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 … 1 » Show All
June 11th, 2008 at 11:16 am
I have a toshiba M35X-S1492. 2 years ago I had the power connector repaired and static issue was fixed (I thought but I am not sure now). Now, when I start it up the fan blows during bios but when windows is loading the fan stops blowing for good until I reboot. The machine works fine for 15-30 minutes then freezes. When I reboot the fan starts up then stops. When windows is loading I can move the cursor briefly until windows is completely loaded then the machine freezes. This is after the 15-30 minutes that it worked fine.
I thought it was a heat issue so I blew out the heat sink and put new thermal paste on CPU and Northbridge. Then I removed the top plastic piece above the keyboard to allow air flow.
June 7th, 2008 at 1:19 am
how much a motherboard of satelite m35x.and where can i get it?
June 5th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Bobster,
What’s happening with the laptop when you remove the battery and plug the AC adapter? Do you get any LED lights on the laptop? Can you turn it on at all? Does it make any sounds when you push on the power button? Any video on the screen at all?
June 5th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
I have the exact same problem as Fil (555) on my Toshiba A75. Any suggestions?
555Fil Says:
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.
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:53 am
i have a terrible problem with my toshiba S1800-712. it won’t turn on. the light for the power supply is green but the light for the battery is orange. when i press the power button nothing happens. why is that?
May 21st, 2008 at 10:57 pm
This has been said over and over but I can not find the answer, maybe its a little late and I need sleep.
But the blue power light lights and the power light turns on the fan spins up then shuts off.
I have left it on for 30 minutes or so just to see if anything happened, Ive tried re-seating the memory, removed the wireless card and modem, but nothing changes. Im going to try a new memory dimm I have at work tomorrow just to rule out the memory problem.
If anyone has found a solution please let me know.
I have a good hunch I am going to need a new MOBO. Guess Ill be parting it out to sell on eBay and get a new notebook if thats the case.
Stumped
May 21st, 2008 at 10:45 pm
I have completed the dc jack repair on my Toshiba Satellite M35X-S309 and now the laptop charges and powers on. only one slight problem now! No Video! I get nothing through the external vga output either.
I did notice another wire on the video connector that plugs into the motherboard though, it looks like a ground wire. Anyone know where this is supposed to be? I looked at the manual here and it does not even mention it.
Any help would be appreciated. Im not even sure if that is what is causing the problem.
May 18th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
I just did this yesterday to my toshiba… go to
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/CmosPwd
and follow these instructions and it will work…. I did the cmospwd /k command and it removed the cmos/bios password.
May 10th, 2008 at 7:17 am
Hi, everybody. I had the same problems. I had to replace the DC jack, the fans, and now it turns out that the motherboard refuses to power up the the fans. They spin for a few seconds at the startup, but then the don’t work any more. Ideas?
April 30th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
PLZ somebody help me NOW, i need to know how can i find password for my Laptop TOSHIBA, when i bought it it was OK but now i have to re-install the system operator and when i try to get in BIOS it require PASSWORD that TOSHIBA company add that password and now i cant find it….plz SOMEBODY HELP..