AC adaptor or Power Jack

Hi there,

I have a little issue that i thought you may be able to help with.

I bought a replacement (not original) laptop charger for my HP laptop and after about 2 months i woke up, plugged it in and it just didn't work. I went out and bought a HP original and plugged it in. It worked for about 10 mins and it blew the house electrics. i traced the fault back to the socket the charger was in. I felt the charger and it was WAY too hot.

Now my power jack (where the charger plugs in. sorry i dont know the name for it) has always been abit sentimental and i was wondering, should i go and buy another one for it maybe to just blow again, or could it be something to do with the power jack that is blowing the boxes on the charger.

The computer still starts ok and seems to run fine, but i have enough battery for about 10 mins use left and getting a bit worried now.

Any help on this would be great and thank you for taking the time to read this. I know your all very busy with all sorts of issues to fix.

Andy

 

Either option is a gamble but by your symptom I would say there's a short on your power jack but I don't think this will cause the adapters to fail, it will cause a cheap replacement to fail because they don't have short circuit protection but not a HP adapater they're pretty good and have overload and short circuit protection they basically shutdown before there's any damage so I would concluse the problem with the socket killed them.

There are three problems that could cause this,faulty power jack,faulty socket, faulty adapters just bad luck, it could be mixture of all of them which would be harder to spot but is also unlikely.

The only way to make sure the power socket isn't faulty is to dissemble the laptop and check it which I would do, it may need re-soldering or a replacement socket,once this is done the only problem could be either bad luck with the adapters or a deeper problem with the charging circuit or battery.

There isn't any other option but to return the HP adapter and get a replacement and try again, they should replace it no problem as it could definitely be a faulty adapter and bad luck. Fixing the power jack is a big job so don't kid yourself as to how easy it would be, the motherboard will have to be completely removed from the laptop and a computer store would charge you in the hundreds of dollar region for the labour which usually makes it uneconomical.

If that doesn't sound like a good option your only option is to junk the laptop or gamble on a replacement adapter, this isn't really a big gamble if you do it right, if the adapter doesn't work return the adapter for a refund, it's pain but doable.

 

Adding to Rikky's thoughts, plug the adapter into the PC and check to see if it wiggles. Too much wiggle room is a sign the internal jack may have been damaged and may need to be replaced.

The quality and the wattage of a replacement notebook PSU are important. If going aftermarket, quality brands include iMicro, Manhattan and Anker (you can always check the ratings on Amazon for specific models).

Now to wattage: While an older Celeron M with a 14"-15" screen may run fine with a 65-watt PSU, it's best to get at least a 90 watt model for a standard 15.6" screen. If you're running one with a high end CPU (such as an i7), 17" screen or dedicated video card, you may need to jump to something in the 120-135 watt range. If you want to compare, check the wattage of your old OEM PSU against what you're considering as a replacement.

Hope this helps.