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 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 13th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Nice tutorial, great pictures and instructions. Will bookmark, and use when needed!
March 13th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
You are an absolutely fantastic human being! I’ll be using this over the weekend to try and repair my sad little Dell Inspiron 2200. Thank you thank you THANK YOU!
March 12th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Greg Ritsul,
I tried to google for PCG-GX600 and the only one site pops up, it’s my site with your comment.
Are you sure PCG-GX600 is correct model?
I posted links to some Sony Vaio manuals (including disassembly instructions) here. It’s possible that you can find model similar to your Sony.
March 12th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Rob,
Yes, all you need is three main parts: motherboard, CPU and memory. If the power button is located on a separate board, then you’ll have to connect this board too.
Assemble everything on your desk, connect an external monitor, plug in the power adapter and turn on the laptop. If everything is OK, it will start and you should get video on the monitor.
March 12th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Bob,
It depends on the model of your laptop but most likely you can find it cheap here.
March 10th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I am trying to resolder the power jack to the motherboard on a Vaio PCG-GX600 notebook. Only one little problem – I’ve removed every screw I could find on the exterior of the case, but still can not open the notebook to access the motherboard. What am I missing here??!! Toward the front of the notebook, it is reasonably loose (I could separate the top and bottom halves of the case without too much problem), but the back halves of the case are firmly sealed. Yet I can’t find anything else to unscrew to loosen that area.
March 10th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
I’m in the process of resoldering the power jack. Is there any way to test if it is powering the motherboard without putting the whole laptop back together first? I have a volt tester if that helps. Thanks.
March 10th, 2008 at 11:23 am
I tried a brand new power adapter. I’m going to see if I can resolder the power jack now. I hope it’s not a bad motherboard, it’s probably not even worth buying a new motherboard with laptop prices going down so much. Thanks for your help.
March 9th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
This is exactly what I have been looking for. The problem with the laptop I have is the middle pin broke out of the DC connector. I see there is a work around to remote the connector but do you know where I could get a replacement connector that I could solder to the motherboard?
March 8th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Rob,
1. Can be bad power adapter. Test the laptop with another good adapter.
2. Can be loose power jack.
3. If not 1 & 2 then could be bad motherboard.