Damn laptop power problems
So my Compaq Presario is experiencing some power issues. In a nutshell, it won’t accept power from the main power cord. The light doesn’t go on indicating that it’s charging, and since the battery won’t charge it’s basically unusable.
I know the problem isn’t with the battery, because with some fiddling I used to be able to get the power light to go on, and the battery would charge completely. The “sensitivity” of the power cable (and the need to wiggle it) has gotten worse over time, and as of last night it simply stopped accepting a charge.
The jack that the power cord plugs into is a bit wobbly, and makes me wonder if something inside snapped or something. Which would stink, as I don’t have a clue how much that will cost.
Before I take it to a shop for repair, though, I thought I’d see about buying a port replicator, which (to my knowledge) powers the machine and charges the battery through the bottom of the laptop. This would work fine for my needs, and save me the trouble of repairs. If this approach works.
Which leads me to my next thought. Maybe it’s time for a new laptop. I’ve been thinking about getting a powerbook and making the “switch” to a mac… would love to hear the pros and the cons from you people…
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I’ve read less good things about Apple’s investment into quality hardware lately, but I can’t elaborate as to who wrote what.
I just discovered this thread on the compaq 2100. Apparently lots of people have had this problem.
[…] As mentioned previously, I have been having some problems with my Compaq Presario 2100 laptop’s power supply lately. The problem was that when I plugged in a power source into the back of my laptop, my laptop wouldn’t recognize that a power source was plugged in. As a result, the light in the front wouldn’t go on, and the batteries wouldn’t charge. […]
Help, I have a dell inspiron 5100 as soon as i turn it on, the fan starts the lights flash then it goes off. according to the manual the battery is fin, it states that if the battery light stays green, the battery is charged. I can take the battery out, and turn it on with the power cord plugged in and it does the same…I think its something else. Please Help. a couple of weeks i got several blue screens stating that i had win32 system problems with a driver….any ideas? or should i just trash this machine and invest in a new one…would rather fix this one if possible…..starving college student here…..Thanks in Advance
I’ve had two external power supplies go bad with my Compaq Presario 2100 laptop. In both instances the wires gradually break next to the body of the supply. This eventually leads to a breakdown of the supply. Note that my 2100 is less than 2 years old and is used for a few hours at most each day. My power supply finally died completely last night and nothing I tried could make it work. In turn, I bought an 18 VDC power supply from a local electronics parts shop for $15 today. It has the same connector and polarity but is .5 VDC lower than the original supply. It works perfectly, though. I like my 2100, but have real issues with their rotten power supplies and several letters on the keyboard that are rapidly wearing off.
A technical observation.
The Compaq 2100 external power supply has a black and a white wire within that leads to the external power line that connects into the computer. Both wires are shielded within the power supply. Outside of the supply, though, the black wire no longer has black plastic shielding and runs as a bare stranded wire alongside the white wire. When the white wire become frayed near the base of the power supply through use, the frayed white wire and the black unshielded wire short out the power supply, thus causing voltage levels to initially drop and become sporadic, which eventually causes the power supply to fail. This is a design flaw that my new $15 18 VDC supply does not have. In my replacement supply, all wires are well protected.
The $15 external power supply that I bought is not powerful enough. I’ve asked my parts supplier to search for another supply that will deliver the same amperage as the original. For your info, the HP/Compaq Presario 2100 external power supply is supposed to deliver 18.5 VDC at a max of 4.9 amps. In trying to keep their supply really tiny while designing it to deliver a lot of power, they cut a few corners. Not shielding the black lead was a major act of stupidity that leads to overheating of the power supply when it starts to short through to destruction of the supply after the short becomes complete. I’ll post particulars when I get my new external supply.
My parts supplier was unable to find a replacement power supply that would suffice. In turn, I broke down and ordered a replacement supply from HP. It should arrive within the next week if history if any indication. When it does I’ll ship it back for a refund because there is nothing wrong with my existing power supply or the previous one that died in California last year. The only thing wrong with both supplies is faulty external wiring!
