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
602 Responses to “Toshiba Satellite M35X and Satellite A75 power jack and battery charge problem”
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Pages: « 61 … 60 59 58 57 56 [55] 54 53 52 51 50 … 1 » Show All
April 4th, 2008 at 3:02 am
It’s helpful. Thanks.
I have some question. I have a Toshiba M35X series, i bought in year 2005, it did not work since the battery uncharged and dropped. There are no supply on the pin connector to battery, i measured it without battery attached. What the problem is? It will solve the problem if I replace the battery with the new one? wireless do not work and led indicator doesn’t light, i have turn on the switch
Please help me
Thanks
April 2nd, 2008 at 1:41 am
My Advent 7081 battery will not charge. it is not the battery as it will charge in my friend’s laptop, so it must be a problem with the laptop. Any ideas how i can resolve the problem?
March 26th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Troy,
There is no docking station for this model, because it has no connector on the bottom like Toshiba Tecra (business line) laptops.
You can use your Satellite A75 as a desktop if you connect external LCD, external USB keyboard and external USB mouse. And yes, you’ll have to unplug these peripherals one by one every time you want you use it as a laptop, that’s the only way I know.
March 25th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
I have a A75-S211 with a loose power jack, I have removed every screw but I can’t open the laptop. Is there any trick on doing this? I’m afraid of using excessive force and breaking something.
March 24th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Not a repair question, but you folks seem to know everything, so I figure it’s worth asking.
I have a Toshiba A75-S206. I’d like to make it my desktop machine (my current one is old and slow, and about to die). However, I want to still be able to use it as a laptop, and I’d rather not have to unplug all the peripherals one by one every time I want to use it outside.
My question: is there a docking station or port replicator that works with this model? I couldn’t find anything on Toshiba’s website, which can’t be a good sign, but then again they wouldn’t be telling me about some generic one that’s compatible. Can anyone help me?
March 21st, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Aleh Mamonka,
This sounds like a problem with the motherboard. In a Toshiba Satellite M65 the battery plugs directly into the connector on the motherboard, there is no other boards between the battery and the motherboard. If replacing the battery didn’t fix the problem, there must be something wrong with the motherboard. Apparently, there is a problem with the battery charging circuit (integrated into the motherboard), witch means you’ll have to replace the whole motherboard or use it as is.
Here’s another idea. It’s possible that the power adapter is faulty and is not providing enough power for charging the battery. That’s would be a good idea to test the laptop with another known good power adapter. This is just a guess and most likely I’m wrong. Try to find another working adapter (without buying it) and test the laptop, just to make sure the problem is not related to the adapter.
March 21st, 2008 at 7:50 am
Good aftenoon.
Could anybody advise me about my problem?
My laptop’s nearly 2 years old,it’s Toshiba Satellite M65 S9092.
Laptop randomly started shut down without any warning and few days ago it appears to be dead.Now,i could’not start it any more even when plug AC adapter is off(battery in).
But,when i plug in the AC adapter on,Power LED and battery charge LED start flickering and ckliking.Some one told me my battery is gone.I took off the battery and computer works perfectly just with plug AC adapter on(no battery in).
I bought new battery and was disappointed to see the same result after puting it in:Power LED and battery charge LED start flickering and ckliking and i can’t start laptop on.
So,i still working when the plug AC adapter is on without battery .
Does any body have any ideas??
Thanks.
March 20th, 2008 at 3:37 am
thanks c/2600. i’ve find the service manual for my toshiba. don’t think that it help me so, but it can help me to do other try.
i need ( if exist) a software that tell me the cause of protection state.
the last solution is to put an object under the MB to keep it in the right position. isn’ t en excellent solution, but can it be a try!
sorry once again for my english.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Peps,
Unfortunately, you cannot fix it at home, at least I don’t know how to do that. You’ll have to replace the motherboard.
March 19th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
I have a Toshiba Satellite A70 and had the DC jack come unsoldered from the motherboard. The disassembly guides are awesome. The solder popped off the positive (back) pin of the jack, so I just cleaned it up and added some more solder. We’ll see how long it lasts. I have learned to use preventative measures including keeping my laptop off my girlfriend’s lap (to avoid stressing the DC power connection and me). Thanks for this posting!