Laptops Not Recognizing the Power Cord
 

I now have two HP laptops (both 4+ years old) that more or less do not recognize that they are plugged in and eventually the battery discharges even though they are plugged in. My college aged daughter's laptop did this first, and was still just under its extended warranty, so HP replaced the motherboard.
But a year later, it did the same thing. So of course, I blame my kid and the way she treats her laptop!

Then I find out this is a common problem and not just with HP. And many times, the laptop jack can be repaired without replacing the motherboard just by repairing the electrical connections.

How many of you have experienced this issue where your laptop failed to recognize that it was plugged into AC power? And what was the remedy?

If you google the make and model of your laptop and power jack you will find thousands of places who will attempt to replace the power connector for you. Depends on the laptop as to how easy it is to do, some it's just two or three solder connections that are real easy to reach, others not so much.

It's very common on some models of Dell. There are also companies out there that make battery chargers that charge the battery directly, not on the laptop, for those who choose not to repair it.

I don't believe any of the major manfg's support jack replacement, they all require a motherboard swap. When mine died (it was a dell) and I couldn't jiggle and tape it anymore to get it to charge, I lucked out and found a replacement motherboard for not too much money on e-bay, and I just swapped out the motherboard. The solder joints were cold soldered and they had cracked over time and stress.

If you are fairly handy and talented with a soldering iron you can buy a new jack and put it in.

I believe when I was looking at the places that repair it the standard prices were between $85 and $125 plus $5 for the jack, based on which model you had. I can solder, but on mine there was way too much stuff around it for me to attempt to do that level of repair.

It's a very common thing, don't blame her unless she abuses it.

Yeah, I know how to use a soldering iron and even have one around here somewhere. I wouldn't dream of trying it on a computer, though!

on a side note, getting a laptop to last 4 years is a feat on its own.

depending on what you are looking to spend a new laptop might be another option.

If it's broken, what do you have to lose? I have surprised myself many times after soldering in a new capacitor or reattaching an audio jack.

If the only other option is tossing it, you're right. But places that make such repairs have already been mentioned in this thread.

Really? Then my 6 year old Dell Inspiron 8200 deserves an awzrd?

Most IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads have detached power jacks with a plugged in pigtail to guard against the daily minute movement of plugging and unplugging of the power plug. Nevertheless some jacks still fail.

If your HP is made like that then it is pretty easy to replace the jack. If these HP power jacks are soldered on the motherboard; then as said before in this thread, reflow the solder is pretty easy.

Nevertheless you will need to disassemble the PC to get to it.