Can anyone give me recommendations in this regard? I have a Fujitsu C-Series notebook with a broken AC power tip (i.e. the small metal tip that you plug the power cord coming from the wall into). I tried Bestbuy but they will have to ship it off to Cali. I will prefer a local (Houston) specialist to take a look at it. I can attempt to do it myself but I have never done any work on notebooks (hardware related) before now - I work on mostly destops......but I digress. Any tips will surely be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
I had the same problem with a Sony Vaio that I had (biggest POS computer I've ever bought). Anyway, I took the casing off and found the soldered connections between the board and power plug were loose ....I ended up re-soldering the connections and actually put a little super glue on the black plug housing to make sure it wouldn't move and break the solders.
My Gateway notebook also had this happen, it's just finding the jack on eBay and getting the motherboard out to resolder it.
SwoLy.. I think you and I are the only ones here that think that skit is funny.. "OH BY THE WAY.. YOU"RE WELCOME!!"
Codell and Azadre, I am afraid that something might go wrong if I open it. What are the risks involve in working on it myself? I don't even have soldering tools. So is it fair easy to open and close with messing something up?
I had the same problem on my fujitsu S series. I brought to a place in NYC with horrible service, and they ended up breaking my laptop more AND forgetting to put the screws back in, which is utterly r****ded. this entire affair took three weeks. They also killed my battery and I had to get a new one. all this cost me $177 to "fix" the power tip. Luckily, Fujitsu was nice enough to repair everything for me and get me a new battery, despite that I am a year over the warranty. I would either bring it to a place you trust, or ship it direct to fujitsu, their service is great and they don't screw things up, unlike repair shops which are becoming closer to car repairshops than anything else.
I went through this before and someone recommended Micro Center. They had the cheapest "diagnostic fee" of i think $95. But all of these places are going to ship it off. Then it was like a $350 flat rate to repair (even though they still didnt know what was wrong with it). In my case it was a good deal because my motherboard went bad, and the laptop was only about 15 months old. LESSONS LEARNED: Always buy extended warranty on portable electronics!!!
It was EASY to open and such, but removing the motherboard was scary, those things snap easy. I would also recommend a solder vacuum/wick combo for desoldering a 15watt gun. But really it is easy. The solder holes are much bigger than the rest of the components so you souldn't screw up. I did it myself because Gateway wanted $1,000 to fix it. If there is any damage to the bottom chassis, get a new one off eBay. I went through 2 solder jobs, 3 jacks, and 2 chassis because I was lazy in my soldering. Good luck.
Vic's computer service. 8125 WestGlen. 713-798-1888. www.vicscanfix.com They repaired my wife's compaq presario (POS) -replaced the motherboard fairly reasonably. The computer was good for 2 more years until I gave it away....I liked the service and would use them again.
This is also a common problem with compaq. I think it's just something many laptops have a problem with.
I just got a new HP laptop to replace my Toshiba that gots broken during service. I like the new way the ac adapter part is on them. They are no longer the standard round one that could break or get loose. It's basically looks like a bigger USB port or something of that nature. Much more sturdy and doesn't wobble around and get loose.
Depending on how old the laptop is...i would seriously just recommend a dnew one..they will charge you an arm and a leg for that.
v3.0, You can find LCD screens for your model on Ebay for a decent price and they aren 't hard to install if you are somewhat computer inclined.
I have the same problem, DC jack is loose, for my Sony VAIO Notebook. I live in San Diego, so I took it down to Sony during lunch and they wanted $250 to fix it -- it's not under warranty anymore. It's a 2001 PCG FX210 -- The computer not even worth $250. Tempted to work on it myself, never done it before, sort of timid about it. Is there a website that can show me how to do it? Fegwu -- any update on your computer issue?
