I have a perfectly good Asus K501 sitting in a drawer. It can't be powered up because the power jack at the back has come loose inside. For a while we could get it to work by wiggling the cord from the power supply but now it's dead.

I've researched online, and apparently this is a fairly common problem with an easy fix: you either resolder the jack onto the circuit board, or replace it.

But you have to disassemble the entire laptop, everything else comes out before you can get to that jack, and I'm not confident I can do that job and have it work when I'm done. I've watched it on youtube, and it doesn't look easy at all. It's cheaper to buy a new laptop than pay somebody to fix that one.

But i just had a thought. The battery pops out, and there is a 9 pin (well, not pin, blade I guess you'd call them) connector where it makes contact. Can I just run the laptop tethered from that connector, using the original power supply? It's rarely on batter power anyway. Can I buy that connector, or maybe individual female blade sockets? How do I find the pinout for the blades? It seems likely to me that 3 are power and ground to the PC, 2 are charging leads for the battery, and the rest maybe monitor state of charge or something.

On 10/08/2014 20:07, Tim R wrote:
I have a perfectly good Asus K501 sitting in a drawer. It can't be powered up because the power jack at the back has come loose inside. For a while we could get it to work by wiggling the cord from the power supply but now it's dead.

I've researched online, and apparently this is a fairly common problem with an easy fix: you either resolder the jack onto the circuit board, or replace it.

But you have to disassemble the entire laptop, everything else comes out before you can get to that jack, and I'm not confident I can do that job and have it work when I'm done. I've watched it on youtube, and it doesn't look easy at all. It's cheaper to buy a new laptop than pay somebody to fix that one.

But i just had a thought. The battery pops out, and there is a 9 pin (well, not pin, blade I guess you'd call them) connector where it makes contact. Can I just run the laptop tethered from that connector, using the original power supply? It's rarely on batter power anyway. Can I buy that connector, or maybe individual female blade sockets? How do I find the pinout for the blades? It seems likely to me that 3 are power and ground to the PC, 2 are charging leads for the battery, and the rest maybe monitor state of charge or something.


Get a felt tip pen and a camera and mark subparts and take pics at all
disassembly stages, and separate containers for subparts and screws,
while following the video.

IF... if, if, if... ALL that's required is resoldering the jack... I can't
imagine why the repair would be horribly expensive.

On Sunday, August 10, 2014 4:40:38 PM UTC-4, William Sommerwerck wrote:
IF... if, if, if... ALL that's required is resoldering the jack... I can't

imagine why the repair would be horribly expensive.

Because it takes 3 hours to get it apart far enough to even see the jack.

3 hours of shop labor at $85 per will run an appreciable fraction of a new laptop

On 8/10/2014 4:10 PM, Tim R wrote:
On Sunday, August 10, 2014 4:40:38 PM UTC-4, William Sommerwerck wrote:
IF... if, if, if... ALL that's required is resoldering the jack... I can't

imagine why the repair would be horribly expensive.

Because it takes 3 hours to get it apart far enough to even see the jack.

3 hours of shop labor at $85 per will run an appreciable fraction of a new laptop


Show us the page or URL of a video, I don't see how it could even take
30 minutes to disassemble. I've had my Toshiba all apart, to fix the
jack, didn't take that long. Yours could be an outlier.
Mikek

---
This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active.
http://www.avast.com

On 8/10/2014 4:10 PM, Tim R wrote:
On Sunday, August 10, 2014 4:40:38 PM UTC-4, William Sommerwerck wrote:
IF... if, if, if... ALL that's required is resoldering the jack... I can't

imagine why the repair would be horribly expensive.

Because it takes 3 hours to get it apart far enough to even see the jack.

3 hours of shop labor at $85 per will run an appreciable fraction of a new laptop


I just watched this video, disassembly is pretty involved, but I think
at 15:11 he pulls the board with the power connector.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtkEm7XXNjo

Mikek


---
This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active.
http://www.avast.com

I'll bet you any shop will charge $200 just to look at it.

Okay, I have another way to ask the question.

Suppose I man up and take the darned thing apart. It's been on my list of projects for a while, but it's been low on the list because of the obvious frustration factor. I hate plumbing but at least I can cut a hole in the wall and replace drywall later if I really have to.

