Damaged Power Connector

S

snaggletooth

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Aug 16, 2005
Messages
4,767
hey all, i don't play around with laptops too much for customers, usually just general software upgrades and such but i have a customer who's telling me the power connector on the back of her laptop is broken.

she says the adapter doesn't make a connection anymore and the actual connector itself is loose.

is this something i can easily fix? solder, replacement connector? the laptop is a fairly recent HP, are those easy to take apart?

i'd appreciate any input on this, i'm sure someone here has dealt with something like this before.

thanks in advance everyone.
 
i'm gonna bump this, hopefully someone's had some experience with this. i'll post some pics and some comp specs tomorrow.

thanks.
 
If you can get to the connector then they can often be resoldered with minimal fuss. Does the jack feel loose to you?
 
If possible, I'd grab a dock for the computer and see if it's really the connector. I had a Toshiba that had the whole charging system die (wouldn't charge through the onboard connector or the dock). If it's actually loose and you have experience soldering it shouldn't be too hard as long as you can get to the area. The solder points are going to be fairly large because there's a decent amount of amperage going through them.
 
it is very common for the power jacks to sort of break the solder around their contacts. If you have the patience to disassemble a laptop and have basic soldering skills, it is a super easy fix. I've done lots of these.
 
thanks guys.

yeah, the connector is physically loose. i'll google up some instructions for disassembling this specific model of HP and have a look at the connector. seems to be a few screws and some of those plastic tab things that are easy to break off.

she told me to try and fix it or she's just gonna get a new laptop... the local shop gave her a ridiculous estimate. i'm gonna give it a go, i'll keep this thread updated.

cheers.
 
Thejavaman1 said:
If possible, I'd grab a dock for the computer and see if it's really the connector. I had a Toshiba that had the whole charging system die (wouldn't charge through the onboard connector or the dock). If it's actually loose and you have experience soldering it shouldn't be too hard as long as you can get to the area. The solder points are going to be fairly large because there's a decent amount of amperage going through them.
Click to expand...


i wish i had this option before i go and take it apart... alas, i do not. nice to hear about the potentially large solder points.
 
The first thing I would do is google the laptop to see whether its actually a dc jack soldered to the board or a harness connector which will naturally be loose. Next I would use a multimeter on the actual ac adapter to see if it's putting out the proper voltage. Far to many times do I see people bring laptops in to have the dc jack replaced when it's actuall a bad ac adapter.
 
Broken DC Jacks. I do anywhere from 3 to 5 of these per week at the shop I work at.

Best place to get parts:

Dell: Parts-people.com
Dell & Other brands: ImpactComputers.com
Other brands: laptopking.com, laptopjacks.com, laptopparts.com, ebay.com

I have been able to find nearly every jack for any laptop with these resources. With Impact, if its not listed on thier site (thier search isnt 100% accurate anyway), call them and see if they have it.

One thing to note. If the pad around the hole for the jack is missing (an EE friend of mine calls it the "solder hole" then you are pretty much screwed unless you can use a small wire to jumper it to motheboard (i'd of shown you an example if I had taken pictures yesterday).

If you are really lucky it will be the harness kind. Those are quite easy to replace.

BTW as far as pricing we usually chage $100 for labor and $25 for the part (unless the part cost more) for solder type repairs.
For Harness jobs we charge $50 labor and the cost of the part + 20%.

From what I hear we are the lowest price in the city
 
forgot about this thread.... oops! heh heh heh.

thanks for the advice. i ended up getting my new jack from ebay.ca. paid just under $5USD, $12USD with shipping.

job's done (a while ago, :D), laptop works again, client happy.

:)
 
doh, I should have read this thread before replacing my XPS... looks like a $25 part will get me some use of of my old XPS...
 
snaggletooth said:
forgot about this thread.... oops! heh heh heh.

thanks for the advice. i ended up getting my new jack from ebay.ca. paid just under $5USD, $12USD with shipping.

job's done (a while ago, :D), laptop works again, client happy.

:)
Click to expand...

And now you have more another skill set :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top