HomeLately I’ve been seeing exactly the same problem with the power socket in some newer Toshiba Satellite L305/L305D and Satellite L355/L355D laptops. I don’t know if it’s a poor design or people just not careful enough with their laptops, but the power socket in these models breaks very often.
On the picture below you can see a good working power socket. The power jack is seated correctly. It’s tight and will not move when you plug in the adapter.
On the next picture you see a broken socket. There is a gap between the power jack and laptop base and when you plug the AC adapter inside the jack it feels very loose. In some cases, the power jack disconnects from the laptop base and you cannot plug in the power adapter at all.
In order to understand what’s going on it’s necessary to remove the top cover and take a closer look at the power jack.
As you see on the picture below, the power jack is not seated correctly and separated from the laptop base.
In some cases it happens because the DC-IN power jack gets broken.
In other cases, the DC-IN power jack is OK but the laptop base is broken. The power jack mounts between two plastic brackets inside the case. If one of the brackets is broken (the left one in my case), the DC-IN power jack will not seat correctly.
But in many cases you have both parts broken, the power jack and base assembly.
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO FIX THE POWER SOCKET?
1. If the power jack is OK but the base is broken, you’ll have to replace the base assembly, which means you’ll have to disassemble the whole laptop.
2. If the base assembly is OK, but the DC-IN jack is broken, you’ll have to replace the DC-IN power harness.
3. In the worst case scenario you’ll have to replace both parts, the base assembly AND power jack harness.
UPDATE!
I just published a guide explaining how to repair broken power connector yourself.
April 9th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
When I have time, I’ll make a guide for fixing this problem using a generic power jack.
Basically, you buy a metal jack in RadioShack, mount it inside the case, cut off the old jack and solder wires to the RadioShack jack.
April 9th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Tracy,
I think it’s just not a really good design and cheap plastic make it even worse.
Call a different service center.
April 9th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
I have a Satellite L305, which is only a few months old. My base assembly & AC jack were cracked; Toshiba Repair Center said these items are NOT covered under warranty, because the problems are considered “customer neglect”. These are expensive repairs for a “budget” computer:(
April 8th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
So i have a versa premium, trying to google what part (power socket) i need but cant find anywhere…ideas?
April 4th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Matthew,
Believe me, you are not alone. I’ve seen many different L305/L355 laptops with exactly the same problem.
April 3rd, 2009 at 11:31 pm
I have the same problem. It doesn’t charge at all anymore. I was careless in the beginning. I had an incident that loosened the socket…then it wore out with the times I’ve charged it. Hopefully I’m as fortunate as Tim.
March 19th, 2009 at 9:04 am
I also have a broken socket in my laptop, it’s a Satellite L355. Is it a common problem with this model?
March 18th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
I had exactly the same problem with my Satellite L305 laptop. I didn’t think that this will be covered by the warranty but I took it to the Toshiba repair center. They fixed it at no charge!