And suppose it doesn't work. I get it all back together, but something's fried in the AC power circuit in the process

It would be nice to have a backup plan, run some DC in through the battery connector. It's my daughter's old school laptop, and I seem to remember the battery wasn't holding much charge anyway.

It probably isn't as simple as just putting jolts on V and Gnd, right? The laptop probably has some circuitry to check battery state before turning on?

I've done a bunch of googling and not found anyone who's succeeded at powering the laptop through the battery port. (but also a bunch of people who tried repairing the jack and couldn't get it out without ruining the board)

On 8/10/2014 4:41 PM, Tim R wrote:
I'll bet you any shop will charge $200 just to look at it.

Okay, I have another way to ask the question.

Suppose I man up and take the darned thing apart. It's been on my list of projects for a while, but it's been low on the list because of the obvious frustration factor. I hate plumbing but at least I can cut a hole in the wall and replace drywall later if I really have to.

And suppose it doesn't work. I get it all back together, but something's fried in the AC power circuit in the process

It would be nice to have a backup plan, run some DC in through the battery connector. It's my daughter's old school laptop, and I seem to remember the battery wasn't holding much charge anyway.

It probably isn't as simple as just putting jolts on V and Gnd, right? The laptop probably has some circuitry to check battery state before turning on?

I've done a bunch of googling and not found anyone who's succeeded at powering the laptop through the battery port. (but also a bunch of people who tried repairing the jack and couldn't get it out without ruining the board)


I don't know. The batteries have several pins, I'm not sure what they
all do. If I found two pins that measured 12.6 volts between them, and
ONLY TWO PINS, I would feel comfortable feeding 12.6 volts into the
mates on the laptop. I'm not confident you will only find only two pins
on the battery that have voltage.
If I had it and the battery was not good, I'd tear it apart and see
what pins were the correct ones. Might even be able to do that non
destructively.
Good Luck, Mikek

---
This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active.
http://www.avast.com

On Sun, 10 Aug 2014 14:10:02 -0700 (PDT), Tim R
wrote:

On Sunday, August 10, 2014 4:40:38 PM UTC-4, William Sommerwerck wrote:
IF... if, if, if... ALL that's required is resoldering the jack... I can't
imagine why the repair would be horribly expensive.

Because it takes 3 hours to get it apart far enough to even see the jack.
3 hours of shop labor at $85 per will run an appreciable fraction of a new laptop

I do power jack repairs and replacements quite regularly. For
example:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/HP-laptop/

The time it takes is usually a function of how much damage was done to
the PCB, whether I have the correct jack in stock, and whether I need
to remove the motherboard to replace the jack. For power jacks with
connectorized pigtails (some HP and Compaq), I can be in and out in
about 45 minutes. For laptops with a zillion screws securing the
motherboard, about 2 hrs. Shop rate is $75/hr and I typically quote
$80 to $160 for the job, which includes cleaning out the crud, fan
lube, keyboard cleaning, and quicky charger/charging test.
Incidentally, I find a substantial number of bad power supply cords
and connectors, so don't assume that it's the jack without first
trying a different power supply.

Hint: Take a photo of the PCB, print it, put it over a sheet of
styrofoam, and shove the screws through the page in their original
locations. That way, you don't forget to reinstall any screws or put
the wrong length screw in the wrong hole.

As for "an appreciable fraction of a new laptop", I'm curious as to
what percentage of the cost of a new laptop you would be willing to
pay for a repair?

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Sunday, August 10, 2014 11:29:17 PM UTC-4, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
Hint: Take a photo of the PCB, print it, put it over a sheet of

styrofoam, and shove the screws through the page in their original

locations. That way, you don't forget to reinstall any screws or put

the wrong length screw in the wrong hole.



As for "an appreciable fraction of a new laptop", I'm curious as to

what percentage of the cost of a new laptop you would be willing to

pay for a repair?



Thanks, very helpful. I've been trying to think of a good way to remember where the screws go. Neat trick.

The cost is a good question. I'm still using a laptop (not this one!) I paid $1,000 for ten years ago. It has a wonky fan and I'm backing up files waiting for it to die. The local shop quoted me $200 to fix it, which is 20% of the purchase price, but a new laptop that is faster and better in every way would run me $300, or a refurb would be $179.

