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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April 23rd, 2008 at 10:09 pm
lhiguiv,
I linked to the disassembly guide in the main post. You’ll find disassembly instructions at http://www.irisvista.com/tech/
April 23rd, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Hi. Im having the same problem with my satellite a70 model. I can repair it easy but im having trouble with dissasembly. Could anyone help my out with a link or help on how yo properly dissassemble this laptop? i dont want to break anything. Thnx.
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:04 am
my toshiba m35x have prolem with scren .picture no show up. and when i turn on can’t be turn off by boton power.
April 16th, 2008 at 11:19 am
I have a toshiba a75-s211 the battery charges when it is off but when you turn it on the battery wont charge the laptop will work with or without the battery
April 16th, 2008 at 6:38 am
Have a question, have a A70 Satellite that i thought needed a new battery. After buying a used and then a new battery still have same problem. Unit will not charge the battery fully. the battery lite charge idicator will come on constant yellow and in the morning after a 8 hour charge it will be flashing yellow and will only last 5 minutes on a charge. Occasionally the bsateery charge indicator will be constant green after an evening charge but battery will only last 1/2 to one hour. any ideas? have cleaned case contacts and brand new battery stll no luck….
April 11th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Hi,
I need your advice.
I have a Toshiba Satellite M35X-S329. The other day, when it was connected to the AC adapter, it shut down suddenly (within a second). So, I removed the AC adapter and ran it on the battery, it ran fine. But, when I try to connect the AC adapter, it again shuts down immediately. Then when I shutdown the laptop and connect the AC adapter, the battery charges fine. I also tried running the laptop on AC adapter only(removed the battery), it doesnt run.
What do you think could be the problem? Please suggest.
Thanks.
April 8th, 2008 at 9:37 am
They fixed my computers power jack on my toshiba laptop for cheap. think it was around $70 or so.
http://www.FastLaptopRepair.com
April 7th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
If you cannot fix this yourself, how much do you think a computer shop would charge to fix this problem? I’ve had the same problem described here for over 6 months and it completely broke today. I just don’t want to be over charged if I bring it in. thanks
April 7th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
i have toshiba sattelite mx 35 whaen i turned it on theres no video comming out from the srceen, the fan will run for a moment and then stop, the power button will keep lit , any idea or reply?
April 6th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Satellite M35 with plenty of battery charge (no charging problems) . Turn on power (with or without AC adapter plugged in ) and PC just waits with power light lit. After a couple of minutes, PC turns on. On occasion, wiggling the power cord causes unit to turn on sooner. Happens when PC is powered down or hibernated. Problem getting more frequent. Any suggestions?