In order to replace the power jack in your laptop you’ll have to remove the jack from the motherboard as I explained in the previous post: Replacing DC power jack.
While removing the jack you can accidentally pull out the internal copper coating (I’ll call it a sleeve) from the inside of the “+” terminal as it shown on the picture below.
The internal copper sleeve has been removed and cannot be installed back. If you solder the power jack back on the motherboard without this sleeve it might work but the connection between the “+” lead and motherboard will not be reliable.
In the following guide I explain how to fortify a damaged power jack connection. You can use this repair technique in some laptops with similar power jacks.
You can remove the copper sleeve from the power jack with a soldering guy and through it away. You cannot install this sleeve back into the terminal on the motherboard.
Find a small resistor or capacitor with thin leads. Cut off one of the leads. I’m going to use it to fortify the connection between the power jack and motherboard.
Shape the lead as it shown on the picture below.
Put the lead on the “+” connector on the power jack.
Solder the lead to the power jack.
Now I’m going to modify the “+” terminal on the PCB. Even though on the picture below it looks normal, it’s damaged inside (the internal coating has been removed).
Carefully scrape off green varnish around the whole on the “+” terminal on the PCB. You can use a small flathead screwdriver.
If the whole is not big enough for your modified power jack, you can widen it with an awl.
As you see on the picture below the whole on the terminal has been widened. Apply a fresh coat of solder on the clear area of the trace.
Install the power jack assembly on the motherboard. Make sure there is no gap between the jack and motherboard.
Here’s a view from the top side of the PCB.
Solder all pins except the modified “+” pin.
Now, when the power jack is secured, you can shape the lead as it shown on the picture below.
Solder the lead to the terminal. Remove excessive flux with an old tooth brash soaked in 99% alcohol.
Here’s a view from the bottom side of the motherboard.
Be very careful. Doing this modification you can damage the motherboard and make it unusable. Proceed on your own risk.
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January 27th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Colin,
No, will not loose anything. All files are stored on the hard dive and if this repair is done correctly, the laptop will boot as before.
Here’s some help for taking apart a Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100 laptop. That’s an old one.
By the way, are you sure that there is a problem with the power jack?
If your Satellite Pro 6100 will not start at all and the power LED flashes orange light, resoldereing or replacing the power jack will not fix it. Most likely it’s poor connection between motherboard/video card/power board. It’s very similar to known problems with Tecra TE2100.
January 27th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
I think the suggested jack socket repair/ reinforcement is well executed. Before I disassemble my Toshiba SP6100 to see if my power supply interuption problem can be solved with this repair solution I would ask please — if there is presently nothing wrong with any of the laptops components before I disassemble and hopefully effect a supply fault repair after I reassemble the laptop can I assume that I will not have lossed its memory. ie will the windows xp still be there and all files etc? I am not sure if the athor of this site would answer please or any one else who would have a reply for me.
January 27th, 2009 at 11:48 am
Thank you very much to this information. I just replaced the DC power jack on my Gateway MX6960. The jack and the board are a little different that what you show, but, most importantly, I did pull the cooper sleeve out with the bad jack. I would have never know about it. And, because I am not an electrician and have very, very basic soldering skills, I would still be trying to figure out how to fill the hole in the board.
Since I do not have resisters and such laying around, I used several strands of my cooper desoldering braid. I wrapped it around the positive post and soldered it in place prior to installing the jack on the board. Because of the solder, I did have to open up the hole a little. Though it took some time, and great patience, I was able to solder the cooper to the board in a similar fashion to the method you show.
Thanks again. The info was much appreciated!
January 26th, 2009 at 7:20 am
well im 15 from germany and i must thank you for this information….
NICE PAGE….
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:41 am
Can a laptop battery be charged any other way besides through the motherboard? Is there a way to charge the battery from a power source directly to the pins on the battery? (like a charger to car battery) If i could do this I could start my dead compaq R3000 and retrieve info to external hard drive. most likely solution to this could help many users. Thank you Sherman
January 16th, 2009 at 11:15 am
i have a problam about compaq i connected tha ac pin my laptop light s r blinging what is is the falt
January 13th, 2009 at 11:35 am
This is a great tutorial. I’ve always told the customer the unit is dead when that copper sleeve comes out. Now I have a way to fix that for them. Thanks!
December 28th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Hi, love your tutorial and i resoldered the power jack and it works. I did a real hack job tho. I couldnt get nice clean holes so i would heat one side and push an exacto knife blade thru and wiggle the best holes that i could. Even still I had to really heat and push the jack back into the holes and I dont think I got it as close to the MB as I would of liked. But it’s working god now, but I’m wondering if I’m on borrowed time.
December 9th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Hi.
first off all many compliments for the site.
I’ve found it ’cause I have a serius problem with an Aspire 9100.
I hope you will be so gentle to try to help me.
So …. My friends had a Power Jack problem, the electricity didn’t work
even if the “pin jack” of the DC adapter was inserted in the motherboard.
To bypass this problem she started to press the top of the “pin jack” in a really strong way. She was used to left three big and heavy books over the “pin jack” and in this way the battery started charging and the laptos worked also without battery.
But after some time she had to press more, so I decided to try to repair it.
I’ve opened the laptop and decided to take off the powerjack (it was broken the copper sleeve).
Then I scraped off a little quantity of the green varnish around the “+”,
and I solded a cable, bringing this out from the laptop.
Finally I solded two new jack, one to the DC Adapter and one to the cable solded to the motherboard. (I controlled the polarity with a Tester)
But I have a strange problem now!!!!
Even if the electricity passes to the motherboard (I have tested with an “Electricity Tester”) the laptop doesn’t start if the battery is not inserted.
If the battery is inserted, the laptop starts, but the battery doesn’t start charging.
It seems like if the electricity is not working, but as I said I tested it
I have uploaded some photos where you can see the electricity test results.
www flickr com/photos/33223425@N06/
I’m in your hands….
Please, help me or I will be killed by my friend !!!!!
PS:
sorry for my english!!
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Unfortunatly… You could have destroy you’re computer…
The Problem with these jacks is that sometimes they come in special configurations, so even if the are the same saze, and the terminals are in the same place, the Polarity may be inverse.
so you should have made sure the polarity match before putting the new Jack in place,
The fact that you had an electric arc means something shorted.
Also you should take care of not soldering oter componets or phats to ne part that you just scraped….