Greetings,

when the DC jack on my Sony Vaio FXA32 broke, I got the motherboard out
and soldered in a new jack. Put the MB back into the case, plugged it
in, attached the LCD, and it POSTed. Happily I re-assembled the laptop,
only to find that in order for the adapter to power the laptop, I had
to push it in and hold it tight. After a while that stopped working,
too.

The unit runs fine off the battery, so I haven't fried anything. But
how do I find out what the problem is now? Is it the replacement jack,
or the way it's been soldered in? It looked fairly straightforward, and
the fix did work the first time...

Thanks,

Yisroel

In article <1121872115.222144.148410@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups .com>,
<ey.markov@iname.com> wrote:
Sure you got the right type? I've come across ones with the same OD to the
plug - say 2.1mm - but the centre pin ain't the same size on both. Might
be worth getting a plug from the same source and changing that too.

Hate the things. ;-)

--
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Dave Plowman dave@davenoise.co.uk London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

It also might be just a shade shorter or something and you are working the
plug against the case to get it in far enough.

WT

<ey.markov@iname.com> wrote in message
news:1121872115.222144.148410@g49g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...

ey.markov@iname.com wrote:
I don't have any experience with that exact model.

But plugs rarely break. What breaks is the connection to the board.
You may still have cracked traces that disconnect when flexed.
Did you use the EXACT replacement part from sony.
Slightly different inner/outer diameters can cause what you experience.
Are you sure the problem wasn't in the plug end? Plugs get more flex
and the wire tends to break right at the end of the strain relief.
mike

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ey.markov@iname.com wrote:
in your laptop contains many layers. Each has it's own traces (conductors).
Think of a regular double-sided circuit board (conductors on each
side)...then imagine two or three of them sandwiched together, with some
components (like the power jack) needing to be connected to traces on more
than one layer. It's sometimes a little more difficult than soldering just
the conductors you can see, although, ideally each such hole should be
'plated through'; meaning the inside of the hole has it's own layer of
copper and connects to each layer.

You might have missed one layer, and when you hold the plug 'just so' it
makes mechanical contact.

jak

jakdedert wrote:
Many thanks to those who responded.

Dave and Wayne, I checked the prongs on the jack with the AC adapter
plugged in. It does supply the voltage, so the jack *is* compatible
with the adapter. (I should've done this first.)

Mike, it *was* the jack that broke - the plastic receptacle for the
center pin just disintegrated into shards.

This sounds like the most likely culprit. The ends of the prongs that
stick through the board I have soldered solid, but that doesn't mean
that there's contact inside the board. Damn. Guess I'll have to get the
thing out and try to plate the insides of the holes with solder or
something. Oh well...

Yisroel

ey.markov@iname.com wrote:
<snip>
I only put it out there as one likely culprit along with the suggestions of
the other repliers; but it's worth investigating.

jak

Use a MultiMeter to ring it out before you put it all back together. Another
thing to watch out for is you accidentally heated up a component near by and
made it loosen up. Been there and done that.

Dewaine

jakdedert wrote: