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i'll take a look at the soldering job. it would be odd if this was the problem though because the new jack charges the battery fine, so the original problem is solved. i am beginning to believe that i broke the tiniest piece on the motherboard, which is preventing it from working. i tried another CPU on the montherboard and got the same effect. if i took the motherboard to a local computer place (not BestBuy or CompUSA) does anyone think they would be able to be able to tell what part of the motherboard was malfunctioning? (if that is even the problem)
I am having the same problem with my R3000 as well. I tried soldering the 4 ac connection points, and it seemed to improve the problem at first...but went right back to the same problem within a day. So I took it apart again and tried it all again (repeated this a few times) and now it won't light up the charging light AT ALL. Is it possible I overheated the motherboard around those connection points?
It really ticks me off that so many people are having this problem and HP has never done anything about it. While searching for a solution to my problem, it looks like this model isn't even the only one with the issue. I am so sorry I didn't just get a DELL! I'll NEVER get another HP/Compaq!
It really ticks me off that so many people are having this problem and HP has never done anything about it. While searching for a solution to my problem, it looks like this model isn't even the only one with the issue. I am so sorry I didn't just get a DELL! I'll NEVER get another HP/Compaq!
Hardly anything there that could suffer from overheating, but I didn't watch you solder it, so...Don't know what tool you used, or if you cared about static discharge when touching or soldering the board. Better check again, always solder P4 board's dc-in (positive lead) on both sides of the board. You could take the board out, attach the adapter and see where you can get a voltage, on the charging leads in the battery compartment? Is there power on the most left and most right copper contacts of the docking port?
Well, I got a little aggressive on about the 3rd attempt (since what I was doing didn't seem to be working). lol. I went ahead and touched each solder point to liquify them again, and it seemed like I felt a metal pin or something in the first three (that are in a row, closest to the edge of the board), but didn't feel anything in the one towards the back of the dc jack. The solder gun is just a cheap pencil shaped gun with a sharp point.
I went ahead and ordered an All-In-One HP Notebook XC1000 Media Cable off ebay too. If the motherboard is still fine, hopefully this will solve the problem.
I went ahead and ordered an All-In-One HP Notebook XC1000 Media Cable off ebay too. If the motherboard is still fine, hopefully this will solve the problem.
Update: I went through it again, and it's a little better now. At least it's back to a point where I can press the cord to the side when it's plugged in and it charges (wasn't doing anything before). I do think I MIGHT know what I've been doing wrong now though...but I wanted to check on here first.
Is it possible to put too much solder on? I suspect this is my problem. I started this project knowing nothing about soldering, so I've been learning as I go. I saw someone write "add plenty of solder so it will hold well"...but I've also saw posts that say the solder should be shiny and not dull. It seems like the more solder I have on it, the duller it is. This last time I went through the process, the only thing I really did different from my previous attempts was use less solder...but I'm guessing I'm still using too much. Maybe I'm wrong, but I wanted to go ahead and post it to be sure, and so the question and answer would be here for anyone else with the same problem.
Is it possible to put too much solder on? I suspect this is my problem. I started this project knowing nothing about soldering, so I've been learning as I go. I saw someone write "add plenty of solder so it will hold well"...but I've also saw posts that say the solder should be shiny and not dull. It seems like the more solder I have on it, the duller it is. This last time I went through the process, the only thing I really did different from my previous attempts was use less solder...but I'm guessing I'm still using too much. Maybe I'm wrong, but I wanted to go ahead and post it to be sure, and so the question and answer would be here for anyone else with the same problem.
If the solder didn't get hot enough, or the joint is moved before the solder is hardened out, the solder will turn dull. It will handle like a paste, rather than a flowing liquid like it should. The trick is to heat up the parts that need to be joined long enough, then add solder (and not before), so it will turn right into a flowing liquid when touching the hot parts. Keep the soldering iron in place till the flow stabilizes, then remove the iron, and don't move anything for about 10 seconds. When you have to add more solder, first heat up the joints until the solder already there is fully molten, then add more solder, wait for it to fully flow, etcetera. The positive pin should stick a bit through the board, should at least be noticeable, like the 3 negative pins sticking out a bit. Remember to solder both sides of the posit. pin to the board.
Hope my english is a bit clear.
Hope my english is a bit clear.
