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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April 30th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
I am not sure if Radioshack sells laptop power jacks. You can find a cheap one on ebay.
April 30th, 2006 at 2:57 pm
Hi, The dc jack on my toshiba a70, is a dud
i opened it up and soldered all the connections, and i think it may have been better, but now it is even worse than before. i am going to replace the connector. Can i use a universal dc jack from radioshack etc ?
cheers
lachlan
April 28th, 2006 at 6:45 am
Thanks for all your help and great web site!!
April 27th, 2006 at 9:14 pm
Crestin,
Replacing the power jack on the system board will not affect your data on the hard drive. You will not have to use the recovery disk and the laptop should start as usual.
April 27th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
I have a Toshiba A75-s226 that needs a DC power jack replaced, I have studied the how to dissmantle pictures and am quite confident I can perform those steps with no problem. My question is when I put my laptop back together will it work as usuall,lose some type of files or all of them, will I have to use the recovery disc? How hard is it to get the A75 working properly?
I have this machine so scaled back,with many services dissabled I don’t know if I could remeber what all to do if I have to start all over?? Thanks
April 26th, 2006 at 9:15 pm
Within a couple of months after purchasing my Toshiba M35X laptop, it evidenced the DC jack problem. The computer had seen little use, and no abusive loading of the connector. Unfortunately, at the time, I wasn’t aware that the connector was the source of the problem. Only after it finally gave up the “ghost” did I discover the reason… thanks to this very helpful thread.
In the process of repairing the faulty DC connector, I discovered that the center terminal of the DC connector manufactured by SINGATRON ENTERPRISE CO. wasn’t properly soldered to the PC board. The shiny ball of solder visible on the underside of the PC board concealed what ultimately turned out to be a “cold” solder joint from the factory. In fact, the terminal lead on the connector didn’t even appear to be “tinned”.
Based on the experience of others who have resoldered the joint only to have the problem repeat, I decided to replace the jack with an alternate direct replacement design available from an Ebay source, “dcpowerjacks”. This part is also manufactured by SINGATRON ENTERPRISE CO., but it doesn’t have a round wire-like rear terminal. It has an entirely different construction with a stamped rear terminal… which in my opinion is more suitable to a reliable solder joint. Of course, only time will tell whether I am correct!
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,