I am the owner of an HP Pavilion zt3300 laptop which has developed a very expensive problem. the battery on the laptop will only charge when the cord is positioned in just the right position, which usually means propping it up with a heavy object and has broken two power cords so far. It is also, I have noticed, getting worse.
After changing out the battery and the cord as well as cleaning out the jack on the laptop, I have concluded that the problem is the jack in the computer. This was clearly evident when I blasted it with duster spray and watched the inside pin dance around in the socket. Unfortunately, i found the repair manual online and it said that that part of the laptop is saudered directly to the motherboard. the official way to fix it is to send it in to have it's motherboard replaced, which would cost a minimum of $300. the cheaper alternative, which I am inclined to do as the laptop is no longer under warrantee, is to crack it open, remove the old plug, and hotwire in a new one with about 1 inch if wire to prevent future problems. I have read about other people's success with this, however my dad believes that there is a chance of burning up the motherboard. if this is the case, he says he can probably do it as he has done something similar in his workplace before (automated greenhouse pesticide sprayers.)
Is there any possibility of burning up the motherboard and has anyone else had this problem?
hmm, if you use the correct soldering iron (i.e. possibly a ColdHeat, google it?) you might be able to do this without burning the motherboard…personally i wouldnt risk it…if your dad works in a lab or something and has experience with this kinda thing then i guess it’s worth a shot
I might try it, because the laptop probably isn’t worth much more than it would cost to fix it anymore, and my family has broken 2 cords on it already.
OK, after both our identical laptops finally got to the point where they would no longer charge at all, I finally got up the courage to try repairing them. I downloaded the Maintenance and Service manual for them from HP’s website, and proceeded to disassemble my own laptop completely. https://vexforum.com/gallery/files/2/8/5/5/DSCN4426.JPG
Here’s a better description of the problem the laptops were having:
the socket on the inside of the computer that draws power from the cord looks like this on the inside https://vexforum.com/gallery/files/2/8/5/5/powersocketinside.jpg
the problem was, the middle pin that supplies the input voltage was very loose, making a connection almost impossible. My solution was to take apart the laptop completely, attach wire to the pins on the bottom of the motherboard, and run them to another power socket with a larger pin like this https://vexforum.com/gallery/files/2/8/5/5/DSCN4424.JPG
My laptop has an existing hole in the case next to the power socket that I widened to accommodate for the larger plug and glued the new socket over. I had already made an appropriately sized cord for it using one of our old ones. I then reassembled the laptop and plugged in the new cord, but nothing happened. I then tried plugging in the old cord just for the heck of it, and it worked perfectly! not exactly what I had hoped for, but it’s good enough for me.
I believe that the old socket began working again because, when I was attaching the wire leads, I used one large wire saudered over both of the negative pins on the board, which somehow improved the socket’s ability to connect. if this is true, it means that this problem could potentially be fixed on other computers simply by connecting both the negative leads together. I’ll try this on the other laptop tomorrow and see if it works.
Also, I found out that there isn’t actually much threat of physically melting the motherboard of the computer. In fact the only close call that I had was dripping sauder on the keyboard connector, but I managed to get it off again. (although my computer does freak out every time I press the right CTRL key)