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The problem: I have a relatively new for me laptop, a Toshiba Satellite P70-A (pretty sure the -A is a Canada/EU designation since it has very little internet presence). Its home page is here: https://www.toshiba.ca/productdetailpage.aspx?id=2147496279 The beeps and boops don't matter too much, but it's a 2.4 GHz Core i7 with 16gb RAM and a 1TB harddrive running Windows 8.1. Basically for the last three months, I've had to 'wiggle' the power cord to seat it properly in the socket to charge or to run off wall power. If the wiggle isn't right, there's no power connection. As time went on, the wiggle has become more elaborate and involved, until finally last week, the thing won't power on or charge for love or money or even the most complicated moby wiggles. Note this isn't a mechanical seating problem; the plug goes in snug and stays in hard, with very little actual wiggle travel in the socket, it's actually a bit of a struggle to get it out. The problem is that whatever is happening to the power from the plug into the socket into the laptop just isn't happening. What I've tried: Was pretty sure the gradual decline meant it wasn't the brick (which usually just fail all at once instead of over time), but I went into a friendly Staples and tried out a universal brick of the same voltage/amperage/plug and had the exact same result; nothing. The cabling/connection stuff on the brick is all pristine; because this is a 17" laptop it's basically a desktop and rarely moved. So a couple nights ago I tore the thing down (it is out of warranty) thinking this feels like a purely physical, mechanical problem of some kind and hopefully was just a wire clip out of place or at worst something to solder. However, everything looks fine physically. The AC adaptor plug jack was securely seated, and doesn't have any travel that would indicate wear was being caused. All the wire (that was visible) from the AC socket to where it dives under the motherboard and becomes invisible is clean, has intact rubber clad around it. The only place wire is exposed from the clad is right at the charge socket, but nothing was at crazy angles or bare copper or anything like that. The only 'odd' thing I noticed is when plugging the power into the socket with the case off I was able to notice a spark at the end of the socket housing where the adaptor plug and socket meet (e.g. electricity is flowing from the adaptor, to the plug, to the socket, but goes no further), and the light 'pop' sound it made was the same as when I would find a wiggle 'sweet spot' as above. My theories are thus: 1. That spark I'm seeing isn't because the transition between power/no power is relatively harsh, it's the sign of bad shielding/connection that has slowly fried the laptop until it is useless. 2. Something got unplugged/damaged on the underside of the motherboard where the power cable goes (and would be a bitch to get at) or alternatively, the damage is in the visible cable but not visible to me. E.g. computer is fine but for that. 3. Something else to do with power that fails gradually that I haven't thought of. Battery seems fine. So, I'm at something of an impasse. I'm pissed, because this is still an eminently usable laptop for my purposes, and if it's not fried, there's a i7 chip, 16gb of ram, and 1 tb drive that are still good that I should be able to put to use, but can't because it's a laptop. Based on what I've said above is this: - Give up, take the ram and drive and try to do something with them (how I wish you could parts out laptops like desktops) - "This is a simple repair a guy with a multimeter and solder gun can do! Just go to (x purveyor of repairs)!" - "It's as easy to swap out the entire power supply on a laptop as it is on a desktop, buy one here at (y) and watch YouTube video (z)!" I'm not enamoured with sending it off to a Toshiba service center (I'm in western Canada) because as far as I can tell for things like this they don't really exist. What seems to happen is you ship it off to Toronto, it goes... somewhere and then they charge you $300 for what is often a trashy refurb. It's also out of warranty and it's obvious I've opened it, which means I probably wouldn't even get that. If anyone does need more details, I can crack it again tonight and take pictures of the adaptor/cable/motherboard setup.
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Sep 18, 2014 02:59
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 18:34 |
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The issue is almost certainly that the power tap has been damaged and will need to be replaced. This is a pretty common issue when you aren't careful with keeping the power cord from tugging on the tap.
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Sep 18, 2014 20:22
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Alereon posted:The issue is almost certainly that the power tap has been damaged and will need to be replaced. This is a pretty common issue when you aren't careful with keeping the power cord from tugging on the tap. Could you clarify what you mean by tap in this case? The internal female socket on the laptop itself?
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Sep 18, 2014 21:03
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Yes, though typically it's a male socket with a center pin that slides into a hole in the plug that goes to the AC adapter, and that center pin can break or become loose.
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Sep 18, 2014 23:16
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If it's not a big hassle to obtain one locally, you could try to get a replacement power adapter cable (1st party, 3rd party, or Universal), and see if it charges, to confirm the problem is on the laptop side and not the charger side. But i've seen this problem dozens of times, and it is usually on the laptops end. Sometimes it's a dead mobo, not a faulty power cable connection. Has it ran on just the battery lately around the same time the charging was being sketchy? MeatRocket8 fucked around with this message at 06:12 on Sep 21, 2014 |
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Sep 21, 2014 05:54
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It's not the power adaptor (e.g. the brick) ChocNitty, it's the receiver jack itself inside the body of the laptop. I tried a different brick and it had no effect. Just as an update, I dropped it off at what looks like a really cool local repair place suggested to me in the Goon Meetings thread. The guy took one look at the case and said "there's a cable in there with a loose black bull horn jack on the end of it isn't there?" so it looks like he knew exactly what was going on and agrees with Alereon. Great place, he offered to sell me the part for $10 and I could replace it myself, or they could do it for $60/hr. I left it with them and will get it back on Tues/Weds and update here in case anyone else runs into the same problem.
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Sep 22, 2014 20:58
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 18:34 |
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UPDATE: They called me today and said it's working fine after replacing the input jack. Alereon was totally correct for once!
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Sep 23, 2014 22:30
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