How to Fix Laptop Power Jack Without Soldering?
What would you do when you pick up your laptop and it is showing red light due to a low battery? Obviously, you will look for the charger and charge it in order to complete your task.
But wait for a second, why it is not charging? What the hell is wrong with the power jack? Now, what should I do? Just imagine yourself in such situation and these usual questions will arise in your mind.
In this article, our editors have explained in detail the best ways to fix your laptop power jack without soldering. Before going into the details, let me share my story.
I have 2 HP laptops at my home. Once my sister got stuck with the defected power jack issue. Being a student, I was short of money at that time and could not replace or take it to any computer technician.
I have some basic knowledge regarding electronics and I decided to use that in order to serve the issue. My sister got tired of rotating power cable to charge it and insisted to buy a new AC adaptor but as I mentioned earlier, my pocket didn’t allow me to purchase expensive new AC adaptor.
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How to Fix Laptop Power Jack Without Soldering?
I thoroughly searched the internet over this issue and got some valuable information to fix that issue. I visited my friend who works at a local laptop repair shop for guidance. It took me less than one hour to fix the plugs without soldering or any other expensive solution. I am going to share my solution with all of you for your convenience.
Objects or materials required for Fixing Laptop Power Jack
- Generic AC adaptor package with attachments. Make sure all the attachment must be compatible with your laptop in terms of size and relevant factors.
- Some zip ties
- Empty sharpie barrel / Empty highlighter barrel. If the marker is still working, please do not waste it and improvise how you can substitute this part.
- Electrical tape
- Your laptop’s AC tools:
- Solder iron
- Solder
- Wire stripper
- Pliers
- Multimeter
- Hole maker – You can choose between screw & screwdriver combo/nails, hammer & drill combo/laser (as long as it can hold a barrel)
Barrel with 2 holes
Here you might think about why we need a barrel. Well, it is not necessary but to hide soldering wires with tape on it because aesthetically the cluster of wires will not look decent at all.
Steps to prepare the barrel
- Remove the tip of the marker as well as the ink holder part of it
- Prepare a hole on the other side of the barrel and you are done with the marker barrel for now.
Cut the Laptop Cord
Now we have to move on to prepping the cord.
Generic AC Adapter
1. First of all, cut the cord to the required length. Make sure to leave enough length of cord so you could solder it to the original laptop cord. In my case, I left a little bit extra wire on the plug (so that it goes to the outer side) because I might need the adapter and reuse it in the future.
2. Insert the cord in the barrel that you have prepared earlier in the process.
3. Strip the wires to expose them
Laptop AC Adapter
1. Cut the loose plug that needs to be replaced
2 Insert the cord in the tip part of the marker barrel.
3. Strip the wires to expose them to be used
Join the laptop cords for fixing power jack
Now we have come to the point where we have to join the 2 cords
In my case, I did a little bit of checking in this step. Using a multimeter, I made sure that I am connecting the right wires.
Follow the steps mentioned below:
1. Check the AC adapter and it should show a sketch there what the polarity is. The outer conductor of the plug must be negative and the core of the plug must be positive.
2. With proper care, plug in your laptop’s AC adapter making sure that the exposed wires must not touch. Check which wire is positive and which is negative and note them.
3. Now, take your generic plug and check which wire is connected to the outer conductor of plug and which is connected to inner. Make sure you must note this factor.
4. Have a look at your notes and match which wires connect to what.
5. Start soldering the inner part of the wire.
6. Cover the first soldered connection with the help of electrical tape.
7. After that solder the last pair of wires. Protect them by wrapping electrical tape on it.
Sealing the Barrel
First of all, before sealing the barrel, I made sure that the connections were protected. For that purpose, I added zip ties on both ends of the soldered sections. The reason behind that is if someone pulls it by chance, zip ties will prevent the wires from disconnecting. So with zip ties in place, the barrel got sealed.
Just by following above simple solution steps, you will get you AC power jack fixed without taking any sort of risk and without much use of complex soldering process. Sometimes, power jack issue causes due to a faulty battery, but in reality, it is really a broken pin on the power jack, a broken wire in the adaptor plug, or a faulty adaptor wire.
Sometimes, not only the pins break, but the copper track that is placed on the motherboard breaks too. It might come off the PCB and then break. In such cases, I remove the protective layer of the PCB in order to expose the copper for proper soldering.
Make an extension with the help of a short piece of wire and join the two tracks together. Sometimes, it is not possible to restore the track near the power jack, so I connect the track on the PCB to the pin of the power jack where it was originally connected. In most of the cases, this is the central pin.
To make the pins strong and prevent them from future breaks, I use any good quality adhesive compound or another strong glue that can adhere to plastic and metal together.
The power adaptor plug can also break, or the wires inside the plug may break too. In this case, there is no other solution than to change the power adaptor. It is possible to join a replacement plug on the wire, but it is quite difficult to find the correct plug that fits with the wire.
I am quite hopeful that above-mentioned tips and solution steps will definitely help you in many ways. I struggled a lot in order to find answers to my questions when I got stuck in this particular issue for the first time.
However, after reading my article, you will be able to fix your issue with minor soldering and in cheap price. Thanks for your time to read my article and have a nice day!
Team – Whatlaptops.com
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