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!
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?
August 1st, 2008 at 3:00 pm
hi… can you help me about the problem of my laptop? i had this new laptop model P300-16T but everytime i charge my battery when its off it keeps on by its self? hope you can answer me this problem as soon as you can. tahnk in advance with your help.
July 30th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Rich,
I’m not sure if this trick will work on a Satellite A70/A75 laptops but people have success with Satellite A60/A65 laptops. Check out this post. Read comment 216 for example.
Toshiba Satellite A60 and A65 problems.
July 30th, 2008 at 6:22 am
Has anyone attempted to cut the onboard memory out of a Toshiba Satellite A70/A75 yet. I have one that’s causing BSOD’s & won’t boot at all without the help of RAM in the additional slot, it’ll run with the extra RAM but crash after awhile. I’m thinking that if the mobo will boot without it, cutting out the integrated memory will solve a lot of grief.
I read that this has worked on A60 model’s.
Thx, for any help possible.
July 24th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Ted,
Wait for a few of days. It’s possible that your internet provider experiencing technical difficulties.
If it doesn’t help, probably you’ll have to replace the modem card.