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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June 15th, 2009 at 12:01 am
Hi Guys,
First off, I am indebted to to this site and the contributors that I finally got my Dell XPS Gen2 repaired. I want to pay forward and share my experience.
Yes, desoldering a Dell is HELL. I disassembled my laptop twice trying to desolder it. Finally, I went rambo on it by using a wire cutter, cutting across the jack and carefully tearing it piece by piece until I can see the holes. Do it at your own risk though, but I recommend it because I had no other way. Then, I use the solder iron to pierce the hole and removing the solder and cleaning it. The rest I follwed the well-written instruction here.
After reassembling it, the laptop would power on, but no screen, and then the laptop would power off in like 10 seconds. I also notice many of the people here are experiencing the same thing. Relax guys, all you need to do is to check and switch your RAM.
Hope that helps.
Thanks again to Laptoprepair101.
June 12th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
any words of advice ,i have a compaq v5000 the power connector is not soldered to the mb but instead on a separate piece of wiring
looks like this.
this part has snapped away from the wire
i have been trying to clean it all off i know it works as if i do a bad job i get the same move the wire abit to get it working again ,so i think my soldering is not good enough as the solder keeps snapping on me any advice guys ?
May 29th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
I have a question, my original power jack has 4 pins or say connector, while the new one I brought has only 3, I was wondering is it OK if I connect wires from only 2 (+ and -) from old power jack to new power jack outside the laptop? I will not remove the Old jack, but making the Bridge to new one and I have to plug the power cord to new jack which will be outside?
May 27th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
I replaced the power jack on a gateway ml6232 and now after booting on a few seconds the fan stops goes through gatway screen then starts beeping telling me its overheating but why does the fan stop?
Great article loved it i did pull out the copper sleeve
May 23rd, 2009 at 11:05 am
@junk-signup / cj2600:
I have attempted to repair a gateway MX6453 laptop where the sleeve came out, but when I scraped off the green coating as described on this site, I too ended up with no copper to solder to… I think this is just a difference in the various motherboards? Checking the other side of the board (directly ‘under’ the body of the jack/positive pin) I did find metal…
May 11th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
I tried un-soldering the jack but I have no luck.. the solder is not comeing off, i dont care about the jack so i would cut it off if i could, any suggestions?
April 17th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
karamesh,
Could be just a bad battery. Do you know about Dell battery recall program? Check it out here. Dell Inspiron 6400 is mentioned in the list of affected models. Check the battery and maybe you can get a new one at now charge.
April 15th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
I do not know how to post separatley. Mine is Dell Inspiro 6400.
If the AC power is cut, the laptop runs in the battery mode for
few seconds, the red LED blinks and it turns off instantly. By reading various forums I was under the impression that BIOS update might correct the problem and I update the BIOS version to A017. Now the BIOS has not detected the Battery. I cheked the battery several time and the all the LEDs in the battery are green. I do not know what the problem is. Now I cannot update or change the BIOS. And I am not sure that whether I have to go for new battery. Finally I found this excellent site, I’ll be thankful and welcome for all the advices.
Ka.Ramesh
March 30th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
David,
You can do that. All you need is the motherboard, good working battery and good working AC adapter.
March 30th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
This may be an out of left field question, but I have a new MB but windows is not working on it due to validation problems. So until I get it resolved I was wondering if I could use the board without any components on it to charge the battery. I mean can I plug in the ac adapter and then hook in the battery will it charge. I know this is a wierd question, but there is a lot of history behind this. Thank you for any help you can give.