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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March 15th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Just successfully attempted this fix myself and thought I’d leave some tips.
I used 18 gauge standard hook-up wire and whatever solder I had–IE nothing special.
I had a problem with the wires blocking a screw post that goes near the powerjack when re-assembling the laptop. I didn’t want to do another solder job (since I suck at it), so I just decided to live with the result of having the top right corner sticking open a little bit. To avoid that issue, make sure your wires follow the curve on the motherboard (around the half-circle near the jack, pictured above) and then go out of the grill.
Also, when disconnecting the wireless internet card cables, note which one goes where–I did not and had to guess. The BLACK one goes on the TOP post (if oriented so the battery is facing you).
Good luck all, thanks for the guide!
Other than that, disassembling the laptop was the toughest part. Re-assembly went by fast (even though I had 12 screws left over–oops!) and problem free.
March 10th, 2009 at 10:10 am
I am having the same problem only mine is a step further; I have had my laptop computer for only about 2 years but it doesn’t seem I can find the DC power jack anywhere, heck I just put in my make and model (Toshiba Satellite A135-S2266) and not computers even come up anymore. I got a replacment adapter about two months ago and that helped for a little; I’m guess it was a tighter fit and that’s why it worked for a while but…my main thing is, can anyone help me find a DC adapter for my computer? I have been looking all morning and calling places too (3 hours now).
Thanks,
Kerri
February 26th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Alex,
You don’t have to use a lot of solder. All five “-” pins of the jack are soldered to the motherboard and I believe they are connected to each other by traces.
I’m not sure 100%. You’ll have to use a multimeter and find out if they are connected.
February 26th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Wow, thanks for the quick and very helpful response sir. What if I only connected three or so of the solders of the jack on the motherboard instead of all 5…that would be like a dime size mound of solder just sitting in there?
So do you suggest NOT getting an external jack with 5 pins and finding one that does 19v with only 2 solder points?
February 26th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Alex,
Yes, the one coming from the back of the jack.
Yes, same way as it shown on the first picture. The jack above has 3 “-” terminals and yours have 5. Take a closer look at the motherboard, at the place where the power jack is soldered to the motherboard. All 5 “-” terminals are connected to each other, right? It means you can solder them together.
Nope, it has only two terminals. “+” inside the plug and “-” outside the plug.
It doesn’t have to be the same model, but it must output exactly the same voltage as the original adapter. The amperage could be the same or higher. If your laptop is designed to work with a 19V adapter, your new adapter must output 19V.
Be very careful with the polarity. If you connect the jack backwards, most likely you’ll fry the motherboard.
February 26th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Hey guys, Ive got a Toshiba P25 with the same issue and have taken it apart and resoldered the points on the MB 2 times now, and now the problem is back again so Ide really like to try this workaround technique…the thing is…
My DC jack had 5 pins which stuck through the motherboard that needed soldering. When I look at the photo above of where he resoldered onto the new jack, there are only two points…my dc jack looks like this ( http://i1.ebayimg.com/03/i/001/32/83/93cc_1.JPG )
Is there only 1 positive terminal on the jack? If so, am I supposed to solder the 5 other points into one solder and run the negative from there to the external adapter (and how if the external adapter also has 5 negative terminals?) Does the new external adapter need to be the same model as the one on the laptop already? Thanks for any help you guys can send my way. Its appreciated.
February 15th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Sorry in my last Reply I meant I had a problem with the negative wire in the MB.
February 15th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
I recently dismantled the A75, as per your great instructions. I removed the old DC jack and attempted to use the outside wire method instead of a new internal jack. I believe 16 gauge wire was recommended, I had no problem with the positive soldering on the MB but could not the negative wire. I couldn’t get the 16 gauge wire thru the positive hole in the board and it wouldn’t stay soldered on top. Any suggestions since the A75 is in parts. Thanks.
February 7th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Hey this worked like magic. Fiddling with the power jack went as far as it could, and got to the point where it simply wouldn’t charge the battery anymore, whether the laptop was on or off – in other words, it was about to become landfill. I followed the instructions and, initially, I kept getting shorts when I would plug in the power tip to the dc jack. Then I read Binney’s comment and decided to take it apart once more and give it a try – and voila! Now it works perfectly and charges while the laptop is on or off – a perfectly good laptop that would otherwise have been scrap. Thanks!!
February 4th, 2009 at 11:21 am
I have done this repair a few times on customers machines and found that soldering a wire from the pole coming out of the new adaptor as well as soldering a wire from the top to the bottom of the board on the + side will work well and last a while. I charge $95 parts included for this repair as it takes less then 2 hours. Those people charging $300 should be wearing a mask and holding a gun.
Matt