Lap Top Power Jack Issue

[ZZman]

Has anyone else had their power jack fail on their laptop?

I have a ComPaq and now it wiggles around and will not charge.

It sounds like a fairly common issue when I called around for repair. They want $ 150.00 to repair it and that is pretty standard.

They also said not to wiggle it around too much as it sends electrical surges thru the motherboard and can damage it.

 

[uc50ic4more]

The cruddy old laptops I've had in the past that have given me trouble like this, and that includes *all* of the cruddy old laptops I've ever owned, were dealt with by snipping the plug off the power supply cable and hard wiring the leads directly into the mainboard, or the daughterboard on which the jack was seated.

You lose your portability, and pretty much render the battery pointless, and if not properly supported you can actually do more harm than good (by that I mean that if you simply solder the leads onto the board, any tension exterted on or from the cable will pull directly on the solder joints - liberal doses of duct tape can mitigate against this. Liberal doses of duct tape applied anywhere introduce a dimension of ugliness to the whole project, of course...) but if properly done this can solve all of your cruddy connection problems!

(I shouldn't need to mention that is NOT warranty-friendly!)

 

[TooManyWheels]

I had this problem on my Toshiba Satellite and was able to resolder the jack. The laptop was a bear to disassemble and reassemble, though, and failed with a different problem shortly thereafter, which may have been related to me taking it apart.

As a result, my opinion on this repair is to decide how much the laptop is worth to you. It may just be time to upgrade. In my case, I saved the jack repair fee, but then was faced with a inverter/backlight problem, which I quickly learned is not something you do yourself.

 

[HTSS_TR]

I bought Dell DC Power Jack on Ebay for about $5 and had local computer repair center replace it for $40-50 about a year ago.

ComPaq Power Jack:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Compaq-700-1200-1250...p3286.m20.l1116

 

[wirelessF]

I had to replace a clients laptops motherboard because the battery would not charge and it wont detect plugged in. Same happened to my Toshiba laptop, CUSA had to replace the mobo under warranty. I wish I knew about the soldering stuff.

I got a new Compaq netbook and the power jack/battery connectors come in a seperate daughterboard so you don't have to replace the whole motherboard if the jack goes bad/battery wont charge.

 

[Bill in Utah]

I wired in a new cord/jack on my old Toshiba and then rewired my power cord to the new plug system.

Cost (other than my time) was under $5 and it works perfect.

My Dad uses the laptop a few times a week (mostly on A/C).

The cord does stick out of the laptop about a inch.

The factory jacks are known to do this often. The mfg wants a new motherboard normally.

Take care, bill

 

[wirelessF]

Here's what I'm talking about:

Neat innovation I should say.

 

[eljefino]

I would be impressed by a maker that uses a daughterboard.

Wife's HP suffered this jack breakage and looked darn near impossible to fix.

A work computer the pin wore down so I added a strand of 24-ish ga copper wire to the female section of the cord before plugging it in. Tightens it right up. Various goofballs unplug it, losing the strand of wire, then it's back to its wayward ways.

 

[wirelessF]

I wanted to avoid HP/CQ because of the jack problems I hear around. But since I bought my CQ netbook and the power connector comes in a seperate daughterboard, I was confident in my purchase.

I might pickup some daughterboards and be careless with the power jack!

 

[sciphi]

My HP tablet has a sorta-loose power jack. I avoid it by using it on battery as much as possible and letting it be stationary when it's charging.

 

[punisher]

A fair amount of Compaqs/HPs use a jack with a jumper that plugs into the motherboard....easy fix. Main problem I run into is the jack tearing loose from the motherboard and tearing/burning/melting the motherboard traces. Most of the time you luck out and have no serious mobo damage but every once in awhile you have to get creative with copper sheets, scissors and solder. Sometimes you burn up a ground plane/inner layer and it's not repairable.

 

[Carbon]

Originally Posted By: punisher
A fair amount of Compaqs/HPs use a jack with a jumper that plugs into the motherboard....easy fix. Main problem I run into is the jack tearing loose from the motherboard and tearing/burning/melting the motherboard traces. Most of the time you luck out and have no serious mobo damage but every once in awhile you have to get creative with copper sheets, scissors and solder. Sometimes you burn up a ground plane/inner layer and it's not repairable.


That first sentence sounds contradictory with the rest of the paragraph.

 

[OVERKILL]

I've repaired probably over one hundred laptops via soldering the jack back to the board. It is almost always one of two problems:

1. The centre pin is only "riveted" to the metal it protrudes through, and after continuous wiggling over time, the "rivet" portion (by which I mean the back of the pin is actually flared or stamped, like a rivet of sorts) becomes loose and makes intermittent contact.

2. The ground or power band comes loose from the board itself.

Both of which are fixable via soldering, and often yield a more solid and durable connection than what was there originally. Especially with the former.

 

[punisher]

Originally Posted By: Carbon

That first sentence sounds contradictory with the rest of the paragraph.


It does doesn't it. I mean there are two different setups, the jack soldered to the motherboard, and the separate jack attached via jumpers.

 

[Carbon]

Originally Posted By: punisher
I mean there are two different setups, the jack soldered to the motherboard, and the separate jack attached via jumpers.


That separate jack connected by flexible wires sounds like a very desirable feature. It would be nice to know which computers have that that when selecting a laptop computer to buy.