For all “happy” Toshiba Satellite M35X laptop owners.
I just received a very interesting comment for one of my posts. I think that this comment would be very useful for many Toshiba Satellite M35X laptop users and deserves to be published as a standalone post. The comment was submitted by user Hack.
In the following article the author mentions the picture posted here: Toshiba Satellite 1900. Laptop loses power and shuts down without warning.
Here it is:
Well I have arrived with the same problem as the rest of you. I bought a M35X-S149, my first mistake. Let me say that I think Toshiba robbed us all. What a LEMON. My LCD backlight inverter burnt out at 3 months, and now at 12 months and 2 weeks my laptop won’t charge. I called Toshiba and they WILL NOT SEND ME A #041011, nor will anyone who will repair the board for $150-$200. The spring in the audio out jack that holds a plug snug is shot, all output is crackling and worthless.
Talk about pissed. Oh yea I almost forgot, the recall too. The idiots forgot to install proper shielding for the motherboard causing freezing and reboots; of course Toshiba never notified me about the problem. Anyway my anger is causing me to loose my focus.
The author is 95% correct, resolder the circled points in the picture and you should be back in business. Although if the jack itself has problems like mine did, all resoldering the jack will do is PISS YOU OFF. The way that the jack is designed provides a poor connection. There is only one tiny piece of metal that makes contact to the outer negative part of the plug.
Don’t be fooled by looking at the jack from the outside. All of those daisy petals that look like they hug the outside of the plug don’t do anything electrically; they just attempt to hold in the plug in place against a tiny contact at the bottom of the jack in between the daisy petals. The power connection was gradually getting harder and harder to get the orange light to stay lit so it would charge. That was my jack slowly wearing out or quickly wearing out. It took about a month or two. Then finally the jack was noticeably loose, that was the day that the solder point on the positive connection broke loose. It didn’t break loose from the board; the metal pin broke loose inside the solder itself. The craptop would no longer show any lights at all except the blinking orange light of rage. Someone please call Toshiba and tell them to USE FLUX!In the photo, the two solder points on the left and the right hold the outer shielding over the jack and hold it in place. At no point does the outer shielding make contact with the inside of the jack, even though on the board they are all connected. The top center solder point is the negative connection, and the bottom center is the positive. That tip is for those who want to do what I did to fix my craptop.
A new Motherboard is $250 F That
I soldered the wires from an adapt plug [part #64-026] from Radio Shack directly to the board, and then the male version [part #273-1742] to the freshly beheaded power cord. Make sure to only cut the end off, just the plug. If you attempt this you will need some solder wick and at least a 25w iron to pull the jack from the board. Use a 15w iron to solder the new wires in place. Make sure you don’t plug the wires in backwards. The + on the male must line up with the “tip” stamped on the female side, that is the only point of caution. Don’t leave your fixed craptop alone in the presence of useful idiots.
I would just recommend going with the pig tail method for the simple fact that the jack itself is cheap and will stretch and stretch until your craptop no longer charges. So really, who wants to take their laptop apart 2x. The first time my laptop wouldn’t charge unless I slightly pulled it to one side or the other I took the board out only to find only the solder points on the board were solid. The temp fix for that was to make a tiny L shape with a paper clip, crimp it flat, then get it inside the jack and bend out the daisy petals a little bit so it holds the plug in a little better. That fix lasted for a month, the second time 3 weeks, and it wasn’t worth a third attempt, because at this point the wiggle made it obvious that the jack was now loose on the board.
If you want some solid laptop advice, buy a HP/Compaq I Image laptops and desktops in a 3,000+ workstation environment day in and day out. All the machines are HP. I can’t speak for the new models, but the N610c is a nice. I have seen at least 200 of them after 3 years of abuse in the field, and not a single one with a power problem.
Related posts:
Toshiba Satellite M35X, A70 or A75 locks up, freezes up or reboots when you touch the laptop speakers.
Toshiba Satellite 1900. Laptop loses power and shuts down without warning.
Toshiba Satellite M35X and Satellite A75 power jack and battery charge problem.
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November 26th, 2006 at 6:03 pm
I am very aggravated with my M35X-S163 notebook. A while back it would not turn on at all, so I took it to the warranty repair center in Pittsburgh. They said they fixed it and it seemed to be working o.k. for a while but now it still takes about 5 minutes to start up the windows operating system. I hope Toshiba loses the class action and hopefully offers a recall or fix for the problem.
