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.
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March 23rd, 2006 at 9:02 am
thanks cj2600.. the problem is now fixed and everything works fine. thanks to all of you who compiled this page and the one about dismantling the laptop! greetings from croatia!
March 21st, 2006 at 6:20 pm
Hey Gordan,
I am pretty sure you have a problem with the DC jack. I have seen the same pattern as you described many times. The battery is getting charged when AC power is connected, but the battery charge LED goes off as soon as you turn on the laptop.
March 20th, 2006 at 2:11 am
Hi,
i have a75-209 model and at first, I had the problem with static electricity discharge. Then, recently the laptop started to crash suddenly. Then, while connected to AC power, it suddenly started to run on batteries. At first, I was able to wiggle the cord and it would switch back to AC. Lately, it’s close to impossible to use AC power.
Now, when I switch the laptop off, the battery charge indicator lights orange light constantly, and it doesn’t turn green. Then, when I switch the laptop on, the battery charge indicator turns off. I tried using laptop on AC power with batteries removed, but it doesn’t switch on at all.
The AC power light indicitor turns green whenever I plug AC power in.
Are the symptoms of my laptop consistant with the problem described in this article? I have not opened it, will probably do so, it’s just strange that the battery charge indicator switches orange when the laptop is switched off and plugged in AC.
March 19th, 2006 at 7:27 pm
Had the same DC input problem with my Toshiba M35. Of course the warranty had expired the month before. Remebered I bought it on an AMEX card. Turns out they have a buyer assurance plan. I called them and they put me in touch with Micro Medics. They overnight me a box to put the laptop in paid for the shipping and sent it back to me in 2 days with a new DC Input port.
Same program may be available on other cards, Anyway, saved a few bucks for sure.
March 19th, 2006 at 7:15 pm
I have an m35x which had the power problem. I followed the directions here and fixed the solder joint. Thanks. However, when i powered the computer backup, the monitor is showing wrong colors and has a fuzziness. I tried replugging the two feeds to the monitor. I am slightly confused about a black ground with an eyelet. I don’t remember disconnecting this wire but it does not seem right.
thanks
March 18th, 2006 at 11:19 pm
[...] The power jack issue. The laptop will not charge the battery. The laptop LED flicker when you wiggle the power jack. To fix this problem you have to replace or resolder the DC jack on the system board. [...]
March 16th, 2006 at 9:30 pm
Hi Clarissa,
Is it possible that you didn’t lock the CPU in the socket if you had to remove it? Did you check if the memory is seated properly? Try to connect the laptop to an external monitor and start it up. If your system board is good and all connectors are seated properly, you should get an external video. By connecting the external monitor you can bypass the LCD module.
As a last resort, I would take the laptop apart and leave only the system board (it has onboard memory) with the CPU (do not remove fans and heatsink) and try to turn it on with an external monitor. If you get video, start adding parts one by one. If you have no video, either the system board or the CPU is bad.
March 15th, 2006 at 10:36 pm
Hello, I desperatley need some help/advice.I have a Toshiba a-70 PSA70C-RT100E. I too had the pwer problem and had a repair guy solder it 3 times( it kept loosing pwer after a few months). I did research and found sites like yours to help about this, so i opened my laptop and soldered it, it worked fine for few months, then the old flickering /then no pwer problem came back.I studied what a new power jack looked like and saw right away the PIn coming from the back was broke off.I bought a new jack, took off the old one, cleared the old solder, made sure the pin holes were open/clean, re -soldered the jack on and then appled Apoxy to the base around the jack, as recommended by some expert laptop guys .I know i did it right, the jack can only go on one way, and Today I finished that.Assembled my laptop, and plugged her in, and it was a nice tight fit and all three LED’s lit up, the fns started…BUT my screen was black-not dim, black.I disasembled it again thinking i missed a plug or something.it was fine, then i checked sites for black screen problems and disassembled my LCD and sge looks fine, nothing unplugged, no dirty plugs.Assembled it again.Same problem, I tried to open my DVd drive and she wouldnt open, no light either, then i looked at my wi-fi switch and turned it off and on, also no light.Im at a loss as what it could be.Im quite experianced on computers, and im just at a loss, ive never had a dead motherbaord, so Im terrorfied that that is the problem.BTw the harddrive is making noise, as the fans, and the power light are fine.PLease someone help, if i take it to a repair guy , hell KILL me with a bunch of crap i need, Im a single mom, i cant afford to be tooken to the bank if i could fix this myself.Pleas efell free to email me Irish_gal@sympatico.ca
March 12th, 2006 at 11:32 am
cj2600, appreciate your timely reply,
think i’ll give it a go.
much thanks
March 12th, 2006 at 12:18 am
You have to go through all the steps if you want to remove the system board and replace or resolder the DC jack. After you remove the system board you can check if the DC jack has to be replaced or just resoldered.