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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August 20th, 2008 at 3:14 am
I have a problem with a Toshiba Satellite P30-145.
When the laptop is turned off and plugged into the mains, the charge light is on and charges the battery. If you then turn on the laptop, the charge light goes off and appears to run on the battery. It will not then run on mains. If you then turn off the laptop the charge light will not come back on until you remove the mains adapter and plug it back in.
Has anyone got any ideas on this fault please?
Thanks
August 18th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
i have a problem with my dell laptop it powers on but after 10 seconds it goes off, both on ac adaptor and bactery
August 16th, 2008 at 4:15 am
My a75-231 Satellite power input finally shorted out and got cooked.
replaced the DC input jack, but not sure where the replacement fuse is to be soldered.
Anyway I can get some help re the PCB layaout with regrds to the input fuse positioning>
August 10th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
JOse Piscal,
If you use known good power adapter and battery and the battery will not charge, apparently there is a problem with the charging circuit on the motherboard. In this case you’ll have to replace motherboard.
August 10th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
John A,
Sounds like a problem with the power jack but for some reason I think it’s not. Maybe because LEDs work properly when you wiggle the plug.
Do you have the same failure when the power adapter is unplugged and the laptop runs from the battery? Will it fail if you tap on the cord or move the laptop?
If it does, there could be a problem with the motherboard. Apparently, there is a bad solder joint somewhere on the motherboard.
I think when you press on the power jack, you actually flex the motherboard witch is causing the problem.
August 10th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
John,
I would try replacing DC adapter again, it’s possible you got a bad one.
August 9th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
I have problem with Laptop Dell inspiron 1150. the batteri and power adaptor is fine but when I conect power adaptar no charge. Is Motherboard bad or what is happeing. thanks
August 8th, 2008 at 10:16 am
My last message was a little garbled,. Stress on the dc plug has caused an intermttency on the motherboard somewhere in the neighborhood of the dc in jack. In failure mode the AC adaptor in is present and battery charging with good led’s., but no disc activity or display ie no boot. NO power interruption when woggling the jack.
You can switch off by holding power button down for a long time.
Pressure on the dc plug may enable you to boot correctly again.
When running, very sllight tapping or power cord movement causes failure as described, but charging continues and leds.
No visible fault on pc power area. Won’t be traceable without schematic
August 7th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Ref the M35 power problem, mine behaves like this;
The led light up and the battery always charges OK.
But after a bust of fan, no activity .
If running when it happens, display goes out,activity ceases but lights remain frozen in the condition at the time.
Puttin a little presure on the jack enable me to reboot.
Need a schematic for power supply routing and control
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:08 am
The DC adapter stopped charging on my Toshiba Satellite A135-S2356. I checked it with a meter and no voltage. I bought a replacement aftermarket adapter off eBay. It worked fine for about 15 minutes, then I got a message that the battery was unplugged. I unpluged charger and plugged back in and it worked for a couple of seconds. Now, it doesn’t charge at all, no voltage with VOM. Is it most likely a bad adapter, or something to do with the jack on the computer where it connects, or a bad battery? Don’t know what to do at this point… Any suggestions?