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 find this article useful, please consider making a donation to the author. Thank you!
July 24th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I have a Dell Latitude D600. My problem is when I try to conect to the internet using my dial up service it will not connect and keeps retrying. I discovered that if I unplug the phone line from the back of the computer and plug it back in I will be connected to the internet like normal. A few days before this started happening there was an electrial storm in the area. The computer is connected to a pricey surge protector. Could ther be a relationship between the storm and my connection problem? How can this be repaired?
Thanks for any and all replies.
July 14th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
jimbo,
In this model the battery is connected directly to the motherboard. If you replaced the battery but still experience the same problem, apparently it’s bad motherboard.
Did they replaced motherboard? It’s possible you got a defective one.
July 14th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Rajeev,
This AC adapter is sealed and you cannot take it apart, it’s not repairable. Just buy a new one, you can find it for less then $20.
July 11th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
I have a A70 laptop and had this repair completed off of warranty by like 2 weeks but none the less after the repair the laptop works fine on ac only. will not work on the battery i was told by the repair centre i needed a new battery so i ordered one installed it and the same thing happens…. this shuts right off when the ac is disconnected and on battery power when you try and turn it on the lights flash and thats it if i keep pressing the power button i can get the fans to cycle on for a few seconds but that is it i am thinking they have some solder somewhere they shouldnt have but i have recently spent over 300 dollars on this thing and really i can buy a newer laptop for around 6-700 these days you think this could be the problem??
i checked the voltage on my batteris and they are fine so i unno what else to try……..
July 7th, 2008 at 6:07 am
Hi..
I have toshiba A205-S4587 laptop. My laptop power adapter has got some problem of wire stretch from DC out point of Adapter. when i twist the DC out wire just from close to ADAPTER, it works and when i release, it goes off. I do not find any screws to open laptop power adapter, otherwise i could re-solder the things myself. any ideas on how to open the adapter.. please help.
adapter part# is PA3467U-1ACA
Thanks and regards..
July 4th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
hi body,While there’s no universal standard, a blinking LED on the battery charge indicator is probably not good news. It often indicates a battery that has been over-discharged, the voltage is so low that it’s confusing the charging circuitry into thinking the battery has a dead cell and would just overheat if a charge is pushed into it. The newer the laptop, the smarter the charging logic, and it won’t want to try putting a charge into a battery that may damage either the battery or the notebook itself. In some cases, you’ll be able to recharge an over depleted battery if you wait until the notebook is shut down, install the battery, and then plug in the the battery charger, but I’d keep a close eye (and occasional finger) on it for overheating. There are also fuel gauges built into some newer batteries that simply disable the battery when it reaches it’s planned cycle life.
if it is the problem from the battery, i suggest changing a new one for a replacement battery ,here is a link:
http://www.toshiba-laptop-batt.....seires.htm
hope to help you, good luck!
June 30th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
sorry my english! :-S i have a Toshiba Satellite A70. When connect it to AC, both LED (battery and power) are ligth. But when i startup the Notebook, the battery LED turn off and i need to “play” with the AC cord to get it turn on again…. but i only have luck many few times. More the times I do that, the Battery led not turn on, and Notebook not start.
Samtimes i have a beep too, when it turn on and battery is connected.
To use the Notebook i do this: get out the battery, turn on the Notebbok (only with AC) and when windows start, i put the battery in the Notebook.
Please tell me if you think this may help me!!
Thanks
June 28th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
I have a M35x that has been fixed once already for the defect in the dc power plug. My computer now has a problem when i turn on the computer the blue led light comes on and sounds like it is going to boot but does not do anything. Have any suggestions to what this might be related to?
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:27 am
Lewis Monroe,
1. Take a look at the power LED on the front of your laptop. It has to light up when you plug it the AC adapter. Does it? If the power LED will not light up when you plug in the power adapter, it’s possible that your adapter is dead and the laptop shuts down after a few second because there is no charge left in the battery.
2. If the power LED lights up and stays on all the time, apparently it’s not the adapter problem. Remove the battery, DVD drive, hard drive and start the laptop just form the power adapter. If the laptop still turns off by itself after a few seconds, I think there is a problem with the motherboard.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:08 am
Francisco Herrera,
There are no internal layers. If you pulled the copper ring, you can connect the top and the bottom traces with a wire.
You can test the laptop using this method. Minimize the laptop as much as possible, as it shown on the last picture, and test it with an external monitor. If you still cannot get any video, it’s possible that there is a problem with the motherboard.