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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May 18th, 2009 at 10:21 am
luis,
Could be bad memory or faulty motherboard. Here’s how you can troubleshoot a dead laptop (as an example I took a Satellite M35X).
May 17th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
I have done this with one laptop toshiba satelite M35X everything was ok the battery chargin and the cumputer turns on but simple de dsiplay dosent do nothing even the harddisk i dont hear it spinning what can it be
April 19th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
i have a gateway mx3215 and just recently the battery would only charge for up to 30 minutes. So then i just left it plugged in all the time and it would always be charging but just now hold for long. Then now the computer wont power up at all and i had to wiggle the power cord just for the computer to charge or work without the battery in. Now the laptop wont power up at all even with it plugged in. Do i have to replace the Dc power jack? or should i just resauter it?
April 19th, 2009 at 11:42 am
John Utah,
Sounds like a problem with the motherboard.
Your Toshiba Equium m40x is similar to Satellite m35x laptop. You can try this technique for troubleshooting. If nothing helps, I guess you’ll have to replace the motherboard.
April 19th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Hi I have a toshiba Equium m40x and when i press the power and release the button it lights up then turns its self off within around 3 seconds and then the fan tries to start.
This happens if it is plugged in and also when running on battery, if i keep the power button pressed in and listen to the laptop i can hear a high pitched squeeling sound coming from the fan.
It looks like the dc power jack has been replaced before.
Any suggestions?
April 15th, 2009 at 9:38 am
james,
It’s hard to tell.
You said the batter will not charge. Will the battery charging LED light up when you plug in the AC adapter? Can you light up the LED if you wiggle the power plug inside the DC-IN socket on the back of your laptop?
April 14th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
my a75 will power up when the AC adapert is pluged in but the battery wont charge at all but it comeson fine, is this a problem with the DC jack?
March 15th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
I have my A-75 completely dissassembled, but the dc power jack seems to be also epoxied to the motherboard and doesn’t feel loose. I’m having all of the same symptoms mentioned here and the motherboard was replaced a couple of years ago under warranty due to the overheating problem.
How do I remove this jack – some of the glue even seems to be partially covering a resistor or two. Can I leave it in place and install the radio shack workaround plug next to it and just run wires to the + & – ??
Thanks for the great site!
March 15th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Keyboard on m35x not working but usb keyboard does work any repairs that you know of jim
February 28th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
matt,
You can leave them connected to the motherboard.