Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Dell Latitude D520 DC Jack Repair

This dell D520 came in with the symptom of only powering on if you held it in just the right way on the ac adapter tip. When it would come on it could not identify the ac adapter type so it wouldn't charge the battery. After taking it apart the data pin was damaged and explains why it woudn't charge the battery.
The d520 is very similar to the D510 laptops with a different color and obviously updated hardware specs. Taking apart was nearly identical to the D510.
The dc jack was very loose and damaged. After replacing the jack the laptop fired up and works great again.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Compaq CQ50 DC Jack Repair

This Compaq CQ-50 (CQ60, CQ70) came in after being dropped on the dc jack. It seemed a little loose but that can be normal for a laptop that uses a cable style dc jack that plugs into the motherboard instead of being soldered directly on.
Unfortunately the cheapest I can get the jack for is $40 and that's how much extra the overall cost is. The laptops I fix for $65 I get the parts for $1-$5.
It's similar in design to the dv6000 which is the previous generation laptop.
The jack itself is similar to the dc jacks dell uses and the ac adapter tip looks identical.
During the fall the ac adapter was also broken and needed to be replaced.

Acer Travelmate 4070 DC Jack Repair

This Acer 4070 came in with a physically broken dc jack. The center pin was gone and rattling around inside the laptop.
It's the travelmate version of the Aspire 3000 laptops. The only difference I can find is an ergonomic keyboard vs. the standard keyboard on an Acer 3000.
It uses the six pin, 1.65mm dc jack that most Acer laptops use new and old.
The laptop is easy to get apart and the power jack came out smoothly as usual.
After replacing the power port it works like new again.

Gateway W350A T Series

This is a fairly new Vista laptop (seeing more and more vista laptops) with a bad dc jack. When plugged in the laptop would do nothing. No amount of wiggling would get it to power on at all. Usually this means the customer has broken the contact or it was dropped.
It still uses the same six pin, 2.5mm dc jack that gateway has been using for the last few years and is the most common dc jack I use.
It was easy to get apart, just like most of the MT and MX series laptops.
The dc jack was replaced with a new power plug and the laptop powers on/charges the battery again.

Dell XPS M1330 DC Jack Repair

This was the first dell xps m1330 I've seen in for dc jack repair in my shop. It came on with the classic power jack symptom of being able to hold the adapter plug in just the right way to make it charge/power on.
It's a really nice looking laptop with a 13.3" LCD, bluetooth, very portable, and fast processor.
Taking it apart was fairly easy and it uses the same nine pin dc jack dell has been using for years.
The jack itself felt loose when plugging it in so I replaced it. I got it back together and the laptop would not power up off AC. The jack was properly giving voltage to the motherboard but the power filter ( a small chip located near the dc jack) was also bad and needed some solder added.
Once the power filter was re-soldered the laptop powers on fine and charges the battery.