November 25th, 2006 at 11:24 am
My toshiba satellite M35X S161 keeps shutting down by itself or freezes up. It’s not a clogged heatsink or any problem with the fan. I took it to several repair shops and they all agreed it’s the motherboard. Can I fix it? If not, where can I get a new motherboard?
November 20th, 2006 at 7:08 am
I am very frustrated with my purchase of the M35X!!! I purchased this at a morning after Thanksgiving sale in 2004 @ Best Buy… after standing in line for 5 hours to get one, you’d think that you were getting a good product?!
1.) A couple of months after using it, the mouse started freezing up and the buttons wouldn’t work. I took it in for the warrenty and they sent it away, I got it back 4 weeks later and they told me that it was a software problem and that my warrenty only covers hardware problems!! I treat it very well it still has the plastic cover on the lid! I figured out that I could buy and external mouse and it would work just fine.
2.) About 8 months after getting it back I was using the laptop with the ac plugged in and it was still losing charge. I wiggled the cord then it would charge again. I put up with that for about a week then I took it in again and also re-reported the problem with the mouse. I was without my computer for another 4 weeks. I received it back and everything was fixed this time.
3.) I now use my computer for business with a wireless aircard so that we can use the net while on the road. One day the PCMCIA card slot stopped reading with the aircard and my wireless card. I sent the computer in yet the third time although this time I got smart… I bought a different laptop and I am just waiting for the old one to come back from repair so that I may sell it!!
I have not been happy with this model nor do I have faith in Toshiba anymore. It has cost me a lot of time and money; paying for a ISP when I have no computer to connect with!
November 17th, 2006 at 3:08 am
i have lap top toshiba satellite m35x-s329
when i need to open it
its go on bios after about half hour !
pleas help me to repear
tks
November 2nd, 2006 at 8:54 am
It works nice now after I applied the thermal grease. Thank you.
October 31st, 2006 at 4:18 pm
Alexis,
Did you disassemble the laptop for cleaning? If you disassembled the laptop, did you apply thermal grease on the CPU? One guy had a similar situation not long ago. He removed the heatsink, cleaned up old thermal grease but never applied new grease. His problem was fixed after the put some grease on the processor.
When you turn on the laptop can you see if the fan starts spinning?
October 31st, 2006 at 6:25 am
My roommate and I both have toshiba satellite M35X laptops. Both laptops started shutting themselves down without warning. He took his to a repair service center and had the clogged fan cleaned for $ 200. I decided to save the money after finding this site and cleaned it myself. The notebook keeps shutting itself down (not if the air conditioning is on). The fan does not seem to make any grinding noise and sounds fine. Also, the base is not so hot either. I installed Notebook Hardware Control to see if there was any alarm before it shuts down but nothing. Any help would be appreciated.
October 26th, 2006 at 3:55 am
My Toshiba Laptop M35X has almost two years and it has the same problems everybody describes. It doesn’t charge the battery properly while says “online, discharging”. I was also fooled and bough a new AC adapter, from Toshiba of course!
Also, the screen turns turquoise blue from time to time!, and at least a couple of times, the laptop has turned off itself with no provocation at all.
I am very interested in any action taken against Toshiba. I think this is really unacceptable!
Thanks! Olga
October 15th, 2006 at 11:21 am
Vince,
I would also try removing the wireless card. The card is located under the keyboard as it shown on the step 9 of this disassembly guide. It’s not necessary to unplug the wireless card antenna cables, just remove the card from the slot and see if you can complete the POST. A bad wireless card sometimes causes very strange problems. That’s just a guess. I cannot say exactly why your laptop will not complete the POST.
October 13th, 2006 at 9:02 am
I have the same problem.
My Toshiba Satellite M35x s349 shut down suddenly. I bought it two years ago and I have had a lot of problems.
I bought it on December 04, six months later the jack started to fail, and the dvd/cd didn´t work properly. Toshiba fixed (after two months!!!).
When I was out of warranty, more problems, again! the cd/dvd didn´t read some films, it shut down when it wants, and if you touch the speakers you can feel what electricity is.
So, if you want to lose your money buy a toshiba.