Repairing a Damaged Toshiba Laptop Power Receptacle

[Jeff]

For the past few months my Toshiba L355 laptop has had a damaged power receptacle that moved around in the case. I solved that problem yesterday by knocking it off the desk and pushing the receptacle all the way into the case where it was unreachable.


Toshiba has a flat repair fee of about $300 for out of warrantee units and the local repair shop estimated $200 to replace the power cable and receptacle. While googling an answer I found this solution which cost $3.50 for a jack at Radio Shack, is a sturdier repair than the original, and took about an hour to complete. In case others have this happen to a Toshiba I thought I would mention it here.

[Wizard46]

Thanks for that link. I've got one setting in my shop with just that problem. I couldn't figure how to get it apart. I made a temp fix but not working too good.

Broke mine by leaving it on the dinette seat with the power jack plugged in and it fell off while traveling and landed on the jack pushing everything back into the computer. I'm going to try repairs again soon.

[Ned]

Good tip, that could save somebody a lot of money if they're even a bit skilled in soldering.  I wonder if it work on our Qosmio?

[Jeff]

Good tip, that could save somebody a lot of money if they're even a bit skilled in soldering.  I wonder if it work on our Qosmio?

Ned:


There is a list of models in there somewhere.

[Tom]

I made the same repair/savings 15⁺ years ago on a Thinkpad.

[Ned]

Jeff, I saw the list but it was all Satellites.  I keep it in mind however in case ours ever breaks.

[BernieD]

Is there anything similar for a damaged USB port? One of my 3 ports, and I frequently have all 3 in use and wishing for a 4th, has a flopping fixed guide that prevents insertion of the USB plug when it is acting up. I have been keeping my Logitech transmitter permanently in the port but would like to remove it to use another plug occasionally without all the hassle of the flopping guide. Acer isn't very support friendly and I get no help from them since I am out of warranty.

[Wandering]

Bernie,

Unless you are moving the unit (and attached USB devices) a lot, why not use a USB hub to expand the number of USB ports?

[Ned]

USB ports can be fragile and will break with continued insertions.  I use short (about 3") USB extensions for the ports that get a lot of in and out activity to protect them.  Your best now, as suggested above, is to use a USB hub, but be sure it's a powered hub.  Repairing USB ports on the motherboard isn't a trivial task, like the power connector.

[BernieD]

Unless you are moving the unit (and attached USB devices) a lot, why not use a USB hub to expand the number of USB ports?

I have a powered one available when the laptop is sitting by the desk, but I sometimes look for that extra port when I have the laptop in the Ram mount by the driver's seat and have the Streets & Trips antenna and Silverleaf plugged into the 2 open slots and maybe want to plug in my USB modem also. The Silverleaf is very critical in only working when plugged into it's "home (installed)" slot and the antenna has movability issues as well.

I've tried the dongle but except when in the Ram mount, the laptop is always on a movable surface above my lap and the dongle gets cumbersome and in the way, so I'd be back to changing out whenever I use the Ram mount.

[gkas]

I would just epoxy the usb port in place.  If you ever have to actually replace it, then use your friendly Dremel to get it out.

[dhshaw]

I have a couple of places I used when I was researching an issue with a Toshiba laptop,
http://www.irisvista.com/tech/
http://repair4laptop.org/notebook.html

Hope these may help somebody if they need them.

Dave

[Flyboy]

A preventive measure for this problem is to replace the straight in plug on the a/c converter chord with a 90 degree elbow plug. That's pretty easy to do if one is a bit handy with strippers and a soldering iron.

[BernieD]

I would just epoxy the usb port in place.  If you ever have to actually replace it, then use your friendly Dremel to get it out.

Mike

Not sure what you mean by epoxying the port. However, the reply below above gave me the idea of using one of my 90° angle USB plugs.

[Wizard46]

Mine had a 90 degree plug but when if fell, it landed right on the plug and broke the receptacle.

All the above instructions, none are for my model, Acer Extensa.