"Quaoar" wrote in message
...
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)


The power jack on the notebook has separated from the mainboard. This is not
unusual for HP notebooks. The jack simply cannot withstand the forces of
insertion and removal of the AC power plug.

If you are skilled with a soldering iron, there is a good chance that you can
figure out a way to either re-solder the power jack to the mainboard, or
solder a pigtail to the mainboard input power traces to move the AC adapter
jack outside of the case.

Otherwise, it is a mainboard (or sub-board for the jack) replacement, and good
luck working with HP on that!

Q


Take a look at HP's customer service area, especially to
http://search.hp.com/query.html?lang...e+manual&la=en
A mfr will build several models from the same basic computer chassis, putting in
a variety of features in an effort to extract more from your checking account.
The same service manual can apply to several different models. Look at the list
of manuals on that page and see if any fits your computer.
You'll likely find that the DC coaxial power connector has broken from the
mother board. The fix for this type of problem is usually limited to
replacement of the connector. These connectors are usually priced from around
$1 to $10 USD. The price of having a computer shop replace the connector can be
in the neighborhood of $100 to $200 USD. That's because of the labor involved
in disassembling the computer, replacing the connector, and then reassembling.
The service manual will give you the disassembly and reassembly instructions,
but if you don't have the necessary soldering equipment and skills, you can
easily destroy the motherboard. The choice is yours...

Cheers!!!
--
Dave M
MasonDG44 at comcast dot net (Just substitute the appropriate characters in the
address)

"In theory, there isn't any difference between theory and practice. In
practice, there is." - Yogi Berra