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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August 9th, 2011 at 3:30 am
Dear sir,
i have lenvoY410 Model laptop,i have battery problem,when i connecting adapter,it shows charging symbol,but symbol of pluged in,but level of charging not showing.if i disconnecting my adapter it becomes shutdown directly,what is the problem,how can i solve this problem?please help?
thank you
December 31st, 2010 at 10:15 am
I’ve read your article and it matches problems I have been having with my HP Pavilion dv4 laptop. For a long time the charging cable would sometimes not work when plugged in, and have to be coaxed in at the right angle in order to work. However now I cannot seem to coax it for love nor money.
I assumed that the cable was at fault but have tested the adapter and it is pushing out a stable 19.8V which should be fine. The laptop is not charging though, instead the LED flash is indicating it is getting insufficient power.
Is there any other test I can do on the cable adapter before stripping the laptop to pieces? I’m not to keen on doing that (but I’m going to anyway) but would appreciate your thoughts.
Happy New Year as well.
December 26th, 2010 at 8:47 am
hello, i have a microsoft, windows XP Laptop, home edition,versoin 2002,service pack 3. Recently ive been having problems with my usb drives and scanners. My power plugin is not responding unless i wiggle it to a certaint spot, but everytime when the power cord is not respinding a send it in to get fixed since its under warinty. Though, the same problems (listed above) keep on happening over and over again. So my quistions to you are: should i just buy a new laptop? should i fix my XP laptop manualy? Or should i simply call the acer company on the phone to actualy fix it so i wont have the problems again? please awnser these quistions clearly and thankyou for reading this.
November 26th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
Jorge,
It’s hard to tell what is causing all these adapter failures BUT I would really suggest using an original factory replacement adapter, not a generic one.
It’s possible that original factory adapter will work properly for a long time.
Make sure you have the latest BIOS installed on your laptop. Updated to the latest version if possible (make sure laptop runs on AC power while updating the BIOS).
Not sure what’s going on with the battery. Try discharging it completely and charging again.
November 26th, 2010 at 6:50 am
Hi,
I’m so sorry for asking a question on an old post, but after hours of research this site seems the only one to really know their stuff.
I have a two year old toshiba laptop. I’ve used it A LOT. After I lost my 1st charger, I bought a generic one. I lost that one too. The thing is after my second one all my other chargers (my current one is my 5th one) stop working after 2 months!!! Now I started getting a “Consider replacing your battery” from Windows 7.
My question is: Is this an internal hardware problem? is this a battery problem? only a charger problem? or what? … I’m just very confused because I have no idea what to do and I don’t know if it’s smart to invest in another battery just to see another charger last for only 2 months.
Really appreciate the help!
October 23rd, 2010 at 9:21 pm
Greg,
If you have the latest BIOS installed, most likely reflahsing the BIOS will not help.
If the laptop runs fine from AC adapter with battery removed, most likely the AC adapter operates properly.
I think it’s either bad battery (more likely) OR possible motherboard failure (less likely).
I think replacing the battery is your best bet.
October 19th, 2010 at 5:21 am
I have an Inspiron 6400, original 65W adapter and on second battery 6-cell which I’ve been using for a little less than a year.
It is stuck at charging at 7%. It was stuck at 12%, but in trying many fixes, I ran on battery only for a while which decreased the charge in it.
The bios recognizes and identifies the AC adapter and the battery. The bios and Dell Quickset state the battery is operating normally, but the charge does not increase.
Only one 1/2 lights come on when I press the battery button.
I have reset the bios to factory defaults, and tried other tricks mentioned in the Dell forums, i.e. jiggling wires, holding power button down, disconnecting power and battery in different order then rebooting, doing the same after removing ACPI battery from device manager.
I have not reinstalled the BIOS. I am already running the latest A17 BIOS.
I did not automatically purchase a new battery or ac adapter yet, because supposedly, they are functioning ‘normally’?
What should I do next?
Reinstall the A17 BIOS?
Buy a new battery?
Buy a new AC charger adapter?
Something else?
September 27th, 2010 at 3:30 am
Sierra,
It depends what laptop you have.
In some laptops the jack is soldered directly to the motherboard, in other models it’s attached to a harness.
What is your laptop model?
September 16th, 2010 at 8:37 am
If the pin of the DC-IN power jack came out, what should I do?
1. replace the power jack?
2. resolder the pin into the power jack? How can I do that?
Thanks a lot!
August 29th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
T,
How it flashing? Is it switching from AC power to battery power and because of that screen changes brightness?
If you think your problem related to the AC adapter, next time make sure to buy the original factory replacement, not just a compatible third party adapter.