In this post I explain how to troubleshoot laptop battery charging problems. I will list most common battery failure examples and suggest some troubleshooting steps.
Example 1.
Laptop detects the battery but shuts off when AC adapter unplugged.
When you move the cursor arrow over the battery icon while the laptop is connected to AC adapter, it show the remaining battery charge and says “charging”.
Here’s how I fixed a Compaq Presario V6000 motherboard with “no video” issue. Not sure if this fix will last forever but it works and the laptop is back to life.
Also, this fix might work for the following HP/Compaq laptop motherboards: HP Pavilion dv2000/dv6000/dv9000, Compaq Presario V3000 and probably some other models. If it works for you, please mention the model number in the comments after the post.
Proceed at your own risk only if you have nothing to lose. Otherwise, close this page and take your laptop to the professional repair shop.
Problem description: I had an abandoned Compaq Presario V6000 laptop. The laptop was turning on when I press on the power button but after a few seconds turning off by itself. There was no video on the laptop screen or external monitor. I tried another AC adapter, new memory modules but it didn’t help. I was pretty sure this is motherboard related failure.
How to disassemble a laptop keyboard? Can I take it apart and clean liquid spill? Is it easy to repair a damaged keyboard?
I’ve been getting these questions many times and today I show how to disassemble a laptop keyboard. You decide if it’s possible and easy or not. 
By the way, in one of the previous posts I explain how to fix individual keys on a laptop keyboard.
I’m doing it for fun. I’m working on a damaged keyboard and have no intention to use it in the future.
First of all, you’ll have to remove the laptop keyboard.
This guide explains how to fix a broken keyboard connector on a laptop motherboard. I do not claim that my instructions will work for any connector type in any laptop brand, but if I can help a few people, I can call my mission accomplished.
Let’s say the keyboard in your laptop stopped working properly and you decided to install a new keyboard yourself. You disassembled the laptop, removed the keyboard, tried to unlock the keyboard connector and… OHH! MAN!… a piece of the locking clip on the connector got broken!
What can you do? Unfortunately, you don’t have a lot of options. The keyboard connector is permanently soldered to the motherboard and cannot be replaced at home. If the connector was damaged, you’ll have to replace the whole motherboard, use the laptop with an external USB keyboard, or…. try the following trick. Hopefully it works or you.
The keyboard cable is locked inside the connector on the motherboard. In order to remove the keyboard, you have to unlock the connector and release the cable.
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Here’s how you can fix, or to be precise, work around some hardware problem without taking apart the laptop.
1. Network port failure.
In most laptops the network port (aka RJ-45 port) is soldered directly to the motherboard. If for some reason the network port fails (I’m talking about hardware, not software failure), the whole motherboard has to be replaced.
Instead of replacing the motherboard, you can use a PCMCIA network card (aka LAN PC card). You plug this card into the available PC slot in your laptop and get a network port instead.
In this post I explain how I test the LCD screen inverter board in a laptop computer.
The screen inverter failure is very similar to the backlight lamp failure. In both cases the screen gets very dark and the image on the screen becomes very faint, barely visible under a bright light.
If you suspect the inverter board failure, I know only one reliable way to test that. It’s either replacing the inverter board with a known good one and see if it works, or connecting a known good backlight lamp and see if your presumably bad inverter lights it up.
In most cases I go with the second method – testing the laptop with a known good backlight lamp. Why? Because backlight lamps are pretty much universal. The same backlight lamp will work with many different inverters as long as they have matching connectors. I’ll talk about these connectors later.
The inverter board is located inside the display panel under the LCD screen. In most laptops you can access the inverter board if you remove the LCD screen bezel. The inverter board has connectors on both ends. Read the rest of this entry »
In order to replace the power jack in your laptop you’ll have to remove the jack from the motherboard as I explained in the previous post: Replacing DC power jack.
While removing the jack you can accidentally pull out the internal copper coating (I’ll call it a sleeve) from the inside of the “+” terminal as it shown on the picture below.
The internal copper sleeve has been removed and cannot be installed back. If you solder the power jack back on the motherboard without this sleeve it might work but the connection between the “+” lead and motherboard will not be reliable.
In the following guide I explain how to fortify a damaged power jack connection. You can use this repair technique in some laptops with similar power jacks.
Here’s how I installed an external USB Bluetooth adapter INSIDE my laptop and made it internal. My laptop wasn’t Bluetooth ready, it didn’t have internal Bluetooth connector and antenna but I needed it in order to access the cell phone without running a cable.
My first option was using the external USB Bluetooth adapter as is but it wasn’t very convenient. I decided to find a way to install this adapter inside the laptop.
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You replaced the broken LCD screen in your laptop with a new screen but it’s not working. Does this sound like your problem? Let’s find out what could be wrong and how you can fix it.
First of all, I assume that your new LCD screen is compatible with the old one. Different screens require different video cables. Make sure you new screen is compatible with your laptop.
OK, let’s say you accidentally damaged the LCD screen in your laptop. A part of the screen still works fine but you cannot use it like that so you decided to replace the screen yourself. You can find LCD replacement instructions in service manuals or this DIY site.
You did some research and purchased a compatible screen, installed it into the laptop, turned it on and… The new screen is not working!!! What could be wrong?
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This laptop has a power problem. The battery stops charging when I move the power cord on the DC adapter. When I start moving the cord left to right, the power LED light on the front goes on and off and the battery charge LED goes on and off too.
I removed the battery and tested the laptop again. The laptop starts fine from the DC adapter when the battery is removed, but as soon as I start moving the power cord the laptop shuts off. It looks like the laptop looses power immediately.
If you have a problem like that, most likely it’s related either to the power adapter or the DC-IN power jack.
