Today I received an email from Tony Sakariya (tsakariyaATyahooDOTcom) who was experiencing a problem with the power jack on his Toshiba Satellite A75 laptop. He’s been able to fix the problem by relocating the power jack outside the laptop case away from the system board.
I would like to share with others a tip for repairing their Toshiba A75 laptop for the DC Jack and battery charge problem.
I have a Toshiba A75-S209 for a year now. After the first 3 months it developed the exact same problem. Battery would not charge and I had to twist and turn the power jack to make the connection. Since it was in warranty, I returned it and they repaired and sent it back to me. The problem recurred again after about 4 months and I sent it again and they repaired it and worked fine for 5 more months and it failed. This is a design flaw with Toshiba. Now that I am out of warranty, I decided to repair it myself. Your guide for dismantling A75 was awesome. Thanks for the info. Now here is what I want to share with others. Resoldering the power jack with a new one does solve the problem for a while but it will reoccur. Hence I decided to bring out a wire with the Jack outside. Of course it looks dirty but it is a permanent solution. I am attaching the photo of the repair I did. I got the DC jack from ebay and insulated it with a electrical insulation tape. Now it is working fine, I do the connection and disconnection on the dangling power jack outside the laptop and hence no chance of breaking the soldering outside.
• Coil the pair of wire one round through the ventilation grill before taking it out as shown in the picture above. This is to prevent any external shock or force being directly transmitted to the soldering joints.
• Now we need to connect a new DC Jack to other end of the wire. I purchased the new DC jack from here for a price of $6. Shown in the picture above the white wire is the positive terminal (+) and hence must connect to the inner ring of the DC Jack. Similarly the blue wire being the negative terminal (-) should connect to the outer ring of the DC jack. Refer the picture below on how the wires are soldered to the DC Jack. Be careful not to short the leads as they are very close.
• Now neatly wind a round of insulation tape over the wire and especially on the exposed DC Jack exterior. This will prevent any short-circuit and also give a better appearance.
Toshiba Satellite A70/A75. Disassembly guide with pictures.
Valued Comments.
Submitted by Binney:
The workaround relocates the jack externally. When I did this, a short occurred between the metal casing on the top cover (the one removed with the guitar pick). This happens if the solder repair is too tall. I covered my repair with electrical insulation tape and that fixed the problem. It took me quite some time to figure out where the short was and would like to save others the headache.
Comments #282, 286 submitted by Jake and John:
Size N: DC Power Jack #274-1576 from radioshack works perfect and looks great. Costs $2.99, easier to solder, snugger fit, 5.5mm O.D. x 2.5mm I.D.
Here are some pictures of the end result of the repair with
the Radio Shack type jack. I added one of those quick release
key holder that I had lying around as a retention holder.Here is what it looks like unplugged: Power tip unplugged.
Here is what it looks like with the adapter plugged in and
the key holder reattached: Power tip plugged.
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January 23rd, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Did the workaround you described and now the laptop works great! Thanks!
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:03 am
I like the idea of running the wires outside the case and using a pigtail to the connector. I would suggest using some shrink wrap tubing around the wires so it will look professional and also give it some strength. you can even use shrink wrap around the dc connector. I think this is the only fix that will last. I could send our unit to toshiba but that took a month last time and it will not fix the problem. What they should have done is mount the connector in the backside of the case and then connected it to the MB with some short wires…flex wires. This would be the way to go.
Great site and tips
January 22nd, 2007 at 6:41 pm
hey everyone,
i am gonna try and do mikes mod this weekend, i will try and get some more pics of how to do it for you all. hopefully it goes pretty straight foward, first time splitting a case on a laptop, so everyone wish me luck.
January 21st, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Heres a little look at what i did.
http://www.freeimagehosting.ne.....6f4588.jpg
http://www.freeimagehosting.ne.....c43c93.jpg
I hope it last’s forever :p
January 21st, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Guys, IT would be great if you could post some photgraphs of your work. This will definitely help many. Just upload your photos to any of the free image hosting server and provide the link here. For instance I did it on: http://www.freeimagehosting.net/
Good Luck !!!
January 21st, 2007 at 10:42 am
i did it again! I took the old jack out bent the pin up so when i reattach it back the positive doesnt connect to the board. Instead i soldered a wire to the board and then to the pin. Now it is 50% dependant of the board. The pin needs to be secured still so just get some 5min apoxy add 1 drop over the pin just for stiffness. The cord is pretty stiff remember. Im happy now any1 want pics just ask
Ty
holly phattness :p
Lets have a T.S. beauty contest lol
January 21st, 2007 at 12:12 am
The easiest way is the way Tony said to do it. Put the jack in the old hole and solder the wires to the mother board after removing the old jack. Did mine a while back and here I am responding and no wires exposed
January 20th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
I guess it was meant to be!
January 20th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
new alternative . when the positive pin breaks it does you a favor!
your no longer connected to the motherboard! so you solder a wire from the pin to the motherboard. This will take away the stress from that plug. It is too tight im gonna loosen it a bit too mabey, mabey not :p I can do this operation in under an hour. The hardest part was the diode next door to the pin. It was sort of in the way. But this pretty much solved the problem with my ts 2800
Only i used a whole new ac inlet out of a cannon bj dinosaur printer. I even used the same plug i just taped it to my old end since it was designed for it! this thing looks like it was manufactured for it. nothing is attached to the mother board. the new ac inlet fit in the the frame like a glove lol cya
phatty
January 20th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Ok i did it again. The solder on the opisite side of the board. I even noticed the board comes out like a stick of ram. The smart card being the button you have to press to open the board with the video and usb connection area as the hinge. I made sure the solder covered the pin all the way to the board i hope this lasts ;p I also fixed my mouse it was cracked inside so i melted the crack with the iron too. Next time ill hand some funky design outside , or find an original way!! I snapped a pic but i dont know how to post it ty all
Phatt