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 … 13 12 11 10 9 [8] 7 6 5 4 3 … 1 » Show All
November 10th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
David,
You don’t want to “break off” the existing jack, you want to carefully unsolder it from the motherboard. If the jack is not broken, you can use it.
November 10th, 2006 at 11:00 am
I just have one question. I want to try this but I was wondering if I have to get a new DC jack or can I just break off the one that’s already in there and use that one? If anyone knows, please help. Thanks.
November 9th, 2006 at 5:56 am
Excellent write up and tips. I used the Dc power jack #274-1563 from Radio Shack ($1.99) and it worked out perfect and solid. I bored the new hole in the back of the case a little smaller than the new power jack so that when I screwed it in there it cut threads into the plastic and made it a solid and clean looking install.
Just wanted to say thanks for the great write up, easy to follow.
November 7th, 2006 at 12:17 am
Christa,
The front LEDs and the touchpad connect to the motherboard via a flat cable (as you can see on the step 14). The connector is located under the keyboard, exactly under the space bar key. May be the cable is loose and should be reseated?
November 6th, 2006 at 8:25 pm
Thank you so much for this solution, it helped me to save alot of money, and so far it is working. One question I do have if my battery light isn’t on but it shows on my power supply that it is charging is that ok? however it does light up when I hit my space bar, so Thanks again you fixed my problem.
October 28th, 2006 at 8:44 am
I have soldered the wires out of the back of my A75 with a new connector and no luck getting it running. It runs on the battery but not on DC through the AC adaptor. I have checked the voltage on various points on the motherboard ( most of the screws are grounded) and get 19vdc so power is getting to the board. The fans did run momentarily when I plugged in the adaptor. Any ideas anyone?
October 27th, 2006 at 5:57 pm
[…] Here’s another solution to fix the power jack problem, it shows how to relocate the power jack outside the laptop base. Check it out here: Toshiba Satellite A75 failed power jack workaround. […]
October 19th, 2006 at 10:41 pm
The fix is done (it looks almost exactly like the pictures lol but with a yellow wire instead the blue one LoL) and the holy A75 is alive again.
Just a last advice to those whose want to try this AWESOME workaround:
Watch the height of the soldering points at the MB because they could short with the base for the LCD frame hinges, preferably cover them with insulation tape too.
October 19th, 2006 at 5:20 pm
cj2600,
I bought the screw extractor ($6 bucks the set) but as the screw was too thin, when I was drilling the “guide” suddenly the screw’s head climbed up the drill but at least the top cover was free, the rest of the screw came out easily with the help of a needle-nose pliers, now to find a new screw.
Thank you very much for all the information.
October 19th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
Awesome instructions. Took the laptop to one repair shop and he quoted me 350.00 because the connector was “soldered” to the motherboard-ergo you need a new motherboard. Took it to another shop who was willing to solder the poweradapter onto the motherboard for 180.00. If I had done this I would have had the laptop back in the shop within 4 months-ergo another 180.00,
Just by luck happened to stumble over this website and lo and behold repaired the power adapter and had the computer up and running within an hour. I spent 2.35 for adapter #274-1582 at radio shack and followed Tonys suggestion about mounting the adapter in the original hole where the old adaapter was. The hardest part was getting the ribbons for the mouse and keyboard seated. So thanx for a great repair suggestion and a great web site. I even have enough money left over for a “couple of six packs”. Later guys and gals…. Rick W