Gateway MX3000

I seem to see the MX3000 series more and more along with the larger versions 6000 and 7000 series. The difference is a 14.1" and 15.4" screen.
In one of the pictures to the right you can see the MX3000 uses a separate small circuit board for the jack. It's a six pin 2.5mm style jack. You need some type of small clamp when you solder and de-solder the jack.
Nothing visibly appeared to be wrong with the jack once I got down to it but replacing the jack did the trick. The customer was also using a Targus universal which in my opinion is a big problem. The adapter says 15-24 volts. I personally would never use that on an investment like a laptop. When the repair was completed the adapter didn't even work and I sold him a real lite-on adapter.

Gateway M520

This laptop came in with a broken center pin. It was pretty much hanging by a thread. The board was a little burnt around the back jack area to.
The de-soldering went fine on this six pin, 2.5mm style jack. Usually when I see a six pin style jack the center pin seems to be the problem unless direct force (tripping over the cord, dropping, etc) breaks it.
This laptop is actually the exact same laptop as the Emachines M2352. They just put different brand names on the parts.
After the jack was installed all the parts came back together nicely and the laptop charges fine.

Another ZV5000

This is the second ZV5000 this month and I have another one waiting on the bench after this one is completed. This laptop has the classic dc jack symptom of giving it a proper wiggle to get it to charge.
This is a fairly easy laptop to get apart. I like to start with taking the fan cover off. Then I move to the under battery screws. Make sure you get the optical drive out before taking the main bottom plastic bezel off. Once the optical is removed you gain access to a hidden screw that keeps that main bottom bezel on.
Once all the screws are gone from the bottom you need to take the four back screws out that are hidden under a silver "sticker like" backing. Now the top power button bezel can be removed to gain access to the screws that hold in the keyboard. Remove those screws and take off the keyboard. Like many other laptops be very careful when removing the keyboard ribbon. So many times I see laptop with broken or mangled ribbon holders. I'll get some pics posted of what I mean.
You're about halfway through taking apart the laptop. You can now move onto the screws under the keyboard and power button bezel. Once those are gone you can go to the bottom of the laptop again and remove five screws on the tan chassis of the motherboard. Next are the screws that work with the docking station. You will need a flat head screwdriver to get these off.
If you've done everything right you can now lift the motherboard and still attached tan chassis off the plastics of the laptop.
Flip it over and remove the three screws under the cpu. You can also remove the heatsink screws and remove the cpu. Be very careful when removing this because you can rip the cpu right out of the locked socket if your not careful.
When I got down to the motherboard I could see that the solder had cracked around the main power pin.
The jack is very easy to de-solder and solder is also a breeze. Replacing the jack made this laptop charge fine again with no problems.
As always, I'm not responsible for any damage you might do to your laptop. The best rule of thumb is "If you need to ask you probably shouldn't try to do it yourself".

HP ZT3000 DC Jack Repair

The hp zt3000 is one the top ten laptops I see. It uses the same jack as a lot of current acer laptops and that also have the power jack problem.
When applying force to the right or wiggling it I could get the laptop to charge. A good way to diagnose a laptop like this is to take out the battery and if you can wiggle it and it shuts down you have the dc jack problem. You also need to use a volt meter to test the adapter because stress on the ac adapter can also give this symptom.
Be careful when taking off the power button bezel. You need to push back four connectors on the keyboard to get it to come off without breaking something.
When I got down to the jack it had the classic burnt solder crack around the jack that allows for wiggling to charge the laptop. The solder came off pretty easy and the jack went on with no problems.
As long as the motherboard isn't cracked this repair is about 90% successful when displaying these symptoms.

HP ZV5000

The hp zv/zx 5000 laptops are one of the top three laptops we fix with the dc jack problem. The factory solder job is machined and very poor. The solder on the jack seems to be low quality and not very much of it is applied.

This dc jack has four solder points. One in the back for power, one on the middle and two on the sides for support. Over time the back power pin heats up and causes the solder to crack. This leaves a very small open space around the jack and gives the symptom of being able to wiggle the adapter tip to make the laptop charge. This will only get worse and worse until moving the tip won’t make proper contact. You can also damage the laptop motherboard if to much strain is put on it and it cracks.

As always, we remove the jack even if it can be fixed and replace it with a brand new one. The solder job is much better than the factory and will last for years to come.

Emachines M2352 DC Jack Repair

This laptop came in with a melted ac adapter tip. Sometimes the dc jack failure can cause the jack area to get very hot and burn the board, jack, and or adapter. In this case, replacing the dc jack fixed the problem and the laptop charges fine after the jack was replaced. The ac adapter was even still working after the overheating.
The laptop was pretty standard as far as getting it apart. Someone had already attempted to take it apart so some screws were missing. If your thinking about doing this repair yourself always be very careful with the ribbon cables. About 50% of the time when some tries to do it themselves I see lots of missing screws and broken cable connectors.
The jack came off easy on this one and the new jack soldered on with no problems.

Averatec 2200 w/broken dc jack

The Averatec 2200 is a sleek looking 12.1" style laptop. I own a Dell 700M which is very similar to this laptop. Having the 12.1" is great for portability. This model is a pretty common laptop we see and uses the same dc jack as the hp zt1000 series which is also notorious for the dc plug problem. This jack uses 5 pins (one for voltage and 4 for support). In this case, the jack was completely broken off the motherboard. Once it was torn down the base of the jack was still connected but the center pin was rattling around inside the laptop.
Averatec uses decent solder and wasn't a five minute de-solder job. Taking apart this model is pretty easy and like my small dell doesn't have a ton of screws.
After the jack was de-soldered the solder went on great. I always try to use more solder than the factory to do the best I can to prevent this from happening again.
After everything was put back together the laptop power on fine and charged the battery up 100%. Another successful repair!