I have a Sony Vaio power jack replacement I am doing and have run into trouble
I have a Sony Vaio power jack replacement I am doing and have run into trouble. According to your information posted on Laptop Repair 101 site, I may have the problem you described there, specifically under the UPDATE.
My problem is that the foil pads have lifted during de-soldering on two jack pin holes in the motherboard, and I am wondering if the board is ruined because these pads are trace pads. The foil “ring” encompasses the diameter of the oval pin hole, on top and bottom, which leads me to believe they are essential and if unrepairable, then the board can’t be salvaged.
One person has suggested using thin foil to coat the holes, you suggested a wire?
Top arrow foil pad intact, bottom arrow lifted. Any help appreciated!
I think that the motherboard you have is repairable. It’s hard to say from you photo, if there are any traces that contact power jack pads on the pictured side. It looks like all traces are located on the opposite side. It doesn’t really matter what you use (a thin foil coat or a wire) to contact the pads from one side of the system board to the pads on the other side. The main idea is to get a good solid connection between the POWER JACK PINS and the TRACES on the motherboard. On the Laptop Repair 101 site I have suggested a wire because power jack holes on Toshiba system boards are much smaller then on your system board and it’s almost impossible to coat the hole with a thin foil. If you can use a foil, I guess it would be even better.
So, you can try next. Clean up the pads on both motherboard sides and apply new fresh solder on it. Insert the power jack back into the system board and solder it to the remaining pads. Now find a thin coated wire, clean up one end and solder it to a power jack pin (the pin that wasn’t soldered to the pad). Run the wire over the motherboard side and solder it on the opposite side to the same pin, OR to the trace that connects with the pin.
Another option would be to take the system board to a local electronic repair shop. A professional tech can solder the jack for 10-15 minutes. You already removed the system board from the laptop, so it will not cost much to solder the power jack. Keep the system board in ESD bag because it’s sensitive to static electricity and can be easily damaged.
As a last resort, you can relocate the power jack outside the laptop case. Most likely Sony power jack has a different pin layout then Toshiba power jack, so make sure not to mix up wires if you decide to go this route.
September 12th, 2006 at 4:46 am
First, thanks for the information and support.
With the Vaio, as I found out, you have a multi layer board, and some professionals shy away from jack replacement for this reason.
Two attempts to solder a new jack failed, the power is good at the DC plug (19V checked with meter) and even on the pins a spare backup jack I received in the same order.
So it looks like a board replacement, I gave it the college try, but I either ruined the board desoldering, or it was shorted out when the other jack failed.
No DC voltages at the pins on the top side of the board when metered.
September 13th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
I perform dc jack repairs all the time where I work and I can definately tell you that you have to be very careful when desoldering thru-hole components on motherboards. These are always multi-layered pcbs and if the pads are lifted then usually you will have damaged the trace connections to any of the other layers that may have been there originally. The holes are not just manufactured with a top and bottom pad(pads & traces are made of copper not foil) but also the hole itself has a “sleeve” that connects the top and bottom pads. When the pads are lifted during the desoldering process, almost always the sleeve is irreparably damaged. That is one of the reasons why the repair doesn’t take and why there is fear in attempting the repair in the first place.
I suggest losts of practice desoldering on non-working motherboards and the use of flux paste and desoldering braid. You must remove all of the old solder before attempting to pull the component lead out of the hole.
September 15th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
Hi Darrell:
Thanks for your reply and your information on this topic.
Perhaps I should get my terminology straight.
Nothing copper colored or copper lifted off the board, so we must be talking about the through hole sleeves which are silver or foil colored.
I used a Hakko ESD safe temperature controlled soldering iron and braid, adding a little solder(with flux but not paste flux proper) to each connection so the solder would flow into the braid more easily.
On the first and second pin, the solder was hiding the sleeve,(actually, the solder was hiding on all pins) and when the solder moved or flowed, the sleeve was stuck to the blob with no chance of retrieval.
I assume the through hole SLEEVE binds the traces.
At any rate, should a desoldering iron be used to prevent this in the future?
Any reccomendations for temps if using a soldering iron and copper braid? (I had it set on 650 F)
Other tips?
THANKS!
