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.
October 31st, 2011 at 8:44 am
I am a laptop repair specialist working on major brand lap tops such as dell, apple, Mac, Compaq, acer, etc. I can repair or fix just about any laptop that resides on the market today. I am also a php programmer programming dating web sites trading web sites. PHP Mysql PHP Myadmin.
The Toshiba lap top satellite L355D-S7825 AMD 64 unit is a defect it was shipped with a 17 screen AMD turion processor with 3gigs of memory 667 MHz bus speed/ 250 gig hard drive. from my technical standards I have replaced three system boards in this unit the first one lasted from factory about 12 months. I asked for repair Toshiba said it was going to be fixed I ended up paying for it $350.00 at the time lap tops were 600.00 at the cheapest. I then had to replace a second system board really making it the third being shipped with the unit. After replacing the board twice and it dieing again I gave up on the unit with a total waste of $1500.00 I personally recommend apple lap tops none other is visable in my point of view. I also repair apple computers as well and have never received a repair for any of them. You get what you pay for.
May 28th, 2011 at 12:46 am
Good day…
I just want to inquire where I can buy the spare parts of my Laptop..The problem is the dc in power jack is broken.I want to replace but I don’t know where I can buy this spare parts of my laptop..
Pls help me…and don’t hesitate to inform me..
Thank you..
February 27th, 2011 at 8:24 am
Cassie,
I doubt that BestBuy fixes hardware problems like that. They can replace a failed hard drive, RAM, but I don’t think they repair the hinge.
Is it physically broken? Or just loose?
You can try fixing it yourself. Take a look at these guides: http://www.irisvista.com/tech/
If you cannot fix it yourself, you should take it to a local laptop repair shop.
February 26th, 2011 at 9:50 pm
Whoops I meant right side in my post I just posted..where the hinge is and one screw. The metal part popped out and the screw popped out. I can’t bend my monitor to close it now.
February 26th, 2011 at 9:48 pm
I got blamed for not being able to charge mine as well. I think mine was just 6 months old. I bought a new cord and it worked again. Just tonight my screen popped off on the left side where that funky screw is. If I take that to Best Buy where I bought it can they fixed that or should I even bother. My computer is 3 years old, but runs great otherwise. How much do you think they would charge for something like that to fix? Thanks for your help. Very interesting to read.
February 26th, 2011 at 11:14 am
zack,
There are three components in the chain: AC adapter, DC jack harness, motherboard.
1. Test your laptop with another adapter. Your adapter could be defective.
2. Examine the DC jack harness.
3. If the AC adapter and jack is good, this is motherboard related failure.
February 25th, 2011 at 3:37 pm
Hi there,
I also faced with the same problem. My laptop can power-on with battery support but will not when the adaptor is plug in. If the adaptor is inserted and power is switch on, my laptop will either gets hanged or it will poweroff.
Any idea what rectification can I take to solve this?
Thanks.
October 17th, 2010 at 11:15 am
Brian,
Thanks for the description but I posted a link to the disassembly guides in this post. Here it is again: http://www.irisvista.com/tech/
Just find your model and follow the instructions. I guess you missed the link?
October 15th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
Hey guys,
Just spent about an hour figuring out how to get the laptop apart safely, its rather easy. Like the other guys said:
* make sure you get every single screw you see on the bottom of the laptop off first, even the bay for the hard drive (take the hard drive out as well), and the bay to the ram, which there is one or two screws to remove there.
*on the top, with the screen open, just above the Function keys you see the smooth glossy plastic piece about 11.5″ wide and 3/8″ thick, pry it off carefully with a flathead screwdriver, start at the sides to avoid breaking the piece down the middle.
*there are 2 screws to remove under that thing plastic piece
*you can then wiggle the keyboard free and carefully lift it out, it obviously has a short ribbon connected to the MB
*release the ribbon by pressing both black tabs on the ribbon connection to the motherboard downward
*remove all the screws you find under the keyboard and gently pry the rest of the top panel off.
*again, make sure ALL screws are removed before pulling top panel off.
Hope that is accurate of what i did earlier..
July 28th, 2010 at 3:53 am
I have this computer, and 3 mo after I bought it the DC adapter inside the computer broke off as you are showing here. When I took it to Best Buy where I bought it, there was another woman there who had the same exact computer with the same problem. I ended up sending it back to Toshiba and they supposedly fixed it. I have now had it 1.5 years and it became lose. I called Toshiba and complained because I hardly even use the computer and they fixed it again and said it would be the last time!
I think they made a faulty dc adapter. I think that the computer should have been recalled and I am NOT happy about the issue since I spent 700.00 on the laptop only a year and a half ago.
I will NEVER buy another Toshiba computer again.