Question Fixing ribbon cable attachment for power button.

braeseven

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Feb 8, 2016
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I have an Acer Laptop (V3-472) that has a broken ribbon cable connector for the power button. The tab on the top of the connecor that flips down to hold the ribbon tip in place has broken off. I have tried several methods to hold the ribbon in place, but have had mainly two results that don't make the power button work. Either the laptop starts when I plug in the charger, only to shut down a few seconds later (as though the power on signal sticks and turns it back off), or putting pressure on the connector will bring about a normal startup, but not actually pressing the power button does that. I'm trying to understand how the connector works and what the locking tab actually does. There are two rows of 4 pins that the ribbon tip goes between in the connector, but I cant get the right amount of pressure or placement of some kind of shim to make it work properly.

Thanks.
 

braeseven

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Feb 8, 2016
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THIS cable or the actual power button?

If it is just the cable, replace it.
No the cable is fine, The tab on the connector broke off. See pictures:
fix-touchpad-cable-connector-00.jpg

fix-touchpad-cable-connector-01.jpg

fix-touchpad-cable-connector-02.jpg


I tried this repair method:

fix-touchpad-cable-connector-03.jpg

fix-touchpad-cable-connector-04.jpg


but pressing power button afterwards still does nothing. However if I apply more pressure to the ribbon tip (ie. shim, tape, etc) the laptop will power on but then turn off as if the power on signal gets stuck on which gives it the shutdown command.
 

RealBeast

Titan
Moderator
Yeah, those are tougher to find, I usually superglue the broken one back together or scavenge a comparable part of one of my junk laptops, but I mostly work on Dell so have nothing similar.

Small parts are harder now, not as much from Hong Kong now as there was. I would attempt to fashion one out of hard plastic and a moto tool wearing some good gloves, it will be tedious unless you can find the broken one to attempt a repair.
 

braeseven

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Feb 8, 2016
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Yeah, those are tougher to find, I usually superglue the broken one back together or scavenge a comparable part of one of my junk laptops, but I mostly work on Dell so have nothing similar.

Small parts are harder now, not as much from Hong Kong now as there was. I would attempt to fashion one out of hard plastic and a moto tool wearing some good gloves, it will be tedious unless you can find the broken one to attempt a repair.
The locking tab was still attached when the problem started. I tried to carefully remove it intending to reattach it but broke it. But like I said the problem still happened even when the tab was attached properly and in position. If the power button itself has somehow packed it in I can probably rig it to turn on when applying pressure on the connection. So far that's the only way i've got it to turn on and stay on.