Damaged Charging Port

Hi Everyone, My acer E1-531- 2697 acer laptop slid off the bed with the charger cord plugged in. It only fell slowly approx 2' on carpet with padding and I saw it (was like in slow motion but I could not catch it) hit directly on the charger elbow in the wire. When I picked it up, I saw that the port was a little skewed and the plugin itself was like it jammed in but was easily removable.

The laptop works fine and it was fully charged. Problem is the laptop no longer charges nor is the charging light coming on the unit....charger itself does not have a light. Of course I am able to plug the charger in fully but can see the port itself is skewed. Are the ports real sensitive like that and did I bust it or break a wire...in your opinions? Also thanks for any suggestions on the fix.

Thanks much and hope everyone has a Merry Christmas.

 

Thanks Plodr, I did what you said and sure enough, it did not power up. Will watch the video. Thanks again.

PS, is there anyway to see if the lick to the elbow on the charging wire is not the root cause or are those ports pretty sensitive to a jarring lick?

 

The damage sustained is usually to the solder joints and/or the earth/ground pin at the far end of the socket. A new socket plus repair would be from somewhere in the region of $40 upwards - unless you have a suitably experienced friend/colleague to call on, cost might then be a few $ for the socket plus a beer/coffee/sandwich

This damage risk could be minimised during production by using a slightly more expensive power socket that includes a threaded locking ring that fixes the socket to the outer casing as well, reducing the direct impact on the internal internal power/charging daughterboard or main board.

 

Understand this is a very common problem meaning repair shops do this sort of repair all the time. For that reason alone, it is probably worth it to have an experienced tech do it as they know exactly where to strategically place their tongue when opening and closing up the case. And because they do this often, costs typically are reasonable and they may even have a flat rate.

I have seen where the plastic housing (which is part of the case) that holds the socket (or mounting screws) in place breaks too. We've successfully used epoxy to glue it back but frankly, such a fix is likely never to be as strong as it was before the break.

Agreed but that would add 3 cents to the cost of production and the makers could not stand for that!

They could also reduce the occurrence of these problems simply by using a charger cable with a 90° jack that does not stick out so much when inserted.

 

Thanks for the info and replies.