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 10th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
I’ve got the same problem as Harlan above… Tore it all apart and tried with external monitor, no top cover, held up the board as much as possible to mitigate any possible shorting issues… still nothing. Powers up, fans kick in, no HDD activity… nothin’. Any thoughts, anybody? thx- RD
June 7th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Harlan,
I don’t know, could be some kind of connection issue or maybe you shorted something. There is no way I can tell you without looking at the laptop.
Here’s what you can try.
Disassemble the laptop again. Remove the display assembly and top cover, so your laptop looks like on this picture.
Make sure the memory is still connected.
Now try turning it on with an external monitor. Will it start without the top cover?
June 7th, 2009 at 7:22 am
Thanks for posting this information! I tried the external mounted jack on my A75 and it initially worked great. Everything worked except the touchpad and external battery indicator lights. I used a USB mouse and ran the computer just fine. I decided I didn’t have the touchpad wire connected, so I’d take it apart and hook the wire up. When I plugged the computer in, the exterior battery indicator light was working so I pushed the ON button. It turned blue, fans kicked on and then everything shut off. I’ve tried everything and it won’t come on. Does that sound like I’ve fried the motherboard? Are there any areas I should look for on the motherboard that would indicate this? I tried holding the ON button for 20 seconds to reset the memory, battery tested the AC cord, everything looks ok. I did not take apart the CPU/fans when I worked on it. Any ideas? Thanks!
June 1st, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Rapid Dan,
There could be some kind of connection related issue or the new jack is touching something and shorting. I don’t know. I cannot help without looking at the laptop.
You removed the top cover when you installed a new jack, didn’t you? Try removing the top cover again and starting the laptop. Make sure the top cover is not touching the jack.
May 31st, 2009 at 7:38 pm
cj2600- thx for the quick reply… no such luck wrt memory- When i did the mod… i skipped dis-assembly steps involving the cooling module and CPU since i could get at the parts i needed at the time– possible restarting affects? could that have screwed it up? the replacement jack is also crammed in there pretty tight under the board… possible shorting? but if so, i’d think it wouldn’t even power up/charge—
May 31st, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Rapid Dan,
Did you touch the memory module? Maybe it’s not seated correctly? Try reconnecting memory.
May 31st, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Hey- I’ve seen this issue posted numerous times on here butt haven’t seen any help yet–
I just performed the new RadioShack jack internal replacement on an A75. The thing charges like a champ! However, when I turn it on, it powers up, blank screen of death– No boot/hard drive activity, cooling fans spin up and blow, no wireless light– When hold down the power button to shut ‘er down, the screen flashes for a fraction of a second before it shuts down– that’s all she’s got- I didn’t touch anything I didn’t need to while having ‘er open… Thoughts, ideas, is it time to cry? Hey, at least I have a sweet-ass toshiba battery charger, right? thanks- dkk
May 27th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I’m going to try the external jack relocation trick on my wife’s A60. Just one question — is there a certain gauge of wire I need to use? I’m a little concerned about using a too-small gauge.
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Thanks so much for these instructions! My a75 was driving me to tears on a regular basis – the repair shop charged over 100 bucks to resolder the last time, and we don’t have that kind of money! I girded my loins, called my brother for help with the soldering, and got it working again.
I actually used a size n panel mount coax type jack from Radio Shack. It works like a charm, and I didn’t have to wait for the part to ship.
Thanks again,
KathleenB
May 20th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Nevermind about the dismantling portion, I was able to dismantle my Toshiba afterall…. I like your idea of an external dc power jack, but I have a question. Did you put the ends of the wires through the inner and outer rings of the dc jack holes on the motherboard? And on the blue wire it seems as if it is soldered across the entire three holes of the motherboard? Can someone help? Thanks!