I think the break point is not a percentage but an amount. $80 I would pay, $100 is a maybe, $120 is definitely no.

Having done a fair number of these repairs, I can say that the majority of the time spent is to dis-assemble and re-assemble the unit. I have only had to replace a few connectors. In most cases, the solder joints have failed because of mechanical abuse NOT because of poor solder. The jacks often don't have sufficient support to prevent flexing of the solder joint. My own Toshiba unit suffered from a similar fate. A little expoxy around the connector to support it better and I have not had a recurrance in 4 years.

Use the advise above to keep track of the dis-assembly process and you shouldbe able to fix this yourself.

Dan

On Mon, 11 Aug 2014 06:02:40 -0700 (PDT), Tim R
wrote:

On Sunday, August 10, 2014 11:29:17 PM UTC-4, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
As for "an appreciable fraction of a new laptop", I'm curious as to
what percentage of the cost of a new laptop you would be willing to
pay for a repair?

The cost is a good question. I'm still using a laptop (not this one!)
I paid $1,000 for ten years ago. It has a wonky fan and I'm backing
up files waiting for it to die.

Until just recently, I was running a Xenix server that's been running
since about 1993. I got tired of waiting for it to die, so I pulled
the plug.

The local shop quoted me $200 to fix it, which is 20% of the purchase
price, but a new laptop that is faster and better in every way would
run me $300, or a refurb would be $179.

Thanks. 20% of the purchase price is not what I'm looking for. I'm
curious about the repair cost percentage of the replacement price.
$200 / $300 = 67%
which is far too expensive. If you can find a $300 replacement
laptop, I would certainly replace instead of repair.

However, if you're looking for a Windoze 8.1 machine, I don't believe
you can buy anything decent (i.e. i3 CPU or better) for less than
$400. If you want a screen that you can see, which means 1920x1080, I
would guess about $500 minimum. Since laptops don't come with built
in CD/DVD drives any more, add another $40. (Add about $150 for MS
Office 2013 Home and Student). Ignoring MS Office, taxes, Geek Squad,
time to reinstall, and some extras, my guess is a shiny new Win 8.1
laptop will set you back about $450 minimum.
$200 / $450 = 44%
So, what percentage of the REPLACEMENT cost would you be willing to
repair the laptop rather than replace it?

I think the break point is not a percentage but an amount. $80 I
would pay, $100 is a maybe, $120 is definitely no.

$80 / $450 = 18%
$100 / $450 = 22%
$120 / $450 = 27%
I usually use 25% as my fix/replace break point, which puts the jack
replacement as marginal. I just wanted to confirm my pricing. The
$75/hr shop rate allegedly includes any warranty and failure to fix
costs. At 25%, I guess the decision should be by whether the laptop
is worth fixing. If it's a single core CPU or older, forget it. If
it's a dual core or later, then it might be a worthwhile repair.

Incidentally, for the laptop tightwads, the $130 laptop:
http://www.groupon.com/deals/gg-acer-116-chromebook-with-14ghz-dual-core-processor
I have several and they run Ubuntu 12.04LTS quite fast and fairly
nicely.


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On 10/08/14 20:07, Tim R wrote:
I have a perfectly good Asus K501 sitting in a drawer. It can't be
powered up because the power jack at the back has come loose inside.
For a while we could get it to work by wiggling the cord from the
power supply but now it's dead.

I've researched online, and apparently this is a fairly common
problem with an easy fix: you either resolder the jack onto the
circuit board, or replace it.

But you have to disassemble the entire laptop, everything else comes
out before you can get to that jack, and I'm not confident I can do
that job and have it work when I'm done. I've watched it on youtube,
and it doesn't look easy at all. It's cheaper to buy a new laptop
than pay somebody to fix that one.


OK do that.

P.S. Can you leave your old laptop carefully bagged by the trash can.
I'd wanna pick it up later...



Seriously, your local district is probably growing with smart kids that
are yearning for a challenge that might teach them something more than
you are willing to give yourself the experience. Maybe two heads better
than one, and yes there is youtube....

Not impressed. I'd expect this of a woman. Man up :-(

--
Adrian C