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 11th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
What type/rating of wire do I need to buy to perform your fix (I’m referring to the blue & white wire in your guide)? Thanks.
January 7th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
I had it fixed and it worked for quite sometime, now though i think i had a short and pc shut down off with 1 click. I figure it shorted out so i opened it up and did find 1 strya wire shorting out. i removed the wire but i still cant get any response any ideas
January 5th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
I think I need the DC Jack reinstalled and soldered however I can’t do this myself. How much do you think this would cost at Geek Squad?
December 29th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
yesenia : I just happen to look at this page
when I saw your question since someone emailed
me a question (maybe it was you?). Anyway…
I enlarge the hole with a round file. The plastic
is soft enough to file it. Just file it until the jack
fit snuggly in (it took me 2 tries – less than a minute)
- the nut will hold the jack in place.
I did have to remove a small piece of plastic
to get the nut flushed with the inside (wall to jack)..
Make sure you use electrical tape to cover
the jack on the inside so that there is no chance of
a short.. I attached couple wires to the jack so
that I can flip the motherboard over so that I can
connect those wires to the motherboard. I took
those wires from old broken power supply.
Sorry I didn’t take pictures of the steps.
The computer is still been used by the owner.
John
December 28th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
to Jake & John
how do i sawder the radio shack size N panel mount coaxial jack?
how did you enlarge the hole on the laptop plastic?
thanks
December 23rd, 2008 at 10:40 am
I removed DC jack and sodered with + & – Wires, it ran beautiful..also charging the battery as well. But it only last for couple of months. Now I can’t get current from power supply and not charging the battery. I have also checked my power supply with omh meter, its still in good sharp. I tried using my buddy’s fully charged battery and it works fine. So I guess I am not getting power from the power supply thru main board to Battery? Does anybody have same issue or know how to fix this? Your help & input is much appreciated. Thanks!!!
December 18th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
INCREDIBLE!!
I changed the motherboard and I still have the problem, my next step will be change the charger.
December 12th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Hi everyone,
I had the same problem that Joe and Chris (#51 and #53), my laptop only sometimes charged the battery when was turned on and always when was turned off. I started re-welding the power jack and then changing the battery and the charger…nothing improved. With time, the laptop was working worse, and finally only charged when was turned off. Looking for solutions I found this site and I follow the suggestinons on #57 but nothing changed. Now I´m buying a new motherboard, I gave up looking for solutions, I already did everything I could.
December 9th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Ugh!
Ok I almost had it. Had the jack outside then I got a short. And it was where the casing touches. Anyway. How do you fix a short? Do I just cut the end of the wires where it is burnt or do I need to start with fresh wires? I tried cutting the end of the positive end and soldering again but that didn’t work. There is not power connection at all now. ahhhh!
November 25th, 2008 at 6:05 am
Great thanks for tip. Did it and no more pulling on dc cord.