- Can this be repaired?
- Posted by JM on May 12th, 2007
I've got a Dell Inspiron 5160 that quit taking a charge or running off the
power supply. Turned out to be a broken DC jack, which we replaced. After
that all seemed well. The laptop took a charge and ran well for 2-3 weeks.
Then the battery ran down and the laptop started acting as if the power
supply was not plugged in. Neither the power light nor the charge light
comes on when the power supply is attached.
We changed out the DC jack again, thinking perhaps I'd gotten a lousy jack.
However, this did not fix it. The thing is, the laptop runs perfectly on a
charged battery from another laptop. It simply will not function off power
supply power, and of course the battery will not charge.
Is this something that can be repaired at a reasonable cost?
[FWIW, I operate a network services company that does some desktop and
laptop repair. We have an arrangement with a technical repair facility
nearby who takes care of our board-level repairs. These guys are very good,
and they work on all sorts of electronics. I do not believe the problem
with the laptop is related to their work. They've repaired many laptops for
us, and they are very competent. Also, they've triple-checked the
continuity across the jack, although I do not think they have done any
troubleshooting further into the circuitry with the power supply attached.
Their focus is not laptops or computer motherboards]
Thank you,
jm
- Posted by paulmd@efn.org on May 12th, 2007
On May 11, 10:14 pm, "JM" <jakem38671omitt...@yahoo.com> wrote:
Such a repair may be done once, or even twice, but i think that you
already gave it a chance to live, and it won't cooperate. It's only
hope is a motherboard replacement, but I'm not sure it's economical.
- Posted by budgie on May 12th, 2007
On Sat, 12 May 2007 00:14:11 -0500, "JM" <jakem38671omitthis@yahoo.com> wrote:
Have you tried another PSU?
- Posted by JM on May 15th, 2007
"budgie" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:3jka43dd5ba1nhg4sp6mqh627va6licl33@4ax.com...
Yes. In fact, I've tried two others.
jm
- Posted by budgie on May 16th, 2007
On Tue, 15 May 2007 15:53:37 -0500, "JM" <jake@yahoo.com> wrote:
OK just removing the other suspect ....
- Posted by paulmd@efn.org on May 16th, 2007
On May 15, 1:53 pm, "JM" <j...@yahoo.com> wrote:
Scrap it for parts (besides the motherboard). I think It's dead.
- Posted by JM on May 16th, 2007
<paulmd@efn.org> wrote in message
news:1179294242.915444.170280@y80g2000hsf.googlegr oups.com...
I'm afraid you're right. I just wish I knew where it was breaking down,
because I don't think this is the last time I'll see this.
jm
- Posted by paulmd@efn.org on May 16th, 2007
On May 16, 8:43 am, "JM" <j...@yahoo.com> wrote:
It still COULD be the power jack. Sometimes a partially broken jack
can spark, and long term can oxidize the solder, making it a poor
conductor, or alternately start to damage other components. Which
requires a hotter iron to break the oxidizing layer, of course the
extra heat can cause problems of it's own.
Except, I think that your repairmen would have been there and done
that already.
- Posted by Rivergoat on May 21st, 2007
On 15 May 2007 22:44:02 -0700, "paulmd@efn.org" <paulmd@efn.org>
wrote:
Not necessarily. Similar thing happened to my Inspiron 8200. It was a
bad DC control board, a daughterboard, not on the mobo itself. A $35
replacement and it was fine. I did the repair myself, quite easy, just
download the disassembly/service docs from Dell and anyone can do it!
