Toshiba Satellite A75 failed power jack workaround
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.
Entry Filed under: Laptop Tips and Tricks
338 Responses to “Toshiba Satellite A75 failed power jack workaround”
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Pages: « 34 … 21 20 19 18 17 [16] 15 14 13 12 11 … 1 » Show All
February 18th, 2007 at 2:23 am
I bought this Toshiba M45-S165 a year ago, runs smooth and great nothing happened to it until several days ago. I always let it recharge overnight, then ready to use for the next day, but at that morning I realized the computer has no power at all. I use a voltage measureing device to check both Adapter and Battery, and all work. But no matter how I tried to plug and unplug both power sources with no luck. I checked the website and tried to find if there is anyone has the same problem with the Toshiba notebook, Please help me or give some suggestion to fix my M45-S165? Thanks.
February 16th, 2007 at 7:33 am
re: #158
(1) After having this solder job done I had to press the Reset button on the bottom of the laptop to get it to re-start. Having never used a Reset button, I was afraid this could wipe something (everything?) off my hard drive, but it did no such thing.
(2) Also, had to push the Power button five, maybe six times to get it to start the first time. It’s now been a month and never had that problem again.
(3) Are you sure you reconnected absolutely everything during reassembly, including having the ribbon cables properly seated?
For reassembly I sometimes refer to the technical manual I downloaded from the manufacturer’s website, because it methodically lists all the steps in order, including which screws go where. Great complement to the user-friendly websites like this one.
Once I had inserted the screen’s connector wrong and had bent a pin, which I didn’t notice until I had taken everything apart again to find out why the screen was blank. Fortunately was able to bend it back with a needle.
February 16th, 2007 at 5:57 am
Hi All,
I also have a Toshiba laptop and recently replaced the power jack on the motherboard. I took it to a small TV repair shop and they did it for $20. I reassembled the notebook and when I turn it on the power light comes on, the fan spins, and 2 of the l.e.d.s come on but nothing on the screen. The battery does take a charge but still nothing else. Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks,
DTK
February 13th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Regarding amber charge light intermittently going on/off.
I have a Satellite A70 with the same problem.
I think this malfunction is caused by static charge when using the built-in mousepad. I started using the pad for a while when my wireless mpuse died and this is when the problem started.
Stopped using the mousepad and got another external mouse and lo, the charging problem “magically” disappeared.
Note to self: Never EVER buy another Toshiba laptop.
February 13th, 2007 at 7:44 am
I’ve sent my A75 in twice already and it’s now acting up for a third time. It appears the class action suit is not for the power jack but rather static electric discharges. Anyway, I’m going to try and repair it myself since Best Buy wants to charge $250 each time. Fortunately, since I have a MasterCard which doubles the manufacturer’s warranty, I was repaid both times! I don’t know that I can do it this time, though. And I thought it was my son’s fault! Thanks, too, for the link to how to dismantle, though I figured it out myself, I need it to put everything back together!
February 13th, 2007 at 12:16 am
Dear All, I need your expertise and help. I came across a problem on the charging circuit of my FOSA 290 I2 laptop computer which is rather old but in good condition. The two pins of the power plug shorted and burned out. Luckily the powerpack was still working properly. Since I could not find a similar plug, I replaced it and the socket on the motherboard with a pair of BNC plug and socket. When I desoldered the socket from the motherboard, I found three holes originally occupied by the socket. They were just next to a component labelled as D102 8221. I connect the middle hole with a red cable to the positive terminal of the plug, and joined the hole on the right with a black cable and the hole on the left with a white cable, and joined both cables together to the negative of the plug. When I started the computer with the battery in place, it could not load Windows properly. When I took the battery out, it worked alright. The computer charged the battery, but using the battery could not run Windows. Since I don’t have a schematic on the charger of the laptop, I can only suspect that I should not connect the white cable to the black cable.
I would like to know whether there is a mechanism in the socket which connect these three wires, just like the ordinary power socket. When the battery is connected, the third wire may be used to sense the degree of charge so that the computer stops charging when the battery is full. When AC is not on, the computer will be powered from the battery.
I would be most grateful if anyone of you could advise me. Thank you very much.
February 11th, 2007 at 11:34 am
Gary,
I agree it’s not much fun, but at least you can get a working laptop.
February 11th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Thanks for info about warranty, but what fun would that be ????
Actually, did send it back once and it started acting up again in short order. Now I’ve had it open and did my own soldering.
I guess I’ll check into it. Thanks.
February 11th, 2007 at 10:07 am
Gary Champlin,
You’ve purchased this notebook in the United States, right? Do you know that Toshiba extended warranty on this model and you can get a free repair from Toshiba? Check out this post.
February 8th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Toshiba m35x-s109. Previous posts here. Strengthened solder connection. Good contact. BUT still an old problem (or is it a problem?). Computer on and once battery charged amber light (far right indicator light) goes off but green light does not go on and battery gradually discharges despite being on AC power. If I hibernate and start up again, amber or green will come on and battery to or remains full charge, but if amber then once battery charged light goes off and battery gradually discharges again, if green post hibernate then stays green. If turn off computer get amber and charge or green and stays full charge. Thoughts?