Presario 2100 broken power connector

Wow, thanks. Yeah i got a little bold last night and disassembled
"some" of the backing, i couldnt figure out why it wouldnt
come off completely i have to read the rest of the post to find out
how others did it. But, i did find out that is most certainly the
little plug, it's just a tiny little plastic piece that appears to
have maybe a metal? tiny ring on the bottom. I am tempted to get the
part of ebay, but i havent the slightest idea what it means to solder
something. I can figure things out, but im wondering if i botch the
job if i ruin the computer completely. I called a couple of places
and they want to charge 75 an hour just to look at it. One guy said
i needed a new battery? Yes these are the professionals. Theyu are
all in agreement on one thing, i should get a new mother board. Some
people have mentioned a docking station or "port
replicator". Are these a viable alternative? I could still
disconnect from the station any time i wanted correct? They are just
a power up method alternative to this mess? I appreciate all of your
help guys. Thank You!!

I have had a similar problem with my Presario 2400. I disassembled
the
entire unit (and believe me it is a terribly intricate job). What I
found
was that the power plug is on a small board (less than 1"
square) which
plugs into the motherboard. I unsoldered the external plug from
this small
board, and after playing around with it, I found that the little
plastic tip
on the male side of the plug was preventing contact from being made
with the
on-board, female side of the plug. I trimmed some of the plastic
away from
the tip (sort of made it conical in shape) and it has been working
reasonably well since then. What was the amazing is that I was able
to
resolder the plug to the board and completely reassemble the whole
laptop
and it worked!! I say the plug has been working "reasonably
well". That is
to say, if you aren't careful when you move the machine around, the
cord
side (male) part of the connector sort of works itself out of the
side of
the unit very easily. This is sure a weak link in this whole setup,
but I
don't have a good solution. I suppose you might be able to find a
new
on-board connector, but I tried and had a lot of trouble identifying
the
correct part.

Good luck
Max Lynn
"HH" wrote in message
...
More than likely, the connector is hard soldered directly on the
motherboard, which will likely need to be pulled from the notebook.
Possdibly it can be made secure with a re-solder.

Wow, thanks. Yeah i got a little bold last night and disassembled
"some" of the backing, i couldnt figure out why it wouldnt
come off completely i have to read the rest of the post to find out
how others did it. But, i did find out that is most certainly the
little plug, it's just a tiny little plastic piece that appears to
have maybe a metal? tiny ring on the bottom. I am tempted to get the
part of ebay, but i havent the slightest idea what it means to solder
something. I can figure things out, but im wondering if i botch the
job if i ruin the computer completely. I called a couple of places
and they want to charge 75 an hour just to look at it. One guy said
i needed a new battery? Yes these are the professionals. Theyu are
all in agreement on one thing, i should get a new mother board. Some
people have mentioned a docking station or "port
replicator". Are these a viable alternative? I could still
disconnect from the station any time i wanted correct? They are just
a power up method alternative to this mess? I appreciate all of your
help guys. Thank You!!

I have had a similar problem with my Presario 2400. I disassembled
the
entire unit (and believe me it is a terribly intricate job). What I
found
was that the power plug is on a small board (less than 1"
square) which
plugs into the motherboard. I unsoldered the external plug from
this small
board, and after playing around with it, I found that the little
plastic tip
on the male side of the plug was preventing contact from being made
with the
on-board, female side of the plug. I trimmed some of the plastic
away from
the tip (sort of made it conical in shape) and it has been working
reasonably well since then. What was the amazing is that I was able
to
resolder the plug to the board and completely reassemble the whole
laptop
and it worked!! I say the plug has been working "reasonably
well". That is
to say, if you aren't careful when you move the machine around, the
cord
side (male) part of the connector sort of works itself out of the
side of
the unit very easily. This is sure a weak link in this whole setup,
but I
don't have a good solution. I suppose you might be able to find a
new
on-board connector, but I tried and had a lot of trouble identifying
the
correct part.

Good luck
Max Lynn
"HH" wrote in message
...
More than likely, the connector is hard soldered directly on the
motherboard, which will likely need to be pulled from the notebook.
Possdibly it can be made secure with a re-solder.

