Notebook Repair

[james1701]

I recently received a laptop from a girl I work with. It is an Acer Aspire notebook. It has the infamous loose power jack problem. I was researching how to fix the problem, and look at a couple of articles like this one. http://www.laptoprepair101.com...wer-jack-repair-guide/

One thing I am not sure about, one thing the article does not mention is using flux on the pcb. Should I put some around the holes so solder with run down and coat the edges of the holes that the power jack goes in, or just a little around the top of the holes? Thanks

 

[corkyg]

No - electronics soldering is done with rosin core solder - the flux is built in. More importantly, make sure you have a good tight mechanical joint before soldering.

 

[james1701]

While I was out today, I picked up a dual 15/30 watt iron, and some .022 diameter rosin core silver bearing solder, a desoldering iron, and Radio Shack also had a soldering accessory set for 4.99 with 3 scrappers, heat sink, and brush for 4.99. I have soldered plain wiring, and pipes, and general purpose work, but never on a pcb board. If it turns out well, I might offer it as a local service. No one does power jack repairs in my area.

 

[corkyg]

If you succeed, you can start a business. They range from $100 to $125 a pop. Here is one that does your GF's lappie:

PWR

Good luck!

BTW - must power port breakages I have seen happen when the user or another person trips over the power cord while it is plugged in, or the user forgets it is plugged in and picks it up and starts to walk away with it. The result is sufdden, damaging torque applie to the port.

The practice of removing the plug by grasping it (not the cord!) and pulling helps.

 

[james1701]

Acer has a lot of trouble with bad solder joints, besides idiots that don't pay attention to what they are doing. Besides, on this model they use a daughter card for the power connector. People can always pick a new one up for about 55-75 on ebay, but most of the time they have little or no warranty. Thats not a bad price on your link, I have seen some company's charge up to 200.00 or more for a power jack repair. Thats why she gave it away, she talked to someone that wanted 275.00 to fix it.

 

[mooseracing]

Originally posted by: james1701
Thats why she gave it away, she talked to someone that wanted 275.00 to fix it.

On most laptops there is an easy 2hr labor charge, since 99% you have to take everything apart. The the shop has to cover any damage that is done when you take everything apart as well.

Every 1 or 2 laptops out of 10 will be the bitch one. Not to mention you need to guarentee your work, so when that person goes home and the next day it has the same problem because they bent the jack doing something stupid.

 

[james1701]

Well. I found a new jack on Ebay, out of the UK, for about 4.00. It took me longer to unsolder the old plug than anything. A must have is a roll of braid. Once I got that out, I got the new one in, and check it with a multi meter, and put everything back together. I only had a few extra screws lol. Everything works like a brand new one. The next to worst thing was getting the keyboard ribbon in and locked down without pulling it back out. I have really big hands, and it was tough working under the keyboard with that short ribbon. I think I got a pretty nice notebook for less than 10.00 including jack, shipping, and little solder and about 4 hours of my time.

Thank for the advice.