Thanks for the post. I can see I was doing a few things wrong. The solder was a fully flowing liquid...but I wasn't really heating up the pins before adding the solder...although I probably did heat up the positive pin a little while feeling for it the last time (the iron seemed to stick to it a little). I didn't see that mentioned in any of the other posts, so I didn't know I was suppose to heat the pins up. I don't think my positive pin was ever sticking all the way through the board though, and the dc jack appears to be flush with the motherboard...so maybe it was broke from the factory? I have to press my soldering iron tip down into the hole (which melts a little of the plastic around it) to even hit metal. The other three do stick through the board.
Since it seems to be working when I press the cord/jack to the side, I'm guessing that maybe it's one of the side pins that's not making a good enough connection now though. I'll try heating those pins up the next time to see if they make a better connection. If all else fails, hopefully the All-in-one media cable will arrive soon and work fine.
Since it seems to be working when I press the cord/jack to the side, I'm guessing that maybe it's one of the side pins that's not making a good enough connection now though. I'll try heating those pins up the next time to see if they make a better connection. If all else fails, hopefully the All-in-one media cable will arrive soon and work fine.
Add me to the list. This forum helped me fix the same problem.
I bought a new socket on ebay a few months ago but when I got it I wasn't able to get the thing appart enough to get to the soldering point. With the info here I was able to get the motherboard off, and replace the socket. I had trouble getting the old one out until I decided to gently pry it from the board. It came right out, so you know the solder wasn't done right. I replaces it and soldered it well and it's now 100%.
Total cost $8 plus a lot of grey hair. ONly had 3 screws left over at the end 😉
I also had a short in the headphone jack. pressing on the area above the jacks was fixing it and causing it. I even called HP about it while it was still under waranty and they just had me update drivers. I know now that they probably even knew what the problem was, but it's cheaper to just string the customer along than actually fix it.
Thanks everyone!
I bought a new socket on ebay a few months ago but when I got it I wasn't able to get the thing appart enough to get to the soldering point. With the info here I was able to get the motherboard off, and replace the socket. I had trouble getting the old one out until I decided to gently pry it from the board. It came right out, so you know the solder wasn't done right. I replaces it and soldered it well and it's now 100%.
Total cost $8 plus a lot of grey hair. ONly had 3 screws left over at the end 😉
I also had a short in the headphone jack. pressing on the area above the jacks was fixing it and causing it. I even called HP about it while it was still under waranty and they just had me update drivers. I know now that they probably even knew what the problem was, but it's cheaper to just string the customer along than actually fix it.
Thanks everyone!
I heated the pins up and it didn't really make a difference for me. I believe the dc jack is just bad (probably because of the positive pin I guess, since it must be broke off)...so I went ahead and ordered a new dc jack off ebay. I'll try the new jack before I open the All-In-One Media Cable (assuming I get it from Hong-Kong ok)...then I'll just sell the Media Cable if I get the new dc jack to work.
UPDATE: - I got the new dc jack I ordered off ebay today and installed it, and the problem seems to be fixed! It took a little time to heat up the solder and remove the bad jack and remove enough solder to get the new jack in...but everything it working great now!!
So, if anyone is having a similar problem and doesn't want to go through this, I'm just going to sell the all-in-one media cable I ordered from Hong-Kong at cost....after i receive it (still waiting on it).
So, if anyone is having a similar problem and doesn't want to go through this, I'm just going to sell the all-in-one media cable I ordered from Hong-Kong at cost....after i receive it (still waiting on it).
I have been dealing with this nightmare for over 6 months. I bought a new battery, power cord and , most recently, paid a tech almost $400.00 to fix it. He said he took the machine apart and put in a new AC adaptor. I'm having the same problem; the battery gets some power, but none going to the PC. My question is, could this guy have put in a new AC adaptor without soldering it to the motherboard? If I'm having the same problem, is it likely he did anything?
He won't return my phone calls, so I'm ready to leave a message threatening to report him to the State Attorney General. Can you shed any light on this?
He won't return my phone calls, so I'm ready to leave a message threatening to report him to the State Attorney General. Can you shed any light on this?
He may have done a bad job on soldering the jack, if you have a Pentium board it needs to be soldered on both sides of the board, the positive dc-jack's pin that is. Almost $400 is excessive, you pay less for another working complete laptop.
Some power to the battery might indicate the contact to the board is okay, but other components (capacitors, shottkey voltage barriers) have gone bad.
What was the precise state of your laptop before the "fix", working with power adapter? Working off battery? Only battery? Charging battery?
Some power to the battery might indicate the contact to the board is okay, but other components (capacitors, shottkey voltage barriers) have gone bad.