Sam
November 17th, 2006 at 7:00 pm
Here’s one for you… 1 year old HP ZD8000 17″ monitor which suddenly went totally white. Also runs white on secondary flatpanel monitor. Notebook hasn’t ever been dropped or even moved from it’s spot on the desk. Also, no video issues when booting or in bios, only when it boots to windows. After a reinstall of WinXP SP2 there’s video in windows, no white on either monitor, but the instant I try to install the ATI drivers it turns white again, or even totally blank. (black). My guess is video ram? If so, a new motherboard is the only option, correct? Sucks that the warranty just expired too. Any idea’s/thoughts would be truly appreciated!
November 18th, 2006 at 7:55 pm
HI-I have the exact same problem as mentioned in the TOSHIBA SATELLITE A75 FAILED JACK WORKAROUND article where i have to turn my charger cord aruond until i find a spot where the led comes on and even then it only lasts a few minute and my laptop never gets charged. Can i use the same instructions to fix this problem on my nec versa e600 and if i have to replace the jack what type would i be looking to buy? i hope i have explained my problem clearly, thank you kindly for your time, your response is greatly appreciated.
Cheers, Amie
November 19th, 2006 at 10:04 pm
Brandt,
Both screens, internal LCD and external LCD has the same problem, sounds like an issue with the video card (possible software issue?). I don’t think that the problem is related to the video RAM because the video works fine until you load the ATI drivers. But if the video card is integrated into the system board it doesn’t really matter if you have a faulty video RAM or there is an issue with the video card itself, in both cases the system board has to be replaced.
By the say, are you loading correct video driver? Did you get if from the HP website? Have you tried to reload the original HP software using a recovery CD/DVD?
November 19th, 2006 at 10:23 pm
Amie,
The power cuts off completely when you move the cord or it affects only the battery charge? If the whole laptop is loosing power, check the AC adapter cord, may be it has a loose wire inside. Find a multimeter and test the voltage on the AC adapter. Check if the power on the AC adapter plug cuts off when you move the power cord. If it does, replace the adapter.
Sorry I cannot give you a better advice for your laptop. I’ve never worked with NEC computers.
January 8th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Hi guys,
Lots of good advice i see,anyway i want to get into this soldering/desoldering and obviuosly need to practice and i was just wondering as i have a temparature controlled solder station,i would like to know what the recommended temparature would be for soldering/desoldering laptop dc jack.thanks
January 8th, 2007 at 10:03 am
Rob,
I use Weller WESD51 soldering station and for soldering/desoldering power jacks I set the temperature to 850F. May be I’m wrong and a real professional would say it’s too high or too low, but it works fine for me.
January 17th, 2007 at 3:15 am
I have a Sony Vaio VGN-FS620P and it has a broken center sleeve inside the power jack. So I need to replace the power jack completely.
My questions,
Is the power jack on this board connected somwhere inside the multi layer board. Should I attempt to desolder it? Or I need to add an external jack?
Where can I find the replacement power jack?
Part number etc.
Thanks.
January 20th, 2007 at 8:27 am
Krisi Luttinen,
You might be able to find a new power jack on eBay. Enter “VGN power jack” for search. If your model is not listed, contact the seller and ask if there is a replacement.
It’s up to you and depends on your soldering skills. I’ve never replaced the power jack on Sony notebooks and cannot give you an advice.
Here’s an option. You can leave the broken power jack soldered to the motherboard and relocate a new jack outside the laptop case.
January 24th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
Hello there I also have a sony Vaio and the power Jack has died. It looks like it heated up and melted it’s all warped and will not work with the ac adapter. How much would it cost me round about to get this fixed?
March 28th, 2007 at 10:01 am
Hi,
thanks for this valuable resource.
I have a Compaq Presario 2100US that I resoldered my jack but can’t seem to boot up from AC or from battery (after the jack quit working for power, I could still boot from battery prior to disassembly). The jack is getting power to the the battery charger and the battery status light went from charging (orange) to charged (green).
Pressing the power button does nothing as far as I can tell.
