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.
First of all, I tested the power adapter with a multimeter. The power didn’t cut off no matter how badly I moved the cord. The power adapter output voltage was 15.45VDC all the time. That means there is nothing wrong with the power adapter and most likely there is a problem with with the power socket inside the laptop.
By the way, I just purchased a brand new FLUKE 179 multimeter here for less then $160. The retail price at Sears for the same multimeter is $240. FLUKE is a really good brand. Just a side note.
Now I’m going to test the power socket inside the laptop.
In order to access the power socket I had to disassemble the laptop and remove the top cover assembly with the display.
You can find disassembly instructions for many HP, Dell, IBM, Lenovo, Sony and Toshiba laptops in these service manuals and guides.
In the laptop I was fixing (Tecra M2) the power jack is attached to a DC-IN harness and this harness can be unplugged from the motherboard.
As you see, I removed the DC-IN harness from the motherboard, plugged in the power adapter and tested continuity with my multimeter as it shown on the picture.
When the power cord is still, the voltage output is 15.45VDC, the same as on the plug.
But as soon as I start wiggling the plug inside the jack, the power cuts off and voltage goes to 0. It means, the power harness is bad.
The problem was fixed after I replaced the defective DC-IN harness with a new one.
In some laptops the power socket (DC jack) is soldered to the motherboard.
If the battery stops charging when you wiggle the power plug inside the jack, either you have a bad power adapter (test it with a voltmeter) or the power jack is broken or loose.
You cannot simply unplug the jack and replace it with another one. You’ll have to unsolder the old jack and solder a new one back on the motherboard as I described in this post.
If the power jack is not broken but loose (not making good contact with the motherboard) you can resolder the old jack without replacing it with a new one.
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January 9th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Sir,
i have d610 latitude mother board charging pin problem charging jack supply is alright but bios charging pin connection
missed charging pin volts are 2.5, will u tell me please where i will connect jumper with pin on the mother board .thanks
January 1st, 2010 at 8:03 am
I am using an Acer laptop.My charger’s wire has a loose connection.What should I do?Please help.
December 11th, 2009 at 8:02 am
I have a Toshiba laptop. The power cord appears not to be working. I have a Dell cord that I do get power with but the battery life is 1/2 of what it was, which wasn’t much to start with. I’ve only used it once. I’ve looked at all the electrical specs and the only difference is the output. On the Toshiba it is 19v or 3.5 and on the Dell it is 50 or 3.95. Is this cord safe to use or should I get a new cord and battery (since it only has a half hour life span)?
December 10th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
i have a toshiba satellite m115 and the middle part of the power jack was loose so i would have to put pressure onto the charger in order for my laptop to charge… i guess it wore out and that middle part of the power jack broke off… i was wondering if you have the price range for how much it would cost to repair this.
November 29th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Dan,
I don’t think that this problem is related to the laptop disassembly.
In this model the battery is connected directly to the motherboard.
It’s either bad battery or there is a problem with the motherboard. The only way to find out which one is causing the problem is testing the laptop with another known good battery.
Did it stop working after you disassembled the laptop? Maybe you forgot to plug it into the motherboard?
If the speaker is plugged but doesn’t work, most likely the speaker is bad and has to be replaced.
In a Portege R100 laptop the LAN jack is not soldered directly to the motherboard. It’s on a separate harness.
It’s possible that the LAN jack harness is bad. If replacing this harness doesn’t help, most likely the lightning strike damaged the motherboard.
I posted disassembly guides for Portege R100 on http://www.irisvista.com/tech/
Use these guides at your own risk.
November 26th, 2009 at 4:30 am
Wow. You sure know your way around a laptop. Are you available for consultation in the US?
I have a Toshiba Portege R100 that I have had for four years and I love it. It is so sleek, portable and, until recently, had great battery life with the external battery. I have three problems:
1) The external battery no longer works. When I plug it in, the computer does not recognize that anything happened, even if I do it from a cold boot. I have recently disassembled this laptop, so maybe I did something wrong in re-assembly.
2) The internal speaker no longer works. The headphones work fine, but no internal.
3) The LAN card got fried by a nearby lightning strike over a year ago. No other misfunctions at that time, and I just did a workaround by buying a $20 PCM LAN card.
I know I could go buy another comparable laptop for about $300-500, but i really like this one and would love to fix it.
November 10th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Ernest,
Why do you think there is no power going to the inverter board? Have you tried replacing the inverter?
November 10th, 2009 at 7:32 am
hi,
my hp pavilion dv6000 stop supply power to my LCD inverter board this has result in dim screen. Can you help me fix it.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:10 pm
RYAN,
Could be bad AC adapter. Could be the motherboard failure.
October 30th, 2009 at 7:16 am
i have a dell vostro laptop it will not switch on the charger light comes on for 5 seconds any idea what this could be