What was the precise state of your laptop before the "fix", working with power adapter? Working off battery? Only battery? Charging battery?
My R3240US got the the point that it would charge the battery if left off with the cord jiggled just so to turn the front lightening bolt orange for an hour, or run the PC on battery if powered up, but the short in the power cord was too tenuous to run the PC on AC in, no matter how I tried and tried to adjust the cord.
I'm sharing my quote posted recently at takeitapartDOTnet, followed by my 25 minute fix at the end.
Having had some experience and background in such actions (class action and other legal maneuvers) I wouldn't hold my breath. Unless someone can demonstrate an implied usability beyond the warranty period, my hunch is we are chasing a losing cause. This is called Caveat Emptor - Buyer Beware. From all the posts it appears that HP/Compaq upheld its warranties during the limited warranty period. I recall that this laptop was initially a bargain at less than $900 which compares to over $2,000 for the last X-series Thinkpad I purchased over three years ago, but is still going strong. To make the automobile analogy, we bought Yugos where others bought Buicks. That was a risk we were willing to take at the time of our purchases, and probably must accept now. That said, I am not a satisfied consumer and I can guarantee that I will not be purchasing another HP/Compaq laptop in the near future, nor will I be recommending them.
Right now my NEW battery is charging up just barely on the laptop. When it is done, I will be backing up the entire PC and then taking apart the old battery and direct wiring it to a 110V AC to DC transformer. I'm pretty sure this "tampering" will void any action I would otherwise have, but at least I will know definitively whether or not I can continue to run this PC or or not with the slight mod. If it doesn't work, I still can go back to the pictures at the top of this post and try to re-solder the power outlet.
The following link to a HP Limited Warranty might be good bedtime reading for some:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00019915&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=&product=86633
Good luck to those that take an alternate course., but remember that Time is Money! I'll keep you posted of my progress with the battery mod. Dead batteries are probably going for less than $10 plus shipping on e-bay.
Cheers!
Jeff
Following that post, I went against my own drethers and took it apart. I should have gone with the battery bypass or the media cord (which I only learned of today).
I found that if I flipped it on its back and took off the battery, the hard drive and the RAM cover off, that I could then take off the CPU cover plastic by uscrewing all the screws and leaving them in their sockets followed by lifting the black plastic cover straight up with the screws still in place, followed by unscrewing the CD/DVD locking screw (approx center of CD spindle within) and removing that screw alone, unsliding the DVD drive followed by unscrewing all the remaining screws in the remaining bottom black pastic, but leaving the screws in place and lifting it up gently enough to keep all the screw where they needed to be (like before), I got it apart in about 4 minutes. Then I took off the speaker assembly, and mini-sound card leaving their screws in the slots. I flipped it over and at that point pried the upper plastic gray cover off at the base of the screen, followed bt removing the 4 keyboard screws and the 4 now visible hinge screws, the wrap-around upper plastic could be removed from the mother board. Total time into it so far 8 minutes. ANother minute and the CPU was off, followed by its wrap-around gray chasis/sink.
I then noted the lack of solder near the power jack in question and the proximity to the HOT CPU. I pulled off the CPU cover and fan covers and extracted a TON of dust bunny. That was the apparent source of my overheating problem. It also probably weakened the minimal solder on the socket through.
I took the board to a TV repair shop and for $5 and in 5 minutes he resoldered the four pins nicely. I thought I was in the clear. I re-assembled it in 6 minutes and only had one screw extra. I plugged it in and the lightning bolt came on orange (good sign). I then turned on the power button and it glowed orange as did the mouse button and the fans whirred up. Still thinking good thoughts there. About 5 seconds later the fans stopped (no dust bunnies to fight) and the three orange lights remained lit, but nothing else happened. I expected to see the Compaq splash and never saw it. I killed it and listened and felt for the hard drive to spin up. Nothing. I tried several more times and was able to toggle the mouse control light, but no POST occurred.
Any ideas? At this point the lightning bolt stays fully lit so it looks like I solved one problem, but caused another. Clearly the Achillies Heel is the 2 cent power socket with a spot of solder where more would have been better. Any ideas would be much appreciated. As far a taking it apart and putting it back together goes, that was easy. On a scale of one to ten, I would give it a 4. I don't recall locking the CPU so that might be it. Anyone? If you have had luck getting a new motherboard, please share your source.
Oh, a note to those who have yet to have this problem, remove the CPU cover occassionally and clear the bunnies. This is the only laptop of 15 that I have owned that I ever found internal dust bunnies in.