I have some candidates for errors – most of which end up with requiring a new board
1) my soldering job damaged a trace – I’ve some experience with a soldering iron but it is possible I overheated something – is there an easy way to diagnose this? I didn’t see any ‘lifted traces’
2) I have ‘spare parts’ – I have screws that apparently didn’t all make it back to their homes – I was thinking that perhaps to power on might require a specific screw for grounding (there was one grounding screw mentioned in the tech docs – the one for the display on the hinge screw which I did mount).
3) dead CMOS? – laptop had no power for 1 week due to waiting for parts after disassembly (this will be my thing to check after I try 6)
4) Electro Static Discharge – no grounding strap and due to a household crisis the entire disassembled laptop had to be moved to another room – also the week of diassembly above while waiting for parts
5) killed the CPU – I used mineral spirits to clean the cpu and heatsink and applied thermal grease. It is theoretically possible some mineral spirit got on the CPU traces or that my thermal grease job was incorrectly done.
6) confused motherboard – a local tech mentioned that at times he has had boards get ‘confused’ after disassembly and that removing all power and holding down the power button for 30 seconds sometimes solves this (will attempt tonight).
Any suggestions for diagnosing whether any of the above are the actual cause?
Tom
March 28th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Hi some additional info that may or may not be of use in diagnosing my problem – if I remove the battery and leave it plugged in – the charge light blinks off and on. If I press and hold the reset button, the charge light turns off for the duration of holding it, and then resumes afterwards.
The suggestion of holding down the power button for 30 seconds was not successful.
Tom M.
July 21st, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Hi, I have a Vaio VGN-B88GP. It has just dropped dead not even a light – nothing! A screw driver and a multimeter have determined that yes the battery (circut board) is toast but it should? still boot or do something without a battery?
‘Mr. Fix-it’ has also determined that, um something about pins and voltages. They don’t change. Skim-reading, has left me with the impression that at least some of them should??
I also learned of a ‘CMOS’. ‘Mr. Fixit’ said he didn’t see it or know where it was located (But knew of it:). ??
So what would be the best plan of attack from here?
July 21st, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Hi, maybe ignore the previous email! I’m such a spaz!! I just noticed you have more related topics and my answer may well be amongst those! I’ll finish reading it all and if I’m still in trouble I’ll be back to sook
May 26th, 2008 at 10:03 am
I have a broken power connector on a Sony Vaio PCG-K37 laptop. I can not find any information anywhere about how to open this laptop’s case. I’ve removed every screw I can find, removed memory hard drive and optical drive, poked at every label or sticker to see if there’s a screw hidden underneath, removed pads on hinges to get at screws there, and still am unable to open this machine. Can someone give me instructions on how to open this so I can replace the power connector or at the very least relocate it to outside the machine?
Thanks.
Dave Bradley
June 17th, 2008 at 1:51 am
I tried to desolder the DC jack on a toshiba laptop. I was using a 15 watt soldering iron & de-soldering braid. I don’t think the 15 watt iron is hot enough. Anyway, a minute copper cylinder came out with the DC jack’s positive pin. It is tall enough to go all the way through the entire thickness of the board. The cylinder (I assume a trace) was damaged (bent) beyond repair. It appears to be a simple cylinder. Can I assume that it is making contact with all 8 layers? Or is it possible that some layers are contacted while other are not. If all layers are, my plan is to stuff permatex electrically conductive rear window defogger tab adhesive into the hole around the positive pin on my replacement jack. The permatex product is copper based and, I hope, will deliver enough current. If the cylinder connected to all eight layers then the permatex product might also. However, if only some layers were contacted by the cylinder (trace) and all layers are contacted with the permatex spackle job, bad things might ensue. Has anyone ever tried this? Thanks for your help.
January 24th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
So my Vaio Sony vgn-fw230j was recently dropped onto the corner where the power plug is inserted. it still charges, and turns on, but the part is loose and i want to fix it
is there need for a replacement part or how do i fix the problem
March 27th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
I have a Sony Vaio PCG-GRX570 with a second DC jack problem
the first replacement I pulled to hard and it broke, i should have epoxied the first replacement. I felt this would be to permanet and didnot want this. The second
one I soldered and looks good but won’t power up when using dc power, but will with battery power and when tested with meter there is 19.5v power on at both side of motherboard. Is this still a DC jack problem or can I solder wires to the motherboard with an outside jack