Compaq Presario 3000 power jack

[tompy]

The plugin for my compaq laptop doesn't hold the AC plug anymore unless I hold it at an angle. The store where I bought it said I need to buy a new motherboard! Anybody got any better suggestions?

[Tuttle]

It's probably either damage to the jack itself, or to one of the connections between the jack and the motherboard. While the only thing the manufacturer will do in that situation is replace the motherboard, if it's out of warranty then you could probably find an electronics repair place to replace or resolder the jack -- it'd have to be one of the easier things on a motherboard to replace. Probably still not DIY stuff for most people though.

[CompComp]

This is a common thing with laptops. Honestly it doesn't take much stress to break the power jack in these things. Tuttle is right. The manufacturer will want to replace the motherboard. Of course they refurbish the old board later and reuse it. They make a killing off that sort of thing, I'm sure!

As for electronics shops, this is an option to use with caution. I have a computer repair business, and I've gotten quite a few laptops sent to me that were "repaired" by these types of shops. If they don't have a good understanding of how a computer is assembled, they can cause more trouble than anything. Just keep that in mind.

Out of respect I won't post a link to my site unless someone asks. But, we routinely replace the jacks on laptops shipped to us from all over the United States.

Thanks for the cool message board. I have enjoyed reading here!

Marcus

[DanceMan]

This failure is becoming common and is due to the use of surface or chassis mount jacks. I had this problem with the video input jack on a tv and fixed it by resoldering.

The jacks are soldered right to the circuit board. Strain or flex on the cables eventually breaks a solder connection where the jack is attached to the board. Resoldering isn't necessarily easy even if you can solder. I found an old Compaq Pentium MMX notebook on which the solder connection was simply not accessible, at least not withour more disassembly than I was prepared to do.

[CompComp]

Yes, that's true. I like the Sony Vaios that are made with the jack that slides into a groove on the casing which makes it much more secure than simply being soldered onto the board itself. Of course those jacks on the Sonys get a loose connection with the plug after a while, but at least they're easy to replace.

[C2W]

I know this is an old thread but others might be interested if they have similar problems on laptops. . . (AC power plug damage).

I have fixed both of our Fujitsu S6210s because of damage to the AC power plug in the computer. Not for the faint of heart but doable. Now I use a JerkStopper on all my laptops. It keeps the AC cable from pulling or jerking on the very fragile AC post inside the laptop.