Wow, thanks. Yeah i got a little bold last night and disassembled
"some" of the backing, i couldnt figure out why it wouldnt
come off completely i have to read the rest of the post to find out
how others did it. But, i did find out that is most certainly the
little plug, it's just a tiny little plastic piece that appears to
have maybe a metal? tiny ring on the bottom. I am tempted to get the
part of ebay, but i havent the slightest idea what it means to solder
something. I can figure things out, but im wondering if i botch the
job if i ruin the computer completely. I called a couple of places
and they want to charge 75 an hour just to look at it. One guy said
i needed a new battery? Yes these are the professionals. Theyu are
all in agreement on one thing, i should get a new mother board. Some
people have mentioned a docking station or "port
replicator". Are these a viable alternative? I could still
disconnect from the station any time i wanted correct? They are just
a power up method alternative to this mess? I appreciate all of your
help guys. Thank You!!

I have had a similar problem with my Presario 2400. I disassembled
the
entire unit (and believe me it is a terribly intricate job). What I
found
was that the power plug is on a small board (less than 1"
square) which
plugs into the motherboard. I unsoldered the external plug from
this small
board, and after playing around with it, I found that the little
plastic tip
on the male side of the plug was preventing contact from being made
with the
on-board, female side of the plug. I trimmed some of the plastic
away from
the tip (sort of made it conical in shape) and it has been working
reasonably well since then. What was the amazing is that I was able
to
resolder the plug to the board and completely reassemble the whole
laptop
and it worked!! I say the plug has been working "reasonably
well". That is
to say, if you aren't careful when you move the machine around, the
cord
side (male) part of the connector sort of works itself out of the
side of
the unit very easily. This is sure a weak link in this whole setup,
but I
don't have a good solution. I suppose you might be able to find a
new
on-board connector, but I tried and had a lot of trouble identifying
the
correct part.

Good luck
Max Lynn
"HH" wrote in message
...
More than likely, the connector is hard soldered directly on the
motherboard, which will likely need to be pulled from the notebook.
Possdibly it can be made secure with a re-solder.

Okay, i think i found someone who is going to give it a shot for
me...but he wants one thing, a picture/diagram of where the piece
should end up on the board...the little piece actually fell out of
the back when i opened it up he can't place based on a prior
positioning. Any suggestions? I see the picture above, but i cant
tell which is the blue sticker and where thje location is ni regards
to the rest of the board. Any suggestions?

Not sure your unit is the same as mine. When my unit was disassembled, the
female plug for the input power was to be found on a tiny (roughly one inch
square) "daughter" circuit board. This tiny board in turn had a second plug
which connected it to the system/motherboard. There was, in my case, no
problem with this female plug or any of the internals, but I didn't discover
that until I had desoldered the female plug from the tiny circuit board. I
can't decipher from what you have described how the piece that fell from
your unit fits into this picture. None of the parts that I disassembled
would have "fallen" from the case without some urging on my part.

Now it's difficult to describe, but I isolated my problem to the male plug
which is on the end of the small wire which comes from the external power
brick to the laptop. The small male plug on the end which goes into the
side of the laptop has a short metal band near the end the end, and at the
very tip, there's a plastic tip. The metal band is the DC ground for the
18vDC coming from the power brick. This metal band is supposed make contact
with a leaf spring-like contact within the laptop's female plug (the one
that I desoldered). At the very tip of the external, male plug, I found
that there was about a one-sixteenth inch of plastic tip which was a larger
diameter than the metal band providing DC ground. This plastic tip would
make contact with the leaf-like contact in the plug on the laptop, and not
allow the metal band to connect electrically to the laptop's DC ground. I
filed the plastic tip down to decrease its diameter, and Voila!, I got
continuity through the plug for the 18 VDC ground from the power brick.

Does any of this help?

Max Lynn

----- Original Message -----
From: spazbam
Newsgroups: alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 8:16 AM
Subject: Presario 2100 broken power connector


Okay, i think i found someone who is going to give it a shot for
me...but he wants one thing, a picture/diagram of where the piece
should end up on the board...the little piece actually fell out of
the back when i opened it up he can't place based on a prior
positioning. Any suggestions? I see the picture above, but i cant
tell which is the blue sticker and where thje location is ni regards
to the rest of the board. Any suggestions?