Thanks in advance!
Jeff
I'm sharing my quote posted recently at takeitapartDOTnet, followed by my 25 minute fix at the end.
Having had some experience and background in such actions (class action and other legal maneuvers) I wouldn't hold my breath. Unless someone can demonstrate an implied usability beyond the warranty period, my hunch is we are chasing a losing cause. This is called Caveat Emptor - Buyer Beware. From all the posts it appears that HP/Compaq upheld its warranties during the limited warranty period. I recall that this laptop was initially a bargain at less than $900 which compares to over $2,000 for the last X-series Thinkpad I purchased over three years ago, but is still going strong. To make the automobile analogy, we bought Yugos where others bought Buicks. That was a risk we were willing to take at the time of our purchases, and probably must accept now. That said, I am not a satisfied consumer and I can guarantee that I will not be purchasing another HP/Compaq laptop in the near future, nor will I be recommending them.
Right now my NEW battery is charging up just barely on the laptop. When it is done, I will be backing up the entire PC and then taking apart the old battery and direct wiring it to a 110V AC to DC transformer. I'm pretty sure this "tampering" will void any action I would otherwise have, but at least I will know definitively whether or not I can continue to run this PC or or not with the slight mod. If it doesn't work, I still can go back to the pictures at the top of this post and try to re-solder the power outlet.
The following link to a HP Limited Warranty might be good bedtime reading for some:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00019915&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=&product=86633
Good luck to those that take an alternate course., but remember that Time is Money! I'll keep you posted of my progress with the battery mod. Dead batteries are probably going for less than $10 plus shipping on e-bay.
Cheers!
Jeff
Following that post, I went against my own drethers and took it apart. I should have gone with the battery bypass or the media cord (which I only learned of today).
I found that if I flipped it on its back and took off the battery, the hard drive and the RAM cover off, that I could then take off the CPU cover plastic by uscrewing all the screws and leaving them in their sockets followed by lifting the black plastic cover straight up with the screws still in place, followed by unscrewing the CD/DVD locking screw (approx center of CD spindle within) and removing that screw alone, unsliding the DVD drive followed by unscrewing all the remaining screws in the remaining bottom black pastic, but leaving the screws in place and lifting it up gently enough to keep all the screw where they needed to be (like before), I got it apart in about 4 minutes. Then I took off the speaker assembly, and mini-sound card leaving their screws in the slots. I flipped it over and at that point pried the upper plastic gray cover off at the base of the screen, followed bt removing the 4 keyboard screws and the 4 now visible hinge screws, the wrap-around upper plastic could be removed from the mother board. Total time into it so far 8 minutes. ANother minute and the CPU was off, followed by its wrap-around gray chasis/sink.
I then noted the lack of solder near the power jack in question and the proximity to the HOT CPU. I pulled off the CPU cover and fan covers and extracted a TON of dust bunny. That was the apparent source of my overheating problem. It also probably weakened the minimal solder on the socket through.
I took the board to a TV repair shop and for $5 and in 5 minutes he resoldered the four pins nicely. I thought I was in the clear. I re-assembled it in 6 minutes and only had one screw extra. I plugged it in and the lightning bolt came on orange (good sign). I then turned on the power button and it glowed orange as did the mouse button and the fans whirred up. Still thinking good thoughts there. About 5 seconds later the fans stopped (no dust bunnies to fight) and the three orange lights remained lit, but nothing else happened. I expected to see the Compaq splash and never saw it. I killed it and listened and felt for the hard drive to spin up. Nothing. I tried several more times and was able to toggle the mouse control light, but no POST occurred.
Any ideas? At this point the lightning bolt stays fully lit so it looks like I solved one problem, but caused another. Clearly the Achillies Heel is the 2 cent power socket with a spot of solder where more would have been better. Any ideas would be much appreciated. As far a taking it apart and putting it back together goes, that was easy. On a scale of one to ten, I would give it a 4. I don't recall locking the CPU so that might be it. Anyone? If you have had luck getting a new motherboard, please share your source.
Oh, a note to those who have yet to have this problem, remove the CPU cover occassionally and clear the bunnies. This is the only laptop of 15 that I have owned that I ever found internal dust bunnies in.
Thanks in advance!
