Fixing a Broken Laptop

I have encountered many an older laptop with the same simple technical problem, the damn power connector has come lose from the board. In this case, the laptop belonged to a co-worker who brought it in and began taking it apart.

Having done this same procedure on a few laptops in the past, I jumped right in. I have found two things with taking apart electronics, particularly laptops. The first is that the manufacturers are damn good at hiding screws. The second rule of thumb for taking apart laptops is don't force anything.

With the laptops I have taken apart, I find that you unscrew everything you can see on the bottom with the expectation that it will come off, but it doesn't. You then flip the laptop over and find the hidden cover on the keyboard side. This cover comes off along with the screws under it, as well as any that may be under the keyboard. After you disconnect a few ribbon cables, it's often the top of the laptop that comes off and not the bottom. This particular laptop wasn't much different and it turned out that the motherboard was mounted to the bottom, not the top as it first appears.

After taking out the motherboard, I was able to put a few dabs of solder on the power connector to secure it in place. It really didn't look bad, but all it takes is a small crack in the solder, which can be very hard to see.

After soldering, we re-assembled the laptop. I connected the few ribbon connectors and left the countless screws for the laptop owner to put back in. Luckily, at the end there were no spare screws and everything seemed to go back into place. We connected the power, pressed the button, and waited for the moment of truth…success!