This email I received from one guy last evening. He had a problem with DC jack on his Toshiba Satellite 1900 laptop and fixed the problem by resoldering the DC jack on the system board. The problem is very similar to Toshiba Satellite M30X, M35X, A70 and A75 power jack issue.
I finally got around to using the guide you provided to try to solve the problem on my Satellite 1900.
The power plug kept not making contact somehow and ultimately it would shut down.
You would see in the Toshiba Power Management Utility in the Battery Power Meter, the charge bar would show “Online Discharging”, which doesn’t logically make any sense anyway.
If you wiggled the plug at the back of the laptop it might make a connection but could fail at any time with no warning if you weren’t paying close attention to the red/green charge light on the front edge of the laptop and discharge the battery.
I took it apart and discovered that the barrel power socket on the back of the unit that is soldered in to the motherboard had over the course of time worked the centre post contact loose and pulled away from the solder.
There is no real anchor for the socket to the motherboard or anywhere else on the case plastic. The solder on the motherboard that holds the socket in place is very weak, there is not much there at all.
Over the course of normal use, and being a laptop people trip over the power cord from time to time adding to the stress of the almost non-existent solder.
All I did was to re-solder the damaged connection, and I beefed up all of the other three solder points on the motherboard as well to try to strengthen the contacts against failure in the future.
I have provided a picture that if you look very closely at the base of the pin as it goes through the circuit board there is a slight gap between the pin and the solder it used to be attached to.
I search all over the internet and the only resolution I could find for this problem was to have the motherboard replaced. It appears that is not the case. I repaired it 6 hours ago and it hasn’t failed since.
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March 10th, 2006 at 1:36 pm
Hey Rob,
If you do not plan to use the solder gun a lot, then buy something simple, not expensive with a small tip. Also I would use a flux filled solder instead of a regular solder. In our shop we use “Weller” solder guns. I do not solder a lot myself so I usually borrow this stuff from other technicians.
March 10th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
Thank you for the excellent research and information. I currently have the Satellite M35X-S149. The DC adapter actually broke off from being wiggled so much. This is the second time this has happened with this laptop. Toshiba replaced the motherboard once already but I’m 3 months over my 1 year warranty and they will not replace it for free this time around. I have no experience with soldering but I’m willing to give this a shot. I have disassembled the laptop and I’m ready to solder. Do you have any recommendations in regards to what kind of solder gun and or solder I should use on this motherboard. It seems as though Radio Shack has a plethora of guns and solder. Thank you, Rob
March 9th, 2006 at 5:02 pm
Hi Shelly,
If your DC jack is bad, it is not necessary to replace the entire system board. In most cases re-soldering the DC jack will fix the problem. Most companies replace the system board because they do not want to take a responsibility. It is much easier just to buy a new (I mean refurbished) system board from Toshiba and replace it. You can search on http://www.craigslist.org for somebody who is offering laptop repair services.
March 9th, 2006 at 4:43 pm
I have a A75-S206 and having the same trouble. These tips are really handy. However, I have never taken apart a labtop computers before.
My warranty just expired also. Does any body know of a good place to get this fix? Some of the places I’ve been to said I may have to replace my system board. I hoping this works instead.
March 3rd, 2006 at 8:24 am
I hope you will get an exception from Toshiba. If you decide to take your Satellite A75 laptop apart yourself , do not hurry. Here are some more tips. Do not pull the keyboard and the touchpad cables from the system board before you unlock the connectors. The connector has 2 parts. One part is permanently attached to the system board, let’s call it a base. Second part is a moving part, I call it a lock. The cable stays in place because it gets jammed between the base and the lock. To open the connector slightly (about 1-2 mm, not more) move the lock away from the base and pull the cable. If ZIF connector is damaged, the entire system board has to be replaced. If your laptop does not fall apart, check one more time if you removed all needed screws. Memorize location for all screws you remove, you can use a sticky paper to mark it with different colors. It is pretty easy to take apart Toshiba Satellite A75.
March 3rd, 2006 at 3:55 am
Thank you for the advice, I’m having the same trouble with my A75-S229 I wiggle the plug in the back and it works, but any sudden movement messes it up. The warranty just expired about a couple of months back I’m going to call Toshiba to see if they can make an exception. If not I guess I’ll have to do it myself. Theese tips really helped me a lot, But any advice other than to be verry carefull during disassembling?
March 1st, 2006 at 11:06 am
Hi Melissa,
It is possible that the AC adapter is bad itself and does not provide power to the laptop. You can test your AC adapter in any local computer repair shop. But most likely you have a bad DC jack on the system board and it should be replaced. Test the AC adapter first.
You also can try this. If your laptop just went out of warranty, you can call to Toshiba and try to request an exception. It is very possible that you can get an exception on this model and repair it for free.
March 1st, 2006 at 9:47 am
I have the exact same problem with a Satellite M35X-S149. The power source said ‘online discharging’ even though the ac adaptor was in. Eventually it died. It will restart and then shut off. However, I am not a computer person. How can I get this repaired without paying a ton to have it shipped somewhere? The instructions just to disassemble the laptop look frightening let along soldering anything!!! Help!!
February 25th, 2006 at 6:07 pm
Thank you gizwiz1 for a nice write up and for updating us.
February 25th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
I’m the originator of this article and I’ll just add that this was absolutely the solution to the problem. The original post indicates sucess after 6 hours, it’s now been 20 days since the repair and no re-occurance of the problem.
Seems from other models with the same problem, Toshiba has been too skimpy with the solder at the assembly line.