November 27, 2007

Curious George: Is My Laptop Fixable? Mr. meredithea's laptop has bitten the dust, and we want to know if it's salvageable.

Mr. meredithea has a not-too-old (he got it around 3-4 years ago) HP laptop, and we're pretty sure we're having power supply issues with it. At first, he would notice that the screen would dim while he was working on it and it was plugged in, as if it were having to switch over to battery power. Then, he'd notice that the light that indicated that the battery was charging wouldn't always come on when he knew it was supposed to be charging. When he wiggled the cord, sometimes the light would come back on. Then, the computer went totally over to battery power, and wouldn't take a charge at all. When the battery gave out, we couldn't turn it back on at all. We bought a new power cord, thinking it had a short. No dice. What can we do from here? Is this a rotten power supply? Can this be replaced at all? Can this be replaced more cheaply than buying a new laptop? We're on a pretty limited budget, so we can't just buy a new laptop, and of course this issue arose just as the warranty ran out. Any advice here would be more than I already know. Help me, monkey experts, you're my only hope!

posted by meredithea 17 years ago
  • It might be the connector where the power supply plugs into the laptop. I've seen a few with pins pushed in and other mechanical problems. To fix this I usually remove the factory connectors and solder the power cable right to the board, with an inline connector to allow for detachment. It's the not prettiest fix, but for the price of a nice 12 pack you can't beat it. If you're near cleveland I'll take a look at it for you.
  • If it's the connector (and it usually is) you will need to replace the power board. The part for an iBook can be found for about $20 though they retail for $80 I think. On the Mac, the repair almost fits into the DIY category- removing lots of screws (keeping track of where they go) and removing the case. The repair with labor was about $150 if someone else does it. Of course, it could be different on the HP but I can only answer on the basis of my own experience. Good luck!
  • I second (third) the power connector issue. You might want to look into seeing how much the new part will be, if not, you might be better off getting a newer one. paying 150$ for service on it is a little pointless..
  • There's a discussion here about broken power jacks and how to replace them. For a lot of laptops, the jack is on the motherboard, so it could be expensive to replace the entire piece. This page talks about HP disassembly, though some of the pictures are borked. You can buy a new power jack separately if you're prepared to unsolder the old one and put the new one in place.
  • I was going to post something helpful, but then I noticed the "Mr. meridithea" part and all my incentive to impress you with my techno-wisdom went out the window. Sorry.
  • Thanks for the advice everyone! waxboy: I'm in Pittsburgh, so only a couple of hours out of Cleveland. I may follow up with you since I'm not so handy with soldiering guns and so forth. Undoing screws and putting things back where they started? Yes. Anything much above that? Not so much. roryk: Thanks for the links!! stomper: Aw, shucks...