and just finished re soldering the power jack to the motherboard. Your instructions are worth GOLD! In the beginning, after putting the laptop back together, it would start up for about 1 minute and then die. Then I read the post by the person who attached the jack with wires externally. What was happening with my laptop is that the motherboard kept shorting out because my soldering points were “too high”. I covered the points with tape and BAM, the laptop works great now. I can’t thank you guys enough! If I had one simple addition, then that is to clean up the heat sink and the cpu cover and re apply the heat sink compound. If you’ve taken your laptop apart a few times like I did during this process, then the compound is worn off and dried up.
All the best!
g-