news.rcn.com wrote:
Does anyone know how to replace a power supply in an HP Pavilion ZT3380
laptop please?

The power plug seems to be exceptionally loose and if the computer shuts
down, you can occasionally get it turned on again by turning the plug around
in the socket 180 degrees so that something makes contact with something
again. But I don't think this is the whole story.

The computer does work as a desktop but once it did shut down overnight for
no apparent reason and once during use while I was trying to soak-test it
for this very problem. When it shut down overnight, by the morning, when I
turned it on, the orange charge light having presumably been on all night,
it showed 0% charge. Suspicious.

More importantly it shuts down completely if you accidentally jiggle the
plug, not going to battery power at all. In addition, when you start it with
a largely dead battery and then try to plug it in to charge the battery, the
battery doesn't charge at all. It CAN also show an orange charge light
overnight when off and by the morning, show no increase in charge: This
doesn't just seem to be a loose plug!

I upgraded the BIOS and this seemed to improve things for a very short
while, with the new BIOS having a battery calibration utility which worked
once. However, now it wont even charge the System Battery except
excruciatingly slowly. Isn't the system battery something like a
rechargeable CR2025? Which should discharge/charge in a few minutes. When
the battery utility did discharge/recharge the main battery, it did do it in
around a half an hour.

We HAVE tried changing the AC adapter in case the problem was with the
internal wiring of the plug itself and isolated that as not being the issue.

Someone once referred me to a service manual for my Pavilion 5415 which had
a similar problem but I cant now find the reference to it (and replacing the
power supply for the 5415 involved a completely uneconomical taking apart of
the whole computer down virtually to the last screw!). These internal power
supplies do occasionally come up on ebay and sell for a few bucks. possibly
for this reason?

Hopefully the situation wont be the same for the 3880? Though an alarming
number of them seem to come up very cheaply at places like Fry's, -
reconditioned .

(Incidentally it refers to itself on its screen panel as a ZT3000, on its
underside as a ZT3300 and on it serial number plate as a ZT3380US)



Sounds like the power connector is coming loose from the main
motherboard. Not uncommon with a laptop. Especially if it was ever
banged around with the charge cable connected. If it is coming loose it
can cause ALL the problems your seeing. You need to open the machine and
resolder the connections, or replace the power connector itself it it is
damaged.

The connector is not JUST a connector, they usually have a couple of
switches inside as well as the charger circuit having current and
voltage detection as well. With the loose connections you get the
symptoms your seeing. One time the charger works fine and the battery
gets charged, the next the machine is dead because it doesn't get power
from either source. Then you get the

Dell, HP and Toshiba all have had this same problem at one time or another.


--
Steve W.
Near Cooperstown, New York


--
Steve W.
Near Cooperstown, New York
NRA Member
Pacifism - The theory that if they'd fed
Jeffrey Dahmer enough human flesh,
he'd have become a vegan.