You are here: Home / Repairs

Laptop DC jack Repairs

 

Laptop DC jack repairs

Does your laptop not charge? Is the battery dead? Custom PC can repair your laptop’s power jack for only $125!

Besides the hard drive, the power jack is the biggest headache of owning a laptop. You have to plug it up, and each time you do, the power jack weakens a little. The more you plug it up, the weaker it gets. Eventually it is so lose that you have to hold it a certain way to get it to come on. That often only works for for a little while, then the real danger begins.

Dangers of using a loose DC jack

The power jack is most often connected directly to the motherboard. As it wiggles loose, you risk the input voltage coming into contact with the grounding pin. Besides the spark you see, this can also blow the motherboard entirely. Then you are not talking about a DC jack repair, you are talking about a replacement motherboard. (Or a very expensive repair)

The cost to replace a motherboard is sometimes twice the cost of repairing or replacing a lose jack. It involves roughly the same amount of work, but also includes the cost of purchasing a new board.

How to tell if you have a DC jack problem

The 4 most common symptoms of a laptop with a power jack problem are;

  • Battery will not charge
  • Laptop will not stay on even when plugged in
  • Laptop goes off when you move it
  • You see sparks or smell burning when using your laptop

If your DC jack is loose, don’t continue to use it. I know you want to just tug the cord to the left or right, but you are actually making it worse. It is much easier and safer to tighten the jack, then to outright replace it. The way PCB (printed circuit boards) are made, the plastic material can only take so much stress. It can only take so many reheats. It can only endure a limited number of  power jack repairs. Usually anymore than 3 is a bad idea. After that the chances of a successful replacement decrease exponentially.

The DC jack repair process

With our jack repairs, you get a 90 day warranty. You can purchase an extended 1 year warranty for $50. (most models)

If we cannot repair or replace your DC jack under warranty, you will get a 100% credit towards the purchase of a new or used Laptop.

Take action

Let Custom PC repair your DC jack before it becomes a broken DC jack. Call us before you see sparks.

Filed Under: Laptop DC jack

Can’t send emails

This problem is usually software related. If you cant get online at all, then you probably cant send email either . Then you should see the page about not being able to get online.

Email is usually pop3, or smtp. The internals of your pc have to be working in order to send email using a client program like outlook, thunderbird, or windows mail.

If you are using webmail (where you send it from within your browser) then that’s a different issue. That one is harder to fix that having a problem with a client mail system.

We work with email a lot, and we are experts at sending email! Give us a call, we’ll sort it all our for you.

Filed Under: Blog, Can't send emails, Software Blog Tagged With: , , , ,

Can’t get online

Easy to identify, not so easy to diagnose.

It actually takes quite a few systems all working in order to get online. It’s one of the most complex things a pc does on a daily basis.

You could have problems with your internet service, modem, router, switch, cable, wireless or ethernet jack. Those are just the hardware portions.

On the internal software side we have things like DHCP, DNS, Gateway, winsock, filters, and APIP.

The external software problems can include issues with IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, or any of the several dozen browsers in use today.

Beyond those we have the multitude of viruses that can cause issues with any one of those internal or external software applications that will make it so you cant get online.

Not always an easy fix, but always a requested one. Give us a call, we’ll figure it out.

Filed Under: Can't get online

Computer is smoking

If you don’t mean, it’s very attractive, it means something inside is or was on fire.

Unplug the PC and do not plug it back in until it’s fixed. A computer has circuity that is supposed to prevent a fire, but many of systems have caught ablaze.

Pretty easy to diagnose, it will be the internal component that looks like it was just at a July cookout.

Give us a call, we’ll take care of it.

Filed Under: Computer is smoking

No display

One of the easiest to diagnose!

Symptoms include

  1. black  / blank screen
  2. monitor saying no signal / video.
  3. test pattern on the display

It is either the LCD / CRT, video card,  or motherboard. In rare cases its a software / driver issue. Usually it’s the video card.

We can quickly find out which one it is, get it fixed, and have it back to you. Give us a call.

Filed Under: No display

Noisy fans

Wish your computer was quieter? Was it quiet when you bought it?

Most PC fans are ball bearing type. They eventually wear down and then the fans starts to make noise. This noise can get very loud at times.

If your fan is making noise, that is better than it not making ANY noise. If it was loud yesterday and today it isn’t, dont think it magically fixed itself. It usually means the fan isnt spinning at all!

Big problem. That is the road to system overheating, and eventually a shut down.

Get your noisy fans fixed before they become silent fans.

Filed Under: Noisy fans

Dropped laptop

This is certianly the easisest to problem diagnose! How come you never hear about desktops being dropped?

All jokes aside, laptops are the only way to make a computer portable. With that portability comes the occasional drop or fall. In our effort to make notebooks lighter, and faster, they are built with less and less reinforcement. They cant survive too many drops or falls.

The hardest parts to replace are the plastics. It usually involves taking the whole laptop apart. The labor can get expensive on some Sony, Asus and Toshiba models.

We have great success with dropped laptops. We can replace screens, keyboards, optical drives, and if need be, the entire motherboard.

Filed Under: Dropped laptop

Hard drive clicks

This is always a hardware issue. There is a problem with your hard drive. They are not supposed to click.

Some older hard drives were quite noisy, but they still didn’t click. The clicking you hear is the internal parts hitting one another, not good.

Your hard drive clicking? Turn it off right away. The more you use it the less likely you can recovery the data. Click here for data backup solutions.

Filed Under: Hard drive clicks

Computer restarts

This issue can be software or hardware related.

When it’s a software issue, some program or windows is crashing. Some systems will just reboot, some will pause on the error screen.

When it’s a hardware issue, either there is a bad, part, or something isn’t set right with the timings, or just an incomparability with a component.

Restarts are a pain unless it happens often. The occasional restart can be one the most difficult to track down, because you have to “wait” for it to happen.

Filed Under: Computer restarts

Computer shuts down

This is usually an overheating problem. Computers have a habit of sucking in all the dust, hair, smoke, and everything else in their environment. All that junk makes it difficult for the computer to cool itself properly.

Shut downs are also caused by defective hardware, and sometimes (rarely) a software issue.

Either way, we’ll figure out which one it is, and have you back up and running!

Filed Under: Computer shuts down
« Older Posts