Re: HP Pavilion Laptop Owners with Bad Power Jacks....
- From: no@xxxxxxxxxxxx (HPGoat)
- Date: Fri, 03 Feb 2006 07:30:09 GMT
Just another Happy HP customer?s story about a
Jack.
I read this forum a couple of months back since I have the same
problem.
I finally decided to give my two cents on the issue for a couple of
reasons: All of the post here are of a cordial manner and although
this is a frustrating problem no one has posted in an antagonistic
manner. Second, since telling HP anything seems to go nowhere, at the
least, I can get a bit of ease by posting my experience with the power
jack dilemma.
For the person who suggested this is caused by improper handling of
the laptop and created by owner neglect. I also respectively totally
disagree. My HP Pavillion Zx5060 was purchased solely for use as a
backup system for data files and for use with my HP dig camera and
Photo printer. Since HP's driver software cannot be installed without
the installation of other unwanted software (mostly their Share to web
software which in my opinion is vulnerable to security issues)
I purchased a HP laptop to keep all HP software off my other systems.
In addition to several Desktop systems I have I also own two other
laptops for travel both of which do not have this issue with the
power jack and are not HP laptops. The HP PavZx was bought, plugged
in, networked, and given a nice comfortable spot next to the HP photo
printer on a clean non cluttered desk. From the time of purchase it
was placed there and has not been moved. The only time the power
cable was even unplugged was when the desk needed dusting and the
laptop was moved in order to clean the area behind it. The laptop was
never dropped or handled improperly. Even when unplugged for the
weekly cleaning task the power cord ,which was routed thru the desk
grommet was left in place and gently plugged back in to the laptop
after the dust was removed. If HP considers this to be improper
handling of a laptop then I have a major problem with that since I
can't think of any use that could have been less destructive then the
way in which the PavZx was used by me.
For ten months everything was fine, however this was not to last,
without any real evidence of a problem suddenly one morning the
laptop would power up just long enough to issue a low battery warning
and then power down. Like many others I assumed the battery had failed
or lost its memory, since I was not in any real need of the unit at
the time I put off worrying about it until a few weeks later. I read
thru the owners? manual and found that the unit should work just fine
by the AC power even without a battery. I then incorrectly assumed my
power adapter had failed and once again put off dealing with it until
I had the time to test the adapter with a meter. A couple of weekends
later I delved into the diagnosis. I found the adapter was not
malfunctioning and delivering the correct voltage. At my wits end I
called a friend who I knew owned a similar HP laptop and asked if he
would mind me borrowing it. Again a few weeks went by until my friend
came by. The first test was to swap batteries. My battery began to
charge immediately in his Zx and my laptop powered up just fine with
the fully charged battery of his. We then took both batteries out and
tested the adapters, his Zx powered up with my adapter however mine
did not power up with his. This is when I realized the problem must
be in the jack or somewhere along the power transfer to the
motherboard from the adapter.
So of course I called HP's tech support, (yes, my warrantee had just
expired due to my procrastination) HP support was a joke, they wanted
me to purchase a new motherboard at a price we all know is excessive.
I informed tech support that this is absurd since obviously the
laptop works fine when I place a charged battery in it, why would the
motherboard need to be replaced? Yes, we all know the answer, (they
have no repair support and simply replace the motherboard for every
issue) for them I understand they have plenty more motherboards then
time. For me however given the cost this made no sense. And so I got
on the net and found this forum, (it was around 6 or so pages at that
point) I thought about using Ken and I thought about the secondary
power port or the use of a dock. But being rather handy with
electronics and smarter then the average bear I decided to give a go
at it myself.
First of all, Ten minutes to tear an HP down is a gross underestimate.
Maybe for someone who has torn one down enough to get fast at it, but
for the average person who attempts this for the first time be
prepared to give up a weekend to this endeavor? Yet I took my time
and found all the hidden screws and with great care to not disconnect
any mini ribbon cables finally got to the motherboard. And there it
was, it all its cheapo part glory: The POWER JACK, Now power jacks in
general are a very inexpensive part, even a gold plated heavy duty
jack certainly wont break anyone?s bank, For HP who's cost at the
amount of units they purchased the jack could not have been more than
a dollar each, WHY ON EARTH would they use a jack of such low quality
in order to save mere pennies per unit on a laptop they sell for more
then two thousand dollars!!!! The greed and incompetence of this is
bewildering. To add insult to injury not only do they deny this
faulty cheap jack is any cause of a problem they proclaim the
customer to be at fault for having the impudence to plug and unplug
it more than once and thus handling the unit improperly. The nerve of
HP in regards to this is once again astounding. My solution was
simple, I simply soldered a glob of solder onto the spring pin, which
increased its size and once again made contact with the barrel of the
power plug. Of course I knew it would not last, since heat would
eventually wear the solder down or cause it to break, but it worked
and didn?t cost anything other then my time. (Which isn?t cheap)
Since I knew the unit would not be moved I figured it would last for
awhile. I was correct the unit continued flawlessly to both power up
and charge the battery for quite a while longer then expected.
Yesterday, it finally failed. I came here to get Ken?s information
since although my solution worked it really is not the ideal way to
repair this. I also have no desire to tear the laptop down again
since HP seems to enjoy building their laptops to insure great
difficulty for the layman to facilitate any self repairs. It seems
Ken has a good solution and after reading others report back their
satisfaction with the repair and the low cost of his service I too
will be sending HP?s mess to Ken.
P.s. Ken, in typical self repair fashion, when I was done putting it
back together I found I had a couple of screws left over!!
':paranoid:'
LOL!!!
It doesn?t seem to effect anything but if you find where they went
then, what the heck, throw them back in for me. ':rolleyes:'
Dave D.
.
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