Toshiba Satellite M35X and Satellite A75 power jack and battery charge problem
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.
Entry Filed under: Toshiba Laptop Problems
626 Responses to “Toshiba Satellite M35X and Satellite A75 power jack and battery charge problem”
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Pages: « 63 … 13 12 11 10 9 [8] 7 6 5 4 3 … 1 » Show All
April 26th, 2006 at 6:09 am
Garcete,
When you buy a new laptop I would also consider buying an extended laptop warranty.
April 25th, 2006 at 3:59 pm
Maybe we (my cousin and I) should just part the computer out ourselves since everything else is okay. We’d probably make enough for a down payment on a new one !!! Which would definitely be a Dell or Sony !
Otherwise, Im gonna keep a look out and hope a cheaper board comes along! Wish me luck !!! And if you come across something, let me know!
April 24th, 2006 at 9:14 pm
Nikki,
I think there is a way to attach the wires directly to the motherboard, but do you really what to do it? The connection through the power jack is much more reliable then just soldered to the motherboard wires. Just be more careful with the jack.
April 24th, 2006 at 10:22 am
Hi,
I have a compaq presario 1700 that we have replaed the power jack on 3 time. It has gone out again and I am wondering if there is any way we could just remove the jack and attach the power wires directly to the mb.
Thank you,
April 22nd, 2006 at 3:04 pm
Thank you Garcete,
There is only one system board listed for this Toshiba laptop. The part number is V000040730. I just searched for this part number on ebay and found two of them.
Ouch!!! $625 and $835
I can buy a brand new laptop for $800
Make a right decision. Good luck!
April 22nd, 2006 at 2:51 pm
Thank you, thank you, and thank you!
No insult at all ! The laptop isn’t even mine, its my Aunt’s who by the way knows absolutely nothing about computers and bought the first thing the salesman offered her! Personally I only trust Sonys and Dells. My desktop computer is a Micron and I’ve had it for over 6yrs with absolutely no problems at all !!! (but i guess desktops are more reliable).
Anyways, the model is Toshiba Satellite A65-S126 Model# psa60u-02k015 Serial# 84095828q
And I’m going to tell my cousin the bad and good news and see if he’s willing to buy a motherboard.
As for the donation, as soon as I get my tax return, they’ll be a little something for you guys!
Thanks, thanks, thanks!
April 21st, 2006 at 10:59 pm
Garcete,
I do not want to insult you, but Toshiba Satellite A65 system boards are crappy! Most likely your jack is fine and the fuse is OK but the board is bad itself. We used to repair a lot of them. We got a lot of units back a few months later after we replaced the system board and we had to replace it again! A new, I mean refurbished system board is pretty expensive. If you buy it through a Toshiba repair center, it would cost you over $320-$450 plus labor; the price would be different for some models. I can help you to find the system board part number if you give me the model and part number for your laptop, for example Toshiba Satellite A65-S109 PSA60U-0KM015. You can find it on the bottom. It is possible that you can find a cheap one on ebay. I was able to find a system board for my Toshiba Satellite 1135 for $49.
I think that there is no perfect laptop, they all brake. Some of them work fine forever, some of them just a nightmare. If you plan to buy a new laptop, I would recommend buying an extended warranty. I’ve had a REALLY GOOD EXPERIENCE with my extended warranty. Here are some notebook buying tips .
BTW, you can find a donation button on the sidebar. Donations are always welcome!
April 21st, 2006 at 5:23 pm
thank you very much for your quick response. it is nice to find someone willing to help out.
April 21st, 2006 at 2:53 pm
awww crap!
the only thing I found that was “fuse-like” was a little tiny white rectangle (smaller than a tic-tac) that said fuse501 on the bottom side of the board. I have no idea how to test it and I sparked it accidentally when I tried!
I still have voltage though from the DC jack to the motherboard. I also have voltage for the pins that connect to the battery. What I cannot find is voltage on the power button… even when I have it pressed. But again, I might be checking the voltage wrong.
Could the powerbutton be the problem?
By the way, thanks so much for continuing to give advice on this. I cannot believe Toshiba has such faulty computers! By getting us to turn in the computers for repair, they are just profiting on their own faulty equipment! If you had paypal donations, I definitely would give a donation for the help that you have given me so far. This information about the dead motherboard will help alot of others who have the same symptoms, and probably save them from frivilously spending anymore money, Im sure. Thanks!
April 20th, 2006 at 11:35 pm
Garcete,
You did everything right. If there is a voltage on the exit from the DC jack but the system board is “dead”, then you also can check the fuse. It should be located close to the jack. If the fuse is “open” then probably you can repair the motherboard by replacing the fuse (never done it myself). If the fuse is good, then most likely you have to replace the system board. We do not repair motherboards on the component level, we replace them.