"spazbam" wrote in message
...
Okay, i think i found someone who is going to give it a shot for
me...but he wants one thing, a picture/diagram of where the piece
should end up on the board...the little piece actually fell out of
the back when i opened it up he can't place based on a prior
positioning. Any suggestions? I see the picture above, but i cant
tell which is the blue sticker and where thje location is ni regards
to the rest of the board. Any suggestions?

In the picture above (top of page 4 here at howtofixcomputers.com) the
power jack is just out of the frame, above the left side of it. The
person posting the picture was indicating a part (not the power jack)
that fell off his motherboard, so don't focus on the "blue
sticker," it's not relevant to what you want to repair. BTW,
the view in the photo is from the left side of the laptop.

Per your request for a picture, I can't help (I don't have the laptop
anymore).

As for the need for a picture, I seriously doubt that your repair
person would need it. The power plug you are replacing is relatively
big and it's obvious where it goes on the motherboard, plus it lines
up with the hole in the back of the laptop.

It's been about a year since I did my repair and IIRC, there were
three tabs that connected the jack to the MB. They were a bit tough
to extract (especially the one that was broken off!), but careful and
patient persistence paid off. It was one of the more challenging jobs
(for me) to attempt (due to risk of more damage), but the reward for a
$5 replacement part correctly installed was worth it.

Other suggestions: It sounds as if you read this thread so heed the
advice and warnings. I used what had been posted to date when I did
my repair to help me and added my comments and experiences to
hopefully help others with the same dilemma. Make sure your repair
person reads this thread as well. It it best read before you attempt
the repair than after.

Good luck and let us know how it goes,

SG257

Let me start off saying this thread has been extremely useful. I was
able to get my presario 2100 apart. I found that one of three prongs
on the power adapter had snapped off.

I've got the new part in hand, but in my haste to get the MB out
something fell off ... a little black component with "3A 6-3V
-/+" being the only distinguishable marks. Any help identifying
the component and where to solder it back would be hugely
appreciated.

I'll try and post a picture as soon as I find my camera.

Thanks in advance.

- Kevin

Max,

You gave a great description of your problem and solution. Too bad
all fixes are not that simple (at least once you figure out what the
problem is!!).

Just thinking here, could the plastic on your adapter's plug (that you
had to file down) have gotten too warm and distorted (i.e.,
"mushroomed") itself? Again, just thinking outloud here...

Actually, what I assumed had happened is that the contact on the laptop side
lost some of its spring or got distorted ( I confess to having abused the
plug while it was connected). As a result, it think the plastic began to be
the only contact rather than the metal band. The contact is obviously a
weak point, and may eventually fail completely, but I'll know what is wrong
at that point. Your suggestion may be true as well. This is not a robust
design.

Max Lynn

"stargazer257" wrote in message
...
Max,

You gave a great description of your problem and solution. Too bad
all fixes are not that simple (at least once you figure out what the
problem is!!).

Just thinking here, could the plastic on your adapter's plug (that you
had to file down) have gotten too warm and distorted (i.e.,
"mushroomed") itself? Again, just thinking outloud here...

It's almost 1 year later and I find myself surfing back to this thead
through dumb luck! For those that missed it, my 1st posts in this
thread are key toward fixing this problem on your own... others have
posted and really helped out as well from what I've read.

KK, It worked for almost a whole year and now my replacement powerjack
fryed out on me. I can take it all apart and go through that hastle
again, or I can get a docking station. Being that these powerjacks
from the manufacturer and the replacement powerjack from Ebay lasts
~1 year in my case, I'm going to buy a port replicator / docking
station tomorrow.

So those of you know, either of those are indifferent to your problem
as they both power your laptop through different means, that being
the "docking connector" on the bottom of your laptop.
Docking Stations are more expensive because they have the ability to
harness 1 or 2 pci cards for expansion. So if you just want it to
work w/out losing capacitors like 2 have mentioned, or ripping one of
the fans off like I did (but resoldered it back on) you should
seriously think about getting a Port Replicator. I would be dead
against that suggestion, however... if those jacks still go bad after
replacing them w/ a laptop that's stationary it's not worth the
aggrevation 1ce a year to deal with IMHO.

GG
- Wanzi