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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June 19th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Excellent advice.
You don’t need external wiring.
Buy new PC power jack and replace it. It cost only 10 dollars. (Computer repair shop asked $500)
It works.
Thanks.
May 31st, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Michael,
Take a closer look at the contacts on the motherboard, maybe even use a magnifying glass. It’s possible that you’ve created a solder bridge between + and – contacts while removing the power jack.
May 31st, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Robert,
Yes, it should work on a Satellite A30 laptop too. The power jack on this model is similar to A75.
May 29th, 2008 at 3:28 am
Hi, Was wondering if anyone could help me with some information. What and where should the pos+ and neg- continuity readings be? When I checked them aganst themselves I get a pos+ reading which cannot be right. I must have touched or soldered something which is connecting the pos+ and neg- of the power jack together somewhere, please help me with some knowledge, a diagram, or something, Please. Thank you, Thank you
May 20th, 2008 at 2:02 am
My laptop is A70 type and now that I’ve removed the jack to install the wiring for the work around, the + and – positions on the mother board are shorted when tested with a meter. Any suggestions for this problem.
Mike
May 9th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Will this work on a Toshiba satellite A30? My jack is not loose but the pin inside the jack broke off inside the Power adapter. So I need to replace the jack regardless. I was thinking if silver soldering the adapter to the jack. Will this work?
April 29th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
HI, I tried to solder the ac Adapter to me a75 toshiba and once i turned the power on, I saw smoke coming out. I saw pd1.. which is next to the DC Jack cracked. could someone help me with this part.. where can I buy one.. or do I have to buya whole mother board… what size and where I can buy it… Please email me at mralmawri@gmail.com
April 28th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
I have really enjoyed the information I have got from your web page and this is why I am sending you this message I have been searching for days trying to find information or pictures on how to find short circuits that causes laptops to show no power at all even when the power jack is well secure is there a method to find out which circuit has grown bad. It will be deeply appreciated if anyone have the answer for me thank you very much
April 26th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
pete,
Not really. In a Satellite A45 laptop the power jack is not soldered on the motherboard, it’s connected to the motherboard via cables.
If your laptop looses power when you wiggle the power plug inside the jack, check the power cord on your AC adapter. It’s possible it has a broken cable inside and there is nothing wrong with the jack. Test the power adapter with a voltmeter.
April 24th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Do the A45-S121 models have this problem too ?. Mine has a 4 pin square ( traezoid) molded plug . – Thanks