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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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?
February 6th, 2007 at 9:12 am
Two things…….
(1) This may be *very* important on some computers! Mine has *three* contacts, not two, so doing the external-jack thing requires three wires.
I paid someone to do the job, so not sure of the details. I believe it has to do with the fact that the DC connector has a sort of switch inside that tells the battery charging circuit whether it’s plugged in. He figured it all out with the multimeter.
Sorry I can’t be more specific but thought this should be brought up.
(2) Use a big blob of hot glue to strengthen everything. One blob on the top side of the motherboard, another on the now-external DC connector.
[AND - if like me, you don't know how to solder, put an ad on craigslist to hire someone..........much cheaper than going to a repair shop, and I got to watch and learn!]
February 5th, 2007 at 8:46 am
Just got my A75 back from the repair shop and it works great. They replaced the motherboard for the power jack problem and said the new one is glued down and they use a different connection..???whatever that is. They also replaced the top cover and fixed our speakers that they said where never installed correctly and where shorting out on the cover since they had exposed wires, not protected. The repair guy said it was just a bad job of putting the machine together. The sound was intermitten but I thought it might have been a software issue.
Anyhow it all now works fine and at no cost. Great job and in just 4 days. These guys are a platinum certified repair dealer for Toshiba.
Thanks
February 5th, 2007 at 12:16 am
Joe Oliver,
Your laptop is broken and you are trying fix it at no charge? Do not fill out the online form, just bring the laptop to a local Toshiba repair center or call them and request a shipping box. Here’s a comment I received from Jiewen in this thread:
Good luck!
February 2nd, 2007 at 9:03 am
Hey, all. I just finished a successful -internal- power jack replacement on an A75, using Digi-Key part number CP-024B-ND. This is meant as an in-line power connector, (no leads intended for PC board mounting), but if you pull the boot off it fits just fine. I used a loop of 20ga solid wire to hold the jack down to the board and make the ground connection, and another small segment of 20ga sold wire to make the connection between the jack’s center pin and the motherboard. I liberally hot-glued the jack onto the motherboard for mechanical reinforcement. Works like a champ, and all internal!
February 1st, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Back again. Original jack is secure and good connection (and even if shake plug a little). After lengthy period on it did cutoff on own. Although does not seem very hot on outside, suspicious CPU overheats and kicks off (?). Fan comes on but not much. Followed instructions for disassembly, but on my own to reassemble. I did nothing with heat sink and paste except smudge a little on my hand. I did not tighten screws with springs on heat sink all that tight. Should I be getting some thermal paste and reapplying? How tight should those screws holding heat sink be tightened? Thanks for help. Great site. Really appreciate.
February 1st, 2007 at 9:21 am
Tony:
Thank you so much for suggestions. As per note sent in meantime, I have
gotten (and still have!!!) laptop working good since removed added wire and
just strengthened solder at original jack. Laptop is M35x-s109: things are
a bit tighter around that jack in terms of placing and exiting the
additional wires.
Thanks, Thanks, and Again,