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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February 11th, 2010 at 12:11 am
robyn raymond,
Very likely. Your description sounds like the power jack failure. It’s has to be resoldered or replaced.
February 5th, 2010 at 9:10 am
I’ll be totally honest, I”m not sure if the problem I’m having with my toshiba a70 is exactly what is described because, on the most part, it does charge when plugged in. Occasionally the charge light doesn’t come on but the led on the other side is flickering. The bigger issue is that the second I power the system on, it runs only off battery. The power will not seem to get from the charger to anything else unless the laptop is powered off. Would this possibly be the same issue with the faulty jack?
January 27th, 2010 at 7:42 pm
Update # 3 Sorry, I gave the wrong page number for the simple fix of the M35x faulty jack repair. Go to page 067, Gene Goldstein repair. Believe me, this is the answer. Forget about the tinfoil business, that could lead to a destroyed computer. Also, taking the laptop completely apart is asking for more trouble, just as many have written. Cutting into this small portion of the plastic casing around the input jack is perfect. Once you peel the shielding back the bottom side of the pc board is revealed right under the jack. you will see four soldering points, the four small solder points on the sides (two on each side)are the fastening points for the Jack. The two center points are the ones you are interested in — remember the solder points are close together and it is a bit intimidating. I’m not a Soldering expert and managed to tag a solder point to each of the solder points with a light cord wire. Be sure to run positive end to the positve, center pin of the replacement jack from radio shack. I see some have gotten jacks identical to the square type like the orginal, I would suggest to go with the type Gene mentions as it is round and makes a much nicer fix. Hope this helps anyone with the on again off agains faulty input jack. Since I made the repair on my Laptop it has been working perfectly, battery charges great, and I can run my laptop with or without the battery or with the battery in place while plugged in — works great. Thanks again to Gene for this great fix. Dan
January 27th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
Update on A/C power input jack on Toshiba M35x. I forgot to make it plain which model I made the Gene (number 065) repair. I woulod advise anyone with the M35x Satellite should use that procedure for the fix, it is the easiest and least intursive.
The repair on the A75 shows the wires loop around the vent to sucure it. You cannot do this on the M35x, so I have a fix for this. It is important to secure the wire or there will be the possibility of pulling the soldered ends of the wires loose. Looking at the back edge of the Laptop you will see a slot close to the corner, this is used for cabling (chaining)a you laptop to a tabel or chair, it is a security feature no one uses. This is a reinforced section of the plastic casing. Either obtain a wire clamp, or make your own, and find a screw 1/4″ or less in length that will fit into this slot and tighten. Easy fix, and it reall secures the wire lead coming from the laptop removing the danger of pulling or working the wires loose. I was going to post a picture but could not figure out how. Send me an email and I will forward a picture of the repair. dbax@dslextreme.com
January 27th, 2010 at 4:13 am
Hi! Mate,
I have a problem with my Toshiba laptop (Equim). Whenever I attach the powercord in the laptop(when running on battery), it just freezes and cant be brought back to normal and needs to be completely shut. It also doesnt start when I attach the cord and start the laptop. But, it charges the battery when in closed position. So, I charge it then use on battery, which is making me sick.
Do please help!!!
January 26th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
go to page 67 of this site and follow Gene Goldstein’s fix. I was reading through all of these solutions and saw how many were having problems after reassemby of all the parts — a lot of disconnect and reconnect to get at the Power Jack. Gene’s solution is perfect and you don’t have to be a tech to do it. I went to Radio Shack and got a female jack, just like Gene said. I then tookk a piece of lamp cord (no need to use electric tap for bonidng the wires together) and I found a pen cap, you know one of those that goes over a pen? The female jack fit perfectly into the open end of the cap. I drilled a hole in the other end of the cap, threaded the wire through. I cut the ends of the wire, on slightly shorter thatn the other and removed just enough insulation form the ends to bare the wire, about 1/8 inch. I used a pencil soldering tool, any shordering iron with a small tip will work and it does not take much heat to get the solder to flow if you use very small solder wire. I used an aligator clamp to secure the wire to the Jack on the board. What you are doing is bypassing the onboard, female A/C power jack by making a direct connect from the bottom of the board. Once you cut away the sections of the Laptop surrounding the input jack you will see. Look at the pictures closely as presented on this site and make sure you have the positive solder spot and negative solder spot located correctly. The positive will be toward the keyboard, the negative toward the back edge, each in line with the other. There is not much room but it will solder up fast, so as soon as you see the solder flow do not move the wire. Take the heat away and it will be a solid connect. don’t be afraid to put heat to it again to get the solder to flow if the connections is not right. Once you have the wire soldered to the back of the board you can cut the wire to whatever length you want, I did 6″ then soldered the opposite ends to the Female Jack I purchased at Radio Shack. First, however, I threaded the wire through the pen cap. Once this was soldered up I put some Goop glue in the cap and pushed the Jack inot the end. Actually came out quite nice, better than I hoped. Next I took some of the Goop glue and put a gob on the connections I soldered to the board then folded the pieces I had cut away back into place, took a small clamp to hold it in place for the glue to dry — finished, works great. No more pwoer failures in the middle of work. the best part is not having to dismantle the machine. Gene is correct, 30 minute, when you have all you tools and everything ready to go. If you don’t care much for how it looks you could use a nastier tool that a dremel to cut the case away revealing the connect points behind the input jack, but the Dremel worked quit nicely.
Thanks Gene for the good, fast and easy solution to thei problem.
January 25th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Hey Computer Guy,
I’am having the same problem with my toshiba m35x. Your solution sounds like a miracle. Why could’nt you connect the appropriate Plus/minus wires right to the battery in its compartment with out having to take apart the whole darn computer. wouldn’t this also solve the bad dc plug problem?
Chris
January 2nd, 2010 at 9:03 pm
SOULTION FOR SOME!!
wrap some tin foil around the AC plug and plug into socket on back and bingo!!!! for many the problem is a poor earth connection between the plug and the socket… fixed!! be carefull not to let tin foil touch inside of plug however, its just the outside of plug that needs to fit more tighter into socket, this reduces heat problem and allows power adaptor to work more efficiently. :]
December 19th, 2009 at 9:51 am
I have the solution for the non booting Toshiba m35 that I wrote almost a year ago. This tutorial is applicable to laptops that shut down without any warning, laptops that turn on only sometimes, and laptops that simply refuse to turn on. So if your laptop does not turn on, it goes completely dead within a few minutes after bootup, here’s the link to the tutorial. The repair takes about an hour, there’s no need of replacing any parts, reinstalling any software or any other thing. The only investment in repairing your laptop with this tutorial is your time. Basically, you can repair your laptop within the hour, without spending any money for any parts or software.
http://imateski.blogspot.com/2.....board.html
December 17th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Here is a youtube video I made about this problem in the HP-DV7 charger not working. Hopes this helps…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In5JoDVlZ0Y