Jeff
If you have a pentium the cpu should be locked by turning a screw, sounds like you did not fasten it. If it is amd, it is unlikely you missed the locking with the lever, because the heatsink wouldn't fit with the lever up. If pentium, and reseating/securing cpu and memory doesn't help, you still might have an issue with the positive pin of the dc-jack, as it needs to be soldered on both sides of the board for pentium compaqs/hp's. If you have a 120 watts power adapter, they tend to go weak over time, some solved charging/running @ the same time issues with a 135 watt model.
If the soldering (both sides of the positive pin to the board) still doesn't give you running off the ac adapter and a known good battery only charges partly, I would suspect the internal power circuitry malfunctioning. Capacitors, voltage regulator chips. Odd thing is it seems to work okay off a battery, but shortly because the battery is bad or loaded partly. Don't you know anybody with a Compaq/HP model adapter with the same or better, a higher wattage? Some shop near that would let you test one?
Thanks for the tip! That was it!!!
I have a Pentium 4@2.8GHz and the problem was most certainly the CPU lock. Once I removed the cover, it was apparent that I got it half way connected. That was stalling the POST, I'm sure. Must have been that speed test I was performing to get it fixed. At any rate, add 3 more minutes to this project and call it a success.
I appreciate all the posts to this forum as they proved very insightful on my second attempt.
Fondly,
Jeff
I have a Pentium 4@2.8GHz and the problem was most certainly the CPU lock. Once I removed the cover, it was apparent that I got it half way connected. That was stalling the POST, I'm sure. Must have been that speed test I was performing to get it fixed. At any rate, add 3 more minutes to this project and call it a success.
I appreciate all the posts to this forum as they proved very insightful on my second attempt.
Fondly,
Jeff
Thanks for your help. I don't think the guy that "repaired" this knew what he was doing. If he did replace the AC adapter, he probably didn't solder it properly. He still won't return my calls, so I'm calling the place where I bought it (they recommended this guy) and appealing to them to help me. I don't know anyone with an adapter that's compatible with the PC, so no way to try that. I'm beginning to think it would be cheaper, given what I've already spent on this, that I may have to bite the bullet and buy a new one, rather than dump more money into this. I can't believe HP won't take any responsibility for all the time and money the masses have wasted on this problem.
Ill keep you posted and, again, thanks for your time and input.
Ill keep you posted and, again, thanks for your time and input.
I just came across this forum. I own a R3360 and had this problem a couple years ago. Luckily, the lappy was still under Best Buy's 3 year warranty and was fixed (replaced motherboard).
So far so good. I use this machine for work full time and I'm careful when inserting and removing the plug. Everything has held up great; no charging problems, no loose buttons. I guess there's hope for me.
The only issue I had was a noisy rear fan. I was able to easily fix that by removing the fan itself and applying a little 3-in-1 oil to the shaft. Worked like a charm and has for a few months now. Very quiet.
If my adapter does decide to go, I'm not worried, as I have already taken at least the bottom off before. I've taken other laptops apart fully, though not this one...yet. I'm also handy with a soldering gun.
I may even purchase the media cable just to be safe and put less wear on it (since I use an external monitor most of the time unless I'm traveling).
MY QUESTION would be, do you think Compaq replaced my board with a 'new version' that is stronger than the ones originally used?
So far so good. I use this machine for work full time and I'm careful when inserting and removing the plug. Everything has held up great; no charging problems, no loose buttons. I guess there's hope for me.
The only issue I had was a noisy rear fan. I was able to easily fix that by removing the fan itself and applying a little 3-in-1 oil to the shaft. Worked like a charm and has for a few months now. Very quiet.
If my adapter does decide to go, I'm not worried, as I have already taken at least the bottom off before. I've taken other laptops apart fully, though not this one...yet. I'm also handy with a soldering gun.
I may even purchase the media cable just to be safe and put less wear on it (since I use an external monitor most of the time unless I'm traveling).
MY QUESTION would be, do you think Compaq replaced my board with a 'new version' that is stronger than the ones originally used?
Well, the power jack is working great still...but I went to hook up to a dialup connection (normally just use the wireless broadband) and the modem doesn't seem to be working now?
Also, I received the All-in-one media cable today. So if anyone is interested in it, send me a PM.
Also, I received the All-in-one media cable today. So if anyone is interested in it, send me a PM.
@rpeters, newer revisions often have improvements. I have 2 boards here, same part number, different video chips (440 versus 420), the one with a later date code has extra capacitors just in front of the second fan connector. If they were smart, they resoldered the new board's jack before fitting it.
Selliot, forgot the little modem cable inside?
Selliot, forgot the little modem cable inside?
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