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Jeremy DaleyFlag for United States of America

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Inspiron 1000: Power Jack on back appears defective

my girlfriend has a dell inspiron 1000.
one morning she says her computer warned her that the battery was dying and she needed to plug it into a power outlet. well... she already had it plugged in.

after the battery died, the computer will not power back up by being plugged into the wall. i tried multiple outlets around the house to make sure.
i thought perhaps the power cord might be the problem, so i went to a local store who let me test a universal power adapter which also did not work.
now, i've heard that dell notebooks require THEY'RE brand power adapter to charge the battery, but even universal adapters should still allow for running from a power outlet (yet not charge the battery). the computer showed no signs of power whatsoever.

the computer is out of warranty, and i'm almost certain the problem lies in the jack on the back of the computer perhaps being loose or simply disfunctional.

is this a common issue, and might it be simple enough for a "fairly" handy man to fix on his own?

thanks
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jamietoner
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Does the power port on the back of the laptop appear to be loose? if so you could disassembly the laptop and attempt to solder it back on. If its not loose (has good connection to the motherboard. Then the power board/charging board on the laptop has most likely gone bad and you would need to replace the motherboard.
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>>  i've heard that dell notebooks require THEY'RE brand power adapter to charge the battery,   <<  never heard that; to my knowledge, all power bricks work on all laptops, provided they :
a) supply the correct V and A (and Wattage)
b) have the proper connection
does it run without the battery plugged in? only AC ?
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ASKER

well, it's just what i've heard... keep in mind though, i didn't say universal power cords wouldn't supply power to the laptop. that's actually the only thing it will do. it won't charge the battery though (according to this bit of information).

and no... it won't run with the battery in or out.

since my girlfriend said that it one day told her her battery was going low, i'm assuming that it would have just recently lost its ability to accept power from the power cord... so in turn, it was now running only off of the battery.

now that that's dead, there's no other source of "juice".

i keep seeing all over the internet though that laptops often lose their ability to accept power from the power cord because the AC adapter connected to the motherboard comes loose and needs replaced/soldered back on.

if anyone has specialized in doing this sort of repair, i'd love some guidance.
did you try a new battery?
the laptop shouldn't even need a battery if it's plugged into through a power cord.
NO - but did you try it WIYHOUT A BATTERY  ?
no need to yell... and yes, i did...
then i fear your mobo is dead, and needs to be replaced.
that seems to be a common conclusion, but i don't agree with you.

take a look at this link. it's just as the symptom that i explained to you:
http://www.atiwa.com/laptop_power_jack_repairs

...see how it states, "Either way, afterwards, the part where you plug in the power cord is loose or broken off inside the laptop.  The computer works for a while, since you still have some juice stored in the battery, but soon the battery runs down and then the computer won't turn on at all."

the fact that it was running off the battery until the battery died tells me different than your conclusion.

thanks for the input though.
ok - and how are you going to charge the battery ?
Is the power port loose? if your not sure tear the system down and look at the port with the plastics removed to make sure. If the power port is loose or you see a broken solder connection then you can either try and resolder it yourself or send it to the company you linked too in your last post. But if the power port has a good connection then the charger board on the motherboard has gone bad and the motherboard will need to be replaced. The Charger board failing can cause a few different symptoms. Like the one your having where it will only run off battery, others include only running from ac and not battery, wont run from ac but will charge battery, will run from ac and charge battery but wont run from battery, these are all issues that can be casued by a bad charger board. So the big question to you would be is the port loose
thanks very much for that information jamie. it seems that will be my next step is to disassembed the laptop and take a look at the connection.

i sure hope it's not this charger board that you speak of.

do you happen to have any knowledge of some websites that offer disassembly instructions for laptops, cause i've never done it before? if not, i'll try and find something for an inspiron 1000.

i'll be sure to keep you posted on progress.
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jamietoner
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this should definitely help...

thank you so much.
disassembled laptop.

dc adapter WAS cracked at the main (+) connection, so i re-soldered it.

still no juice, so i'm planning on installing a new dc adapter that i'll purchase from ebay for like 8 bucks. if that doesn't work, i'm gonna just give up.

thanks, jamie.
Your welcome