Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Dell Inspiron E1505 Power Plug

This dell came in with the standard symptoms of not charging the battery or working on AC power.
It's becoming a more popular dell laptop were seeing as of late along with the E1405, E1705, E1401, E1501, and E1701. I believe this line of dell laptops is the predecessor to the Inspiron 6000 and 6400 series.
This uses the standard nine pin dc jack that dell has been using for the last four to five years.
Before opening the laptop I could hold the ac adapter plug at an upward angle and the laptop would power on. As soon as I let go the laptop would instantly power off.
You need to completely take apart this laptop to get to the dc jack.
When the laptop was all torn down I noticed a small burn mark next to a small chip on the motherboard called the power filter. I cleaned the area with electronic cleaner and re-soldered the power filter chip.
The power plug tested fine with a volt-meter and felt pretty solid so it wasn't replaced.
After re-assembling the laptop it powers on fine and the bad power filter was the culprit.

Dell Inspiron 1521 Power Problems

The 1521 is one of dells latest home laptops. It has since been replaced by the 1525 but uses the same dc jack as other dell laptops from the past four years.
It features a nice 15.4" widescreen, up to 4gb ram, AMD turion dual core cpu, optional integrated bluetooth, and much more.
This 1521 came in with a physically broken dc jack plug. It's very new and probably not susceptible to becoming loose as of yet.
It uses the standard nine pin dc jack and can use either a 65w (PA-12) or 90w (PA-10) ac adapter.
The laptop needs to be completely torn down to the motherboard to access the dc jack receptacle.
The power plug was replaced and the laptop powers on with no problems.
The only thing I wish the Inspiron family came with is a docking station.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

How to ship a laptop

This has been a common question and is very important when using us for our dc jack repair services. Never put your ac adapter on top of the LCD. This will shatter the LCD.
The best way ship is through Fed Ex. They offer a special laptop shipping that uses foam cutouts to properly fit any size laptop from 12"to 17". The box includes foam cut outs, anti-static bag, slot for ac adapter, and extra foam padding to put where you choose. It's also a nice option because if any damage happens to your laptop you're using their box and insurance and the claim process will go very smooth. These boxes cost $10 and sure beats trying to find a box, packing peanuts, etc.
If you don't have a Fed Ex store available UPS also offers a special laptop shipping box.
If you want to use your own materials than you need to ship it properly.
1. Make sure the box your shipping in is adequate. Those small shipping boxes you get from free from the post office, UPS, and Fed Ex are NOT ok. They don't provide enough room for adequate packing materials and should never be used. Is your laptop worth risking to save $10? I don't think so.
2. Use lots of bubble wrap!! You need atleast two inches of bubble wrap covering the whole laptop. Use packing peanuts or paper for under and above the laptop in the box.
3. Do not using Styrofoam. It's a decent packing material but explodes all over the box during shipment and can expose your laptop to damage.

If you still own the original box the laptop was shipped in that is a good option. Please use common sense and more is better when shipping a laptop.