Comments on: Fixing AC power plugs in various HP and Compaq laptops

By: laptop ac adapter

laptop ac adapter — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:32:47 +0000

My laptop ac adapter has the same problem, but can’t do with your method, why?

By: newton

newton — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:12:00 +0000

i have an HP Pavilion that’s 3 years old. A friend cracked the case and looked at the motherboard and it is fine. problem is there is a metal casing over the battery connection port that he could not open. is there an option for this kind of problem. that is where the connection is loose. the motherboard does not show any burn marks and is not loose anywhere. how do you crack that metal casing around the port for the external battery pack/AC connection?

By: Mrs. Trydle

Mrs. Trydle — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 05:40:36 +0000

I had this problem with my Presario 2100. Got the thing apart just fine. Only while soldering the jack back in one of the prongs bent. When I was trying to desolder the other prongs back out my friend bumped into me. I accidently pulled the jack out, along with what looked like a little copper sleeve looking thing, soldered to the jack. I have since lost the jack, but I have another jack that fits. Will it still work, or is the mobo “screwed” ? I don’t know what to do now. Please help.

By: emmanuel

emmanuel — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:35:49 +0000

send me a replaceable motherboard for compaq presario 2100/HP

By: Moses Wilson

Moses Wilson — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:43:10 +0000

Hello, I bought a new battery AC/DC Charger Universal. It work this morning and came on. I left the labtop plug up will not recharge however the charge light boat did come on when I tried to turn it on. I will try a buy a new power cord and adapter to see how my labtop would work.

By: Nicolas P.

Nicolas P. — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:41:31 +0000

Reply to

#IanL said,

August 25, 2007 at 2:05 am

I am a sole trader operating in the UK as a PC Tech, but my background is in engineering, and I have been taking things to pieces for years. Over the last week, I have had to repair three laptops with damaged power connectors/power adaptors, but the last one is causing me a major headache. It is an HP Pavilion ZD8000. This particular model uses an oval connector, and the adaptor has certainly failed. The replacement adaptor from HP is relatively expensive (£100 +) so I thought I would use the cable/plug from the old adaptor and make a custom cable for use with a Trust 130W supply – all well and good except HP use a 3 wire arrangement (V_out, V_ret and ID) I can measure 19v on the mobo at the appropriate points, but the beast will still not power up – leading to two possible conclusions: 1) laptop is goosed and I have wasted a lot of time or 2) the ID line has some significance which I have not yet unearthed…

Anybody had any experience of this non-standard arrangement??

IanL

Have almost same problem.
Had the power supply (180W) burned out, made a temp fix that worked with an external conversion from oval to normal 2 pin connector by using the cable from faulty ps & gave it back to customer as a temp fix untill his replacement power supply come back.Brought it back after a couple days saying it never worked when he took it home.
Tried it again no power up.Replacement power supply (135W) came in , no joy still no power up.135w means 7.1A – 180w 9.5A at 19V.
The ZD8000 takes both according to HP

By: Linda C.

Linda C. — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:03:14 +0000

I have a Compaq Presario R3000. It appears as if I have problems with the ac connector must have disconnected from the motherboard as well. Does anyone have a picture of how to disassemble the notebook so that we can get to the motherboard? I want to at least try to remount it prior to just throwing it in the trash and never buying an HP laptop again.

By: Roan

Roan — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:57:43 +0000

Hi,

I am presently repairing a Compaq Presario 2100 with power jack problem and a burned resistor (PR133). I already solved the power jack problem by resoldered it. I tested it with digital multimeter and seems fix the power jack problem. My main problem now is the small resistor was completely burned and also disconnected from the two black diodes (PD24
and PD25). Correct me if I’m wrong interpreting the values PD-for power diode and PR for power resistor (I only assumed that was definition based from my experience). First, I did the continuity testing from HOT (positive polarity) there was no connection after the end terminal of the burned PR133 resistor. So I assumed that the positive polarity stoped/disconnected because of the burned terminal. Second, I tested the GROUND (negative polarity to the rest of the mainboard and it had continuity.
Now my assumption is right that the PR133 caused the NO POWER to the whole system board. Here is my main problem, I don’t know the value of the PR133 resistor and couldn’t recognized it because it was complete burned. I don’t know if there is a generic substitution available in Radioshack. I don’t know how to get the value either.
Attached is the picture which I encircled the mentioned PR133 that was excerpt/taken from other person’s Compaq Presario 2100 motherboard I found from other website link.
I hope somebody can help me find the right value and where to secure one.

