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
337 Responses to “Toshiba Satellite A75 failed power jack workaround”
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Pages: « 34 … 24 23 22 21 20 [19] 18 17 16 15 14 … 1 » Show All
April 10th, 2007 at 8:43 am
My “beeping” problem started before I did any work on the computer and continues now. The computer is totally unresponsive. I’ve already tried a new battery and a new adapter. Is there a fuse somewhere that I’m overlooking?
April 10th, 2007 at 4:01 am
I am having the same “beeping” problem described by John French in post #188. Can anyone explain why this is, and if it can be overcome? It may be worth noting that after soldering as described, the new power jack worked for about a day-and-a-half before the beeping began and the power ceased functioning.
April 9th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Just finished the DC jack bypass - my A75 is still not working - the AC adapter gives of a high-pitched beeping sound whether plugged into the original DC jack or the bypass. Had the same noise before I did the bypass. Any suggestions?
April 9th, 2007 at 2:55 am
Toshiba m35x-S109. Follow-up to message 178. Toshiba Authorized Dealer replaced system board and seemed working great (jack, AC, battery). but then I notice spontaneous reboot (on AC and battery inserted). Then used battery alone and rebooting after startup and Microsoft melody plays. And/or if makes it through, spontaneous reboots at any time. Had it back to dealer once and okay when idle and selective start-up and using AC so gave back to me saying it was switch for hibernating and turning off screen when close cover. I booted in front of them and still spontaneous reboots again right away when on battery power but okay on AC power so then thinking maybe its the battery. But since then I am getting spontaneous reboots any time including just AC without battery even in machine. More likely on battery power alone, but happens with AC and battery in or out. I’m hoping at this point they are willing to replace system board again. Never had this particular problem before the replacement. At least jack seems great now, but no good if can’t keep computer from rebooting all the time. Any thoughts ????
April 7th, 2007 at 11:59 am
I am trying to fix my toshiba satellite M35X series, and i got stuck after the keyboard disembly. there is a torx screw and i dont know what number i need to use to take it out. Please help.
April 6th, 2007 at 7:24 am
I had the same problem with my daughters laptop. I took a little different approach. I re-soldered the jack to the board and also soldered wires to the ground and positive on the jack and then wrapped the wire around and also soldered it on the bottom of the board. This way if the jack / board connection breaks, the wire will be the backup conductor.
Same idea, cleaner implementation.
March 18th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
PERFECT!!! People attempting this fix need to keep in mind…when you solder the wires to the top of the motherboard, you will need to cover the bottom of the lid direct above your solders with a couple (four) layers of electrical tap. the bottom of the lid directly above your solders is METAL and will short out the power jack as soon as you tighten the screws in that corner of the laptop. Other than that, this is the PERFECT fix for this problem!!!
March 14th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
This might be the most unusual Toshiba question ever. I have A65. It has been working fine until the past weekend. It still works fine but AC power light is on whenever laptop is plugged in (that’s good. It should be) or when the battery is not dead. In short, the only way it goes off is if laptop is unplugged and battery is removed.
Running XP. Any chance this could somehow be related to the time change upgrade?
March 11th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Throw it away. I’m about ready to, but since it was my moms 1500 $ laptop for work taht NEVER WORKED and she’s given to me I think ill just have to go buy a new one. It’s been into toshiba to be fixed at least 20 times.. and i recently sent it in again *since it always shuts off/reheats* anyways, got it bak.. same thing has been happening.. it’s been doing this sine we bought it in 04.. nothing but problems. So here’s the deal now… I was on it earlier today, the battery died.. Went to plug it in and turn it on and well.. it won’t turn on. The light for the battery indicator is red-the power cord green, the center is not even lighting up. I was stupid enough to not have a backup of my current college assignments-and let me tell you, distance ed takes a lot of tie, so now I’m going to be VERY behind if I cannot get that computer up to get my data… any tips?
thanks.
March 10th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Jerry Benner,
I think there could be a problem with the hard drive. Test the hard drive with Hitachi’s drive fitness test, you’ll find link to this utility in “Links” on the right side.
Do you get an error message? Or something like “Wrong Machine” message?