Thursday 10 February 2011

How to fortify damaged power jack connection in a laptop

In order to replace the power jack in your laptop you’ll have to remove the jack from the motherboard as I explained in the previous post: Replacing DC power jack.
While removing the jack you can accidentally pull out the internal copper coating (I’ll call it a sleeve) from the inside of the “+” terminal as it shown on the picture below.
Damaged power jack connection
The internal copper sleeve has been removed and cannot be installed back. If you solder the power jack back on the motherboard without this sleeve it might work but the connection between the “+” lead and motherboard will not be reliable.
In the following guide I explain how to fortify a damaged power jack connection. You can use this repair technique in some laptops with similar power jacks.

Power jack removed with sleeve

You replaced broken LCD screen but the new screen is not working

You replaced the broken LCD screen in your laptop with a new screen but it’s not working. Does this sound like your problem? Let’s find out what could be wrong and how you can fix it.
First of all, I assume that your new LCD screen is compatible with the old one. Different screens require different video cables. Make sure you new screen is compatible with your laptop.
OK, let’s say you accidentally damaged the LCD screen in your laptop. A part of the screen still works fine but you cannot use it like that so you decided to replace the screen yourself. You can find LCD replacement instructions in service manuals or this DIY site.
Broken laptop LCD screen
You did some research and purchased a compatible screen, installed it into the laptop, turned it on and… The new screen is not working!!! What could be wrong?

New LCD screen not working

How I installed external Bluetooth adapter inside my laptop

Here’s how I installed an external USB Bluetooth adapter INSIDE my laptop and made it internal. My laptop wasn’t Bluetooth ready, it didn’t have internal Bluetooth connector and antenna but I needed it in order to access the cell phone without running a cable.
USB Bluetooth adapter
My first option was using the external USB Bluetooth adapter as is but it wasn’t very convenient. I decided to find a way to install this adapter inside the laptop.

Bluetooth adapter connected to laptop