Laptop Repair (Power Sockets)
by Christopher Banwell
Power Jacks/DC sockets Ever moved the laptop and forgot you had it
plugged in to the mains? Had it on your lap an the dogs tripped on the
cable stretched across the room? Or the kids been tugging on it to get
a go of the latest game?
Every
time the power cable is pulled against the socket on the laptop
it stresses the solder joins that connect the socket to the mainboard
inside, if these break at any time, even a fine crack will case problems
your laptop will stop charging and eventually switch off when the battery
power runs down.
Usually if your lucky and the break isn't too bad you can move the plug
into a certain position and hey presto the power is back on (I'll come
back to this later). Other times no amount of wiggling around of the plug
will help and you'll have to get it repaired. Worse still the centre pin
of the socket breaks and the whole socket needs replacing.
If any of the above happen to you, forget phoning the manufacturer to
have it repaired under warranty, they won't cover it, they class it as
misuse, and they'll probably quote you for a new motherboard, in a lot
of cases costing nearly as much as the laptop itself. Still there's always
accidental damage cover on your home insurance. You've got some haven't
you? Worst comes to the worst just search for "power socket repairs"
on your favourite search engine, there are plenty of independent laptop
repair companies that will glady resolder a new socket for a lot less.
Going back to the slightly loose socket
that when you wiggle the plug you can make it work scenario,
let's take a moment to have a look at what's happening here. The fact
that it works when the socket is in a specific position tells us that
the break in the solder connection is now connected, and when in another
position it's disconnected, so what happens when we move it around, well
each time we make the connection by wiggling, we cause a spark to arc
across the break, which in turn causes heat to build up and a certain
amount of burning to occur. Eventually what will happen is that the arcing will cause
a hole to be burnt in the systemboard where the solder join is and one
day it just won't turn on anymore and the likelyhood is that it will then
need the systemboard replacing.
The moral here is get it looked at and put right sooner rather than later.