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 you’ll find disassembly instructions for some major laptop brands such as IBM, Dell, HP, Compaq, Toshiba. 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 brash 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 witch 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 brash 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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June 7th, 2009 at 9:11 am
OneMixDJ,
Here are instructions for partial disassembly of a Gateway MT6740. Could be similar to MT6840.
After the keyboard is removed, simply remove all screws under the keyboard and disconnect all cables under the keyboard. Remove the display panel. Remove all screws from the bottom of the laptop. Finally, separate the top cover from the base assembly and you’ll access the motherboard.
June 6th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
One of the major problems are the return of the charging sensor network comes from battery circuit (around the battery connector) and the DC jack input network, sometimes the small transistor need to be re soldered or replaced due the center pin of the jack is a reference volt goes a one led of a small transistor that open ground to the on /off switch. ,if switch the operation regulator with a oscillator turn off the power supply automatic ,other is the ground in the middle of the motherboard layer is a ground mass and if you re solder the connector you can make a short to one lead of the 19 vols or 3 volts ref and you will damage the pc board forever.attention is a double layer motherboard you need a air gun or copper (solderwick)(high temperature to replace the connector or you will damage the pc board with normal iron,please use a aluminium foil to protect components around the dc jack or you can dropped .
You can emailme for more information to mchavira3005@yahoo.com
June 6th, 2009 at 6:43 am
Hi Chad,
Very good tutorial.
I’m trying to fix a Gateway MT6840 that has a power issue and will likely need to follow this procedure. Do you have a manual on the MT6840? Thanks!
June 4th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
I recently unsolder a power jack from a gateway mobo. In one of the holes i cannot apply a fresh coat of solder. The hole is black and the flux just won.t stay on the hole. Any sugestions? Thanks a lot
June 4th, 2009 at 2:58 am
hi ive replaced jack on dell inspiron 1300 but no life, any ideas please
June 2nd, 2009 at 5:18 pm
WOW! Thank you sooooo much, we are soldering right now – will post success I HOPE!
June 2nd, 2009 at 4:24 pm
regarding tosh a60 i have a problem it seems i have to insert the power ac supply in and out until i get the caps lock etc to light bright green before the laptop runs if not they light dim and it wont boot maybe the fan kicks in aswel pulling it in and out until theres a solid gren light and holding power button down until blue light goes off then i press it it boots up im confused it does charge battery but batterys not a good one
June 1st, 2009 at 10:23 pm
chad,
It’s hard to tell without looking at the laptop.
Remove the battery and turn the laptop from the AC power (charger). Now wiggle the power plug inside the jack. Will it shut down when you move the plug?
If the laptop works fine (with battery removed) even when you move the adapter tip inside the jack, most likely the jack is ok and your problem is related to the motherboard.
June 1st, 2009 at 11:02 am
Thank you for posting this guide! I have a Toshiba M30X laptop that had the common problem of a loose power jack that takes a couple minutes of cord-wiggling to re-establish a connection if it is unplugged, so it had been acting more like a desktop. I wanted to extend its usefulness/mobility, so I took the computer to a computer repair store to see if they could re-solder the jack to get a better connection. When I picked it up, they said that not only was soldering not successful, but they said the computer was now dead. (It turned out to be “dead” only b/c the battery needed charged and the power plug would no longer even fit in the jack b/c they sprayed some kind of foam over the power jack on the inside of the computer and it had gotten into the external opening of the jack and was clogging the area where the plug connects). I figured I didn’t have much to lose at this point, so I ordered a new power jack online for under $10 and following your guide, I took off the old jack and soldered the new one and the computer works fine now. This not only saved me from having to buy another laptop at the moment, but I was able to retrieve a few documents (that I hadn’t backed up yet) without having to buy transfer equipment for my hard drive.
May 31st, 2009 at 9:36 am
Well I have a little progress. I took out the cmos battery for about 10 minutes and then re-installed it. When I hit the start button 3 lights numlock, capslock, and one other came on but only for about 5 seconds, then went out.
Nothing else happened. No fan, hdd, or POST.
I have tried booting with bare bones but no joy, yet.
Still hoping it is not the mobo.
I am sure I’ll be back.
Frank