As stated earlier, HP/Compaq made a major mistake in their wiring that connects the power supply to the computer. A crack in the white plastic casing of one of the wires within will always lead to a short circuit that causes the power supply to temporarily fail by design. Both of my ‘dead’ supplies turned out to be perfectly okay once the external wiring was removed. The primary difficulty in tracing this down was due to two hidden short circuits on both external leads, one at the power supply side, and another at the start of the connector that is plugs into the laptop. Repeat movement of the lead, which causes the break to occur, caused both short circuits
I fixed both breaks in one of the external leads and soldered everything back together. It worked like a charm, almost! The single remaining problem is an intermittent interruption of the power to my computer because the socket that the power supply connector plugs into is now a little bit sloppy and doesn’t always make full contact with the connector. In turn, jiggling the connector around will make the connection complete until the connector moves again. Once again, it’s a cheap design flaw that makes it appear to be a faulty power supply. With that stated, the root cause of my power supply problems was two breaks in the external power line that is caused by using cheap wiring and regular use, and a cheap socket in the back of the computer that should never have worn out in use. If HP simply invested a little more for each Presario 2100 laptop, they would save their clients endless frustration and the cost and hassle of repeatedly replacing their power supply.
To prove my point, I invested about $4 retail for some parts to fix the supply that died in California last year.
Here’s my shopping list
Two 5 mm width x 14 mm length connectors
Two 5 mm width x 9 mm length connectors
One 5 mm width DC power jack
Six feet of 18 gauge two lead stranded wire
I took my supply apart, soldered the DC power jack to the internal connectors using small sections of the stranded leads to get the position exactly right, then put the supply back together making sure the power jack was correctly positioned to the small opening where the external lead normally goes. Afterwards I tightened the power jack into the supply then wrapped black tape around both sides of the supply. As expected, HP doesn’t build their supplies to be taken apart with grace. Instead, you have to pry it apart and break the seal. I’ll epoxy it back together when I feel motivated.
The next step was building the external power lead. I soldered one 5 mm x 14 mm connector to one side of the six foot 18 gauge lead, and then soldered one 5 mm x 9 mm connector to the other side of lead.
When done, I inserted the 5 mm x 9 mm connector into the DC power jack in the supply, powered up the supply, and then measured voltage levels across the 5 mm x 14 mm connector. Perfect!!
After that I connected the 5 mm x 14 mm connector of the new lead into the back of my laptop and powered up. It worked like a charm aside from the remaining difficulties associated with a sloppy jack in the back of my laptop. Life is good! If my new lead ever becomes defective, I’ll simply create a new lead using the same end connectors. I won’t have to open the power supply again.
Now a large company like HP can easily do the same thing that I did in a far more professional manner at a far lower cost per unit. Perhaps it’s time for HP to step up to the plate and do the right thing rather than continue to make like difficult and expensive for their customers.
I am facing the same problem with my compaq presario 3020 . The connection gets loose time and again and peculiarly laptop starts recharging properly once i turned it off ..
I went to shop for repair and he warned me that it would cost around 400 - 500 bucks ..
I think HP is sloppy maker of laptops ….
I wouldnt buy another one .. And one of my major investments of money in life has gone bad …
I just made the switch to Apple and I love it. I got an ibook G4 and it is truely a great investment.
hi all,
Richard thats good it would have been better with pic,anyways i cought on,thanx for the tip…
i have a power problem to my laptop,i don’t know if it’s the female connector or what…the problem is that leds turn on,but it will not start up…led turn green then back to orange in seconds…
the power supply is not the problem,so i ruled that out..
the ac adapter is from another laptop and it was working fine,then all of a sudent,it started with this problem…
this is a sager from clevo,a very good laptop,pentium 4 3.5ghz not sure,at least 3.ghz….
is it posible that that the adapter lost it lowerd its current or something?
any comments would be apreciated…
Compaq Presario 2500 series, owned by father, DC jack snapped off. Compaq wanted $450 to fix it. He bought an HP. I found it in his closet this weekend since he’s in the hospital w/ pneumonia. I researched the DC Jack purchase, removed the motherboard to verify the replacement would be the right one, and ordered a replacement.
I plan to take the mobo and new DC Jack to a local repair shop I’ve used in the past. Good work, should be under $30-40 to solder the new jack on for me.