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Topic: Component level repairs of a laptop. (Read 2347 times)
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LanTheWarder
Terracotta Army
Posts: 150
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Long story short I have a 2-3 year old laptop and the powersupply appears to be going out. I can buy a powerjack on ebay for 10 dollars, but I have no idea how to even start repairing the laptop. I modded my original playstation and I have various other experience with soldering but I can't seem to find any information about laptop repair. I spent a few minutes looking on google and either my google-fu is weak or I just didn't spend long enough looking.
I have an HP ZX5000, but honestly any information anyone could find about component level laptop repair I would love to read. Any advice from anyone who has done it would be appreciated as well.
It works right now I just have to sit something heavy on the power cable to keep it charged/charging. I'm mostly curious to how hard it would be to fix and honestly the laptop is only worth 300 dollars anymore so I have a hard time spending 150-200 for someone else to fix it besides it would be cool to know how to repair it.
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« Last Edit: July 05, 2007, 04:03:17 AM by LanTheWarder »
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Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23657
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Are you saying your laptop has an internal power supply and not an external "brick"? Or are you saying the connector on the laptop to the power supply is having problems?
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Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23657
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It's hard to say how hard it would be to desolder the old connector and solder in a new one without taking the thing apart, assuming that is the part that's going bad.
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Selby
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2963
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My HP ZE4500 had the same problem. It wasn't the jack inside the computer but the external transformer ("brick") that was causing the problems. I bought a new one and the problems went away.
If it truly is the jack, you are going to need a soldering iron and wick (or access to a desoldering station). It shouldn't be too hard to get to, just need to make sure you don't damage anything else by removing the old connector.
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LanTheWarder
Terracotta Army
Posts: 150
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Yeah I replaced the brick and the battery and it didn't make a difference. So if it finally dies permanently or I just decided I don't care anymore I'm going to try and fix it. I just figured there would be some basic information about it those kind of repairs available. There sure are plenty of people willing to do it for me  . |
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Kitsune
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2406
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Holy crap, Lan. You're like a swirling vortex of electronics entropy, destroying everything that you encounter.
If the power jack in a laptop is broken, you're basically fucked. They can be resoldered, but solder is insufficiently strong to handle the repeated stresses of inserting and removing the cable; it will break again in the future. Typically, the power jacks are secured to the motherboard with a metal or plastic restraint, and that restraint rather than the solder is what bears the brunt of having a plug stuffed into the jack day in and day out. For the jack to be loose, that restraint has broken. I've found replacement power jacks for various laptops, but every one I've encountered only came with the jack itself, it didn't include the restraint to attach the jack to the motherboard.
The only sure-fire way to fix the problem is to replace the entire motherboard, and thanks to price-gouging bastards, laptop motherboards often cost so much that you're better off simply buying a new laptop.
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Strazos
Greetings from the Slave Coast
Posts: 15542
The World's Worst Game: Curry or Covid
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I say go for it anyway. You said the laptop isn't worth a whole lot anyway, so you might as well give repair a shot.
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Fear the Backstab!
"Plato said the virtuous man is at all times ready for a grammar snake attack." - we are lesion
"Hell is other people." -Sartre
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LanTheWarder
Terracotta Army
Posts: 150
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Holy crap, Lan. You're like a swirling vortex of electronics entropy, destroying everything that you encounter.
If the power jack in a laptop is broken, you're basically fucked. They can be resoldered, but solder is insufficiently strong to handle the repeated stresses of inserting and removing the cable; it will break again in the future. Typically, the power jacks are secured to the motherboard with a metal or plastic restraint, and that restraint rather than the solder is what bears the brunt of having a plug stuffed into the jack day in and day out. For the jack to be loose, that restraint has broken. I've found replacement power jacks for various laptops, but every one I've encountered only came with the jack itself, it didn't include the restraint to attach the jack to the motherboard.
The only sure-fire way to fix the problem is to replace the entire motherboard, and thanks to price-gouging bastards, laptop motherboards often cost so much that you're better off simply buying a new laptop.
Well in my own defense the laptop has been broken for awhile I just put up with having to fiddle with the cable until it starts charging . |
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