Thanks.
Compaq2100 user

By: Randy

Randy — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 01:57:07 +0000

PS I also agree that HP or some one should step up and take care of this class problem with these laptops. And can you believe the guy said that is what hp charges them for the jack. No wonder, they are making a killing off selling replacement jacks for their own screwup.

By: Randy

Randy — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 01:54:44 +0000

I had the same old bs on my hp5400 series. I didn’t have the soldering ability so I took it apart and took it in to local shop. They robbed me of $39.95 for the jack and $40.00 labor for 5 mins work and the damn thing is already loose after 3 days.
There are screws under everything that you can get out. The cd drive, the small circuit board near the display, just everything that is screwed down has screws under it. And all of the outer ones on the bottom of course. And I think under the hard drive caddy. Bottom line, if you see a screw head, it probably has to come out. I guess I will have to do it again an learn to solder on circuit boards myself. No use taking it back to Trinity computers in cleveland, TN so they can do another bad slodering job.

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:15:31 +0000

Thank you all for spending time asking the questions that I have already had. It has been extremely helpful. My question is this; could I simply solder the wires from the ac power cord directly to the motherboard? I know this would create a permanent plug, but the battery on my Compaq Presario 2100 is shot anyway so I have to always have it plugged in. I would like to know if there is even an easier way to fix the broken jack without having to purchase anything. My dog already chewed through the plug once, so I simply cut out the bad section and now have the mb exposed and the wires from the power cord. Is there a way to do this directly from here? I only removed the broken plastic housing from the old power jack. The three prongs are still in place. I just need to know if I can somehow hook them together and if so, which prongs I should use and how. Any help would be fantastic!!! Thanks

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 00:43:20 +0000

I have a HP XT412 that has a broken connection on the power jack. seems like an easy fix if i can get it open. is there an hidden set of screws? it seems to be held together in the center. any help would be great.

By: ernestom

ernestom — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 20:07:17 +0000

I have a similar problem with a Compaq Presario V3000Z. It’s still under warantee in the US, but I’m living in Argentina, so that won’t help.

Email with HP in the US suggested it might be the AC Adapter or the pins to the motherboard. Local HP, without opening my computer, claims my motherboard will need replaced, because they don’t do “repairs”. Another local repair shop tested my machine with their own AC Adapter and they claim it worked (I wasn’t present to witness this).

This might be true, since I’ve used the US power adapter in Brasil, Colombia and Argentina. Maybe I messed it up?

So I can buy a new AC Adapter (~$35) here in Argentina. But my problem seems to be similar to what’s described here and in http://www.delanoscientific.com/cpq1675.html.

I’m gonna purchase the extra power adapter. And we’ll see. Any advice would be welcome, as I’ve never touched a soldering iron in my life. :-(

By: Jay

Jay — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 15:37:43 +0000

Hello everyone…I have a question..i have a persario laptop 3000z that started to have problem with it charging up…it couldn’t hold a proper charge….so i took it to a local repair center and they told me that the pin inside that is attached to the motherboard needs to be soldered again…..i went back next week and they showed me that they installed a new pin 2 times and it burnt through to the motherboard….i wanted to know if a such a thing can happen or is it their fault for burning the motherboard…thank you for your time and attention.

By: IanL

IanL — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 10:05:36 +0000

Anybody had any experience of this non-standard arrangement??

IanL

By: Mark W

Mark W — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 06:02:03 +0000

I am yet another HP owner that owes Brooks a thank you. Not believing I had more than a 20% chance of correctly diagnosing and repairing the laptop, I nevertheless bought a low power soldering iron and a new power jack, dug up some old wire (no room on my HP ZE 4315 to install the case-mounted jack, so I opted for the pigtail approach), practiced removing resistors from an old modem, and followed directions. How shocked I was when I reassembled it and it powered up! Now I just need to learn how to reconfigure/reinstall stuff to get it to boot up. I also need to find a plug as shown on the delanoscientific.com website. So, a tip of the hat to Brooks and other posters that provided important tips. Here are a few I can pass on:

For those having trouble getting their laptop apart, try to find the service manual – it makes a huge difference! I started with one for a slightly different model, but more Googling led to the right one and it was a free download.

When other posters say it can be tricky to take the laptop apart, believe them. Actually, it will be even harder to reassemble it if you haven’t taken care to document your steps and keep all the screws organized. For each step, I placed a slip of paper showing the step number (from the service manual), and the number of screws associated with that step, on the computer near the screws, with a screwdriver pointing at one of the screws to be removed, and took digital photo. Then I taped the screws to a sheet of paper labeled with the step number and the corresponding service manual page number. This process was invaluable because it enabled me to avoid mixing or losing the screws and I was able to work backwards when reassembling. There were a couple of screws to be removed that the manual failed to mention (they were holding down the PCMIA card slot), but the manual was still extremely helpful.

Another tip provided by a poster was to “map” the pins on the old jack. I’m no electronics wizard, but I was able to do this with my cheapo 30 year old Radio Shack multi-tester. I first tested the plug from the power adapter and learned that the outside seems to be the ground and the inside is hot. Then I removed the power jack from the motherboard, attached it to the end of the adapter plug, and used the multi-tester to figure out which pins provided the same results as the bare adapter plug. Since there is only one way the jack can fit on the motherboard, this told me which motherboard terminals (holes?) corresponded to the power adapter ground and hot. Then I attached the new power jack to the power adapter and used the multi-tester to again determine ground and hot. Once the ground and hot were identified, the remaining pin had to be the switch. After that, it was simply a matter of soldering wires between the new jack pins and the motherboard terminals. Sounds complicated but, if I could do it, so can you.

While I had the motherboard out, I figured I might as well replace the BIOS battery (the computer is 4 years old). In the process of removing the battery, I broke one of the soldered connections between the motherboard and battery clip. As it turned out, it was not difficult to re-solder the connection – after all, I had practiced on that old modem circuit board just like Brooks advised!

Thanks again to all the posters that helped me salvage my laptop, and I hope my tips are helpful to someone else. The nice thing about having an old dead laptop is that there’s nothing to lose by trying to fix it!

- Mark

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 19:20:16 +0000

I’ve got a Presario R3000 with the same problem. I know how to solder the jack back into place if I could only get at it! There is some sort of big metal plate covering nearly the entire motherboard (and the DC jack) that makes it impossible to even see the solders. I’ve removed every screw and its still attached to the motherboard somehow. Does anyone know how to get at the power jack to solder it?

thanks,
mark
stereotypebe1719@yahoo.com

By: Brian Smith

Brian Smith — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:24:31 +0000

I have worked in the connector/cable industry for 30+ years. What HP has done with these is a very poor design and then specked in an inferior connector and jack. As many posts as I have read on this problem throughout the web, it sure seems to me that HP should recall these notebooks. I have an HP and a Compaq which are now down and out because of this problem. The Compaq is hell to get apart and I haven’t attempted yet with the HP.
Any thoughts on a consumer organization that should be contacted that could help generate a recall? HP should be helping it’s customers on this one.

By: Peter Prest

Peter Prest — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 19:24:40 +0000

A couple of further points on the service guide post I left yesterday.
If you need it Google HP Pavilion sd7020US Notebook PC: Manuals
I spelt Pavilion wrongly in the first post.

Section 5.11Top Cover has a couple of small errors:
In part 3. the last line should read:
2 PM2.5×5.0 screws

In part 6 there are two further PM2.5×8.0 screws near the hinges which need to be removed

For each section I put the screws in a separate glass jar with a paper slip listing the section. This greatly speeded up the re-assembly and avoided finding a screw left over at the end!!

By: Peter Prest

Peter Prest — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 23:11:51 +0000

I was able to download an excellent HP Pavillion zd7000 Maintenance and Service guide from the HP Pavillion sd7020US Notebook PC: Manuals site which made the dismantling very straightforward.