Power connector inside of laptop has a short

[Kalmah]

This in an old laptop. A Toshiba Satellite. About 2 years ago I was having problems with losing power from the wall outlet. When moving around the cord right next to the jack where it plugs into the computer the power would turn on and off. I thought It was just a short in the cord right there so I cut about 6 inches off the cord and re-wired the end back on. Still didn't do the trick..

Then about a year later I got it out again and opened it up. The little jack that the power cord plugs into was pretty loose. I noticed when pushing in very hard on the jack the power lights would light up. So I got out the soldering gun, pushed in really hard on the jack and soldered that thing in place. It then worked for a couple months... then it started losing power again. It got to the point where pushing in on the jack barely even does anything besides a few infrequient power connections.

I just opened it up and tried the same thing I did before without any luck. Still when I push in on the jack really hard it gets power every now and then.

I know nothing about electronics. I'm hoping somebody might be able to suggest a do-it-myself method that might be easy. Or at least a good place I could take it to to get it fixed.

I'm leaving on a roadtrip in 2 days and was hoping to take it with me.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[BehindEnemyLines]

Kalmah,

Maybe you can get close, clear, and sharp pictures of the AC plug and where the soldering is bad. Also a picture of the other side of the plug. Sometimes, these AC plugs have copper traces on both sides of the motherboard connecting to the same AC plug pins. This is true for my laptop motherboard, but I'm not sure about yours.

 

[Kalmah]

Hey.

I appreciate your reply. It's looking like I'm not going to be taking it with me since I'm leaving early tomorrow morning. But I still would like to get it fixed. When I get back I'll see about taking some pictures. It's going to be 2 weeks until I'm back though. I'm not going to have an internet connection while gone.

So I'll most likely start a new thread with the pictures in it once I'm back.

To give a visual account of what I saw.. There is a round metal part on the back-side of the jack. I think there was a conection from that to the motherboard. But the first time I soldered it I covered that thing up with solder so I can't tell now.. And I don't remember it. But since that's where I put the solder in the first place it must have been that way. I remember seeing copper on one side of the jack, but I can't recall seeing any on the other side. I have the thing all closed up with the screws in it now.

Before I closed it up.. I plugged it in and played around with the jack by pushing on it. And I remember seeing tiny sparks near the coper part when pushing on it. But by then I was too agrivated to even give that any thought. Now that I remember it I should probably try putting some solder on that copper part.

Thanks again. I'll create a new thread when I'm back if I can't get it to work with that idea.