This guide will explain how to repair a failed or loose DC power jack on a laptop computer yourself. Here’s my previous post related to DC power jack related issues.
Disclaimer: I’ve made these instructions only for people experienced with soldering and repairing computers. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this job, please do not open the laptop or you can permanently damage your computer. Take your laptop to a professional repair shop instead.
Use this repair guide at your own risk.
First of all, you’ll have to disassemble your laptop and remove the motherboard. Here are service manuals for some known laptop brands. Here are more Toshiba guides. If your laptop is not on the list, you’ll have to figure out yourself how to take it apart.
For this repair you’ll need the following tools.
1. Soldering iron or soldering station. I use Weller WES51 soldering station and for this job I set temperature to about 800-850°F.
2. I use high-tech rosin core silver-bearing solder from Radioshack with diameter 0.022″ ( Catalog #: 64-013 ). I think standard rosin core solder will work just fine.
3. Desoldering pump for removing solder around component leads. I use Edsyn Soldapullt pump, model DS 017.
4. 99% isopropyl alcohol and tooth brush for cleaning the motherboard from flux.
5. A new DC power jack, you can find a cheap one here.
Laptop DC power jack repair guide.
As you see on the following picture, the solder drop on the positive terminal looks different than on other three contacts. That’s where the problem is. The positive pin is not making a good contact with the motherboard and because of that power to the laptop cuts off when I move the power plug inside the power jack.
I’m going to desolder the power jack from the motherboard, clean contacts on both power jack and motherboard and then solder it back in place – this is the proper way fixing the power problem.
Start desoldering process with adding some new fresh solder to all three contacts. This will make old solder more flowable, easier to remove.
While heating one of the contacts, remove the solder from this contact using the desoldering pump. Repeat the same steps with all power jack contacts until you remove as much solder as possible.
Grab the power jack and carefully try removing it from the motherboard. Most likely you will not be able to remove the power jack the first time because there will be some solder bridges left between the contacts and traces on the motherboard. Carefully wiggle the power jack without applying any significant force and at the same time heat up all contacts one by one. This will help you to remove the power jack.
The DC power jack is almost removed from the motherboard.
Be careful. Inside the positive hole there is a copper sleeve which connects the terminal on one side of the motherboard with the traces on the other side. If you are removing the power jack with force, you can pull the sleeve from the hole. You don’t want to do that.
UPDATE: If you accidentally removed the internal sleeve, check out this post: How to fortify damaged power jack connection.
So, do not apply any force and make sure the solder is melted when you are removing the power jack. I hope you understand what I’m talking about.
After the power jack is removed, clean all oxidized contacts with a knife.
Apply a fresh coat of solder to all contacts on the power jack.
The power jack terminals will look dirty because of melted flux.
You can remove the flux using the tooth brush and alcohol. It’s not necessary but it will make your job looking clean.
Apply a fresh coat of solder to all power jack terminals on both sides of the motherboard.
This side has been coated.
And this side has been coated too.
Now you can install the power jack back on the motherboard. Put something under power jack so there is no gap between the jack and the motherboard. Now you are ready to solder the jack back in place.
Solder all power jack pins.
The job is done and the laptop DC power jack is fixed. B-E-A-utiful!
Now just install the motherboard back into the laptop and you are done.
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March 9th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
BTW, I am using a Weller SP23L 25W which can get up to 750. The tip that came with it is not sharp enough so I guess I have to buy a pencil tip for it.
Seems like you have gotten the system to work without the metal casing on the jack. So, I think I might go with brute force and use clippers or something to get the old jack off and just install the new jack without the casing.
March 9th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Is the metal casing around the jack needed? I am to the point where I want to just break the jack and casing and just put in a new jack without the casing.
March 9th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Ah, i see then that we’ve misunderstood one another. I was talking about the metal housing on the jack itself. Thats the real pain. Ive done considerable research and it seems that everyone has issues with the tiny metal housing pegs that surround the jack. The middle 5 pegs are easy to remove, I use a weller 40 watt soldering station at 500-900 degrees depending on the solder, just make sure to get yourself a Soldering Pencil tip, its a very fine tip, then all you have to do is push the tip into the premade grooves of the pegs and use your solder sucker to pull it off, it should only take you 10 minutes to do this or so. The 4 metal housing pegs are the real problem. I havent had a chance to really play with these and I dont want to damage the circuits. Ive actually dremmeled the housing off of a DC power jack before and then resoldered the new jack. It worked. But there has to be an easier way. I dont know whether its the heat of the iron or what. But, Ive heard that they may actually glue these into place so that people are more inclined to buy laptops than attempt a board repair. From what Ive read people that get these pegs off use a really, really hot device, such a a soldering gun (Ive seen made mention) to melt whatever it is holding these pegs in place. Finally, when you do get those pegs unsoldered, apply heat to the bottom and pull from the top to get the DC jack off.
March 9th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Aaron, it turns out you can’t take any shortcuts. You have to remove the DVD/CD casing, the wireless adapter casing, and the harddrive casing. I believe the screws used to hook the casings go all the way down to the metal bracket. You have to slide out the ethernet jack (look carefully and you can see that it slides). The USB ports and keyboard port are on a separte circuit board which plugs into the main board on the underside. You don’t really need unhook from the main board, but, definitely remove the screw. After that, you should be able to take the motherboard out.
My problem with the jack is that the solder is embedded into the motherboard slot and I can’t get my soldering iron close enough to melt the solder. I am to the point where I want to crack open the jack and unsolder from that end. If you have a better idea, please let me know. Thanks.
March 9th, 2009 at 5:46 am
Cathy, how did you remove the metal casing, I can tell you how to remove the jack if you can tell me how to remove the casing. I would really appreciate it.
Thanks,
Aaron
P.S. Are you having trouble with all of the pegs, or just the power peg in the very back?
March 8th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Well, I got the metal casing off. But, I can’t get the jack off. I can see the sunken in, but, can’t get the iron close enough to melt it. there wasn’t enough solder in the connections to effectively desolder. the jack is still on there good. Any suggestions?
would it make sense to break apart the old jack to get at the individual pieces?
March 8th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Hi, I am back. I am still trying to replace my Dell Latitude D600 jack. This is the 2nd time I have taken the laptop down to the motherboard (had to reassemble everything because I realized my husband’s soldering gun is too big for the job). I have everything now, new soldering iron and new jacks. However, I am stuck! I can’t get the metal casing off the motherboard. The casing is preventing me from getting to the jack. I had followed the instruction on the Dell site but there is nothing on getting the metal casing off. Please help. Thanks.
Pictures of laptop with metal casing: Image 1, Image 2, Image 3.
March 7th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
I saw that earlier Brian (pg. 9) said that he was having trouble removing the four pegs on the sides of a d600, now Im having the same trouble and he didn’t say how he accomplished this seemingly impossible feat, does any one know how to remove these four pegs. If any one could help I would really appreciate it.
Thanks,
Aaron
March 6th, 2009 at 7:05 am
I’m in a bit of a pickle. I have an Aspire 1640Z and I tried to remove the jack, but it was glued on and not much solder would come off, but I kept wiggling it while heating and since it was already broken, it came apart into pieces, but I got most of them out, but there are a couple of very thin connectors that broke and are still in the slot that I can’t seem to get out. I’m using a 35W soldering tip and it does get very hot and the area around it gets hot and I’m afraid I’m going to ruin something. Two of the original connectors had a split down the middle and little hooks on the end which probably made them harder to take out. Also, the replacement jack I ordered on ebay for this model does not have that split in the two back connectors so I don’t think I can use it and all the ones I see on ebay are like that. I don’t know what to do and any help or suggestions would be great. I could send a picture if someone would help me. Thank you!!!
March 6th, 2009 at 4:29 am
wow,, i been wondering how to do it ,, this is really helping everyone including me. thank.. i wish you have the instruction in video .. if you u do please pose all your knowledge is would help more people. thank you.. nice work.