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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December 15th, 2010 at 6:47 pm
Hi,
I’m stuck on trying to remove the old solder.
I have applied extra solder to make it flow easier, I repeated this step several times, and I got about 80% out, but the rest of old solder does not come out. I have a de-solder pump which helped but its in there pretty good. I followed your guide to the teeth, and heat one by one and it barely wiggled. Any suggestions?
Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 25th, 2010 at 10:46 pm
Good Work….
November 25th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
paul,
Yes, you have to disassemble the laptop in order to secure the DC jack.
I don’t know, it depends on the laptop model. I guess the jack is not soldered to the motherboard, otherwise it wouldn’t work.
Take a look at this post about fixing DC jack on a Toshiba Satellite L305 laptop. Maybe your jack is similar and you can fix it same way.
You can find what kind of DC jack you have installed if you google for “Laptop model DC jack”, where laptop model is your model.
November 22nd, 2010 at 12:11 am
hi i have an acer aspire and the dc jack has pushed in so i cant charge it. i used a pin to pull it out and managed to connect the power but it keeps pushing in. do i have to pull laptop apart or is there an easier way to fix it? if i take back cover off can i glue it or has something snaped?
November 9th, 2010 at 2:13 am
Hi, i cant find the dc socket for my COMPAQ PRESARIO B2800 , can i use the direct cable and solder to the mother board ?
October 29th, 2010 at 3:43 am
Hey there, I am trying to fix my Compaq power supply problem – I’ve decided to replace the power cord connector AND the socket soldered to the mother board. Our local electrical shop only had a two-pin socket and plug set, so I have not connected the inner third wire – the voltage sense. The guy at the shop told me I don’t need to worry about the third wire. So I just isolated it inside the cord before the plug, and only connected the earth of the new socket to the motherboard, and the positive to one of the two positive pins that was sticking up – they had continuity between them, so I didn’t solder to both. Now, after checking voltage from power supply with a multimeter, I plut it in and… nothing happens!!! Does that voltage sense wire need to be connected? Please shed some light, many thanks, Dima
October 16th, 2010 at 4:38 am
sir i have an problem in my laptop ofr related to my power supply.
problem is its off when connected to the line
October 15th, 2010 at 10:24 am
Cesar,
1. Try reinstalling the audio driver. Uninstall the existing one, download the latest version from HP website and install it.
2. Test your laptop with headphones. Can you hear any sound from headphones?
October 15th, 2010 at 10:07 am
Amigo tenho um dv6000 e o audio parou do nada.. no windows ele esta legal os drives, funciona tudo mas nao sai som algum.. Tem alguma dica? Muito obrigado !!
October 13th, 2010 at 10:39 am
Wallace,
Did you separate the heatsink from the CPU during the disassembly process?
If you didn’t separate the heatsink and didn’t have any heat related issues before, probably it’s not necessary to reapply thermal compound.
Just assemble everything back together, it should be fine.