Need Suggestions For Fixing Batteries-Only Gateway

Hi all,

I was given a Gateway laptop recently that was having trouble working from AC power. It runs fine from the battery though.

The previous owner said she had to push in on the AC power connector to get it to work off AC power, but it finally quit running off AC power several months ago.

So I read up on the subject and saw that the power jacks often go out on Gateway notebooks. I got a soldering iron and removed the old power jack, which seemed to be intact.

I soldered wires to the motherboard where the old power jack connected and installed an external power jack. No dice, but the unit still runs fine off the battery.

My question is then, does anyone know of a way to

1.) Wire an ac connection to where the battery goes in (I'm not sure if this is even possible)

or

2.) Is there some sort of battery that can run off AC power, such as an uninterruptable power supply, that i could connect to where the battery attaches.

or

3.) Know of some other solution that will make this notebook usable to where it will run off AC power?

Thanks in advance!

PS: I don't think simply replacing the power jack is really viable option, since the old one seemed intact when I looked at it after removing it, and also I may have burned away the contacts on the motherboard while removing the old one.

 

that shouldnt be that hard to repair even if you messed up the pads as long as the traces are still visible an undamaged (make sure you follow the traces to make sure you dont have a damaged component somewhere else). i had a similar problem with a portable dvd player in which the jack itself was fine but the traces had been damaged (how the previous owner managed that i dunno) but all i did was scrape away at the trace until the metal was visible and solder a wire going from the trace back to the dc jack. just make sure you get it right or youll fry something. if you dont think you can do this kind of "surgery" i suggest just calling up gateway and having them fix it.

if the laptop has been opened before make sure the board the dc jack is on is plugged into the main board. i had this issue when i took apart my 7805u and put it back together thinking it was plugged in. to fix that just take it apart and make sure its plugged in and put it back together again.

the only other thing i can say is to post pictures so either i or someone else can help you (please use a camera that can take clear pictures i have seen to many blurry cellphone pictures. those wont help lol).

 

Thanks for the great reply. I have the thing completely reassembled now. So I'm not too anxious to tear back into it, at least until I have a decent plan as to exactly what I'm going to investigate.

The hole on the motherboard where the + wire connects is about 3 times its original size from my sloppy soldering and de-soldering. I honestly feel like it may be some problem other than a poor connection to the MB, since I have spent so much time soldering and resoldering that connection without any luck getting the thing to power up.

It's entirely possible that the DC jack is not plugged in, I will look into that. Can you give me a clue where it is?



I know that the board will power up in a stripped down condition from the battery, with just the CPU fan attached. But will a board power up from AC power disassembled like this? That's how I did a lot of my testing, so if not, that could explain why I could not get the board to power up in that condition.

Also, can you recommend a good PCB board cleaner? I have a decent camera (Canon Powershot with macro) but you can't see much because the board is kinda dirty from all that soldering.

Are there internal fuses that might be blown? I was wondering about that too.

 

hmm i honestly dunno if there would be fuses in your laptop i know that some laptop do but if there is it should be pretty obvious (the ones ive seