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.
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October 22nd, 2009 at 5:20 am
Thanks to your site, I was able to ID the charging problem with my Toshiba A70. However knowing I don’t solder well, I decided to take it to an authorized Toshiba repair shop. The last time I had the unit running, I performed an orderly shutdown before the battery ran too low to prevent a crash. The Tech is now calling to advise after repairing the DC Connector he’s getting a “Cannot detect Hard Drive” and my HD is toast. The unit booted and ran fine before he opened it up to repair the DC connector, but since we couldn’t power up the unit when I left it with them, he say’s he doesn’t believe me. Is it possible he either hasn’t reassembled correctly, or forgotten to return the the CPU to the locked position? He says it gets to the windows screen then he gets the error message. Thanks
October 18th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I have a Dell latitude 630. The battery power does nto last long. As it gets too low, I get a message that says Switch to Plug-in Power. But I only use the AC Adapter. It’s a fight between the battery going dead and getting recharged. If I take the battery out, I can use the computer on AC power, but it goes dead after a while. If I am using AC power and remove the adapter connection, it goes dead immediately andwon’t restart if I plug in the adapter without the “dead” battery installed.
At first I put in a brand new battery, but had the same problem of it going dead with the message to switch to plug-in power.
In Control Panel Power Options, I do not see a menu item that allows me to switch from battery to plug-n power.
Can you please advise? Thank you very much.
October 15th, 2009 at 10:21 am
the trace in the hole thru the board was bad so i soldered a jumper on to the wire coming out of the back of the plug and on to the hot side of the resistor feeding the trace that way
July 29th, 2009 at 12:24 am
My notebokk c 8223 MV,
If I press power button must be in charging, although batery 90 %. I need explanation..thank you very much
July 28th, 2009 at 9:44 am
I have a Toshiba A75 that will run on AC power until it has to think! I have loaded a new BIOS and Windows XP but the problem persists. It charges when it’s off and does not seem to have any “loose connection” issues. It will not boot up with the battery removed but once booted and dormant I can unplug and replug the AC adapter and it will begin to run on AC even if I remove the battery… until you run a program or in some way ask it to “think” then it reverts to the battery. Any ideas?
July 22nd, 2009 at 7:28 pm
i have the satellite A215 with the same power jack problem. will the solution above fix this model as well?
July 18th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
OK, here’s a way to make this resolder repair in 30 minutes without removing the motherboard or taking apart all the internals. It’s a less elegant finished product, but as you will see, it’s actually very simple, much less risky, and it should be possible for anyone who is reasonably skilled at using a Dremel tool to accomplish.
The approach is to create a removable access panel to the bottom section of the case. I used a Dremel tool with the speed reduced to about 30% max and a disk cutter approximately 1″ diameter.
With the case turned upside down, battery removed, computer powered down, I made one cut in the case just perpendicular to the bottom just to the right of the location of the screw on the bottom. (There is a circular plastic support leg on the case immediately to the right of this screw. Remove the screw and save it.) Continue the line of this cut on the bottom of the plastic case to slightly beyond the raised section of the bottom.
I mmade another cut parallel to this one on the other side of the DC plug at the point where the case indents next to the external VGA connector. Also continue the line of this cut on the bottom of the case to the corresponding point where the bottom of the case is raised.
Then parallel to the back of the case I made a cut that connects the prior to cuts.
As you make these cuts in the plastic case with the Dremel tool, be very careful and go slowly so you do not cut too deeply. You will see hint of metal when you have reached the proper depth of the cut. This metal is the metal shielding for the motherboard. You don’t want to cut through it, just up to it.
With these 3 cuts finished, you can insert a small jeweler’s type screwdriver at the 4th edge of the case, which is just below the LCD panel mount. You will find it easy to pry up the newly created “access panel”. If you want, you can completely remove it, or just swing it back. We’ll talk soon about how to re-assemble. First let’s next get to the repair.
With this portion of the case now removed you have clear access to the bottom of the circuit board where the DC plug is soldered to the board, except for the metal shielding. Use a small wire cutter to carefully cut into the shielding so you can swing it back to get to all of the solder lugs of the DC connector.
Now you can either re-solder the connector (which is what I did) or you can do as some have suggested (maybe even better) and solder wires to bring a new connector outside of the case. This is a matter of preference. The problem with this Toshiba design is that there is not a nice secure mechanical mount of the DC connector to the CASE. Each time you insert or remove the power connector, strain is placed on the lugs and circuit board. That’s why the external connector, though less elegant, is a better long-term repair. To add some mechanical strength, before I re-assembled my unit, I placed a few drops off Krazy Glue at the back end of the connector where it meets the circuit board. This adds some additional strength.
REASSEMBLY: The section of plastic that has been removed does not compromise the integrity of the case. You can put it back in place, use the single screw to re-attach it, and then, depending on your preference, re-seal the joints with some hot glue or similar sealant (silicone sealant also should work well.)
With this method of repair, you do not have to worry about breaking connectors or the host of other re-assembly issues that some have experienced.
July 8th, 2009 at 12:40 am
I have repaired the dc jack as instructed but after assembly my ether-net cart is not detected plz some one help me on this. where did a go wrong.
June 29th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Each time I open my sony laptop, Explorer Outlook said its error, I click on Tools – click accounts – show mail, click properties, open Servers, in the Incoming mail needs to be “mail.copper.net but in it is Localhost=this is the one that don’t need it in. It keep doing this each time I open E.O. I’m tired of keep doing this all the time. How can I change the word so it won’t come back again? Its got to be some way to get to it somewhere. I think that is a program somewhere behind it in there. Please help me find it so I can change the word to mail.copper.net & not Localhost. Thanks.
June 10th, 2009 at 9:47 am
Hi. Thanks for these great instructions. My M30X was working fine, but charging inconsistently, so I replaced the power socket with the help of these instructions.
I feel like everything went fine, but…
When I plug in the power cord, both the green and orange lights come on like they are supposed to and they stay on. When I press the power key, all lights continue to work properly, and the fan turns on for about 5 seconds, all lights remain lit, but the computer doesn’t make another sound and nothing shows up on the screen.
It seems that I fixed the power connection problem fine, but caused some other issue. Does anyone have any thoughts on what could be going on. By the way, this also happens if I just try to turn the computer on with only the battery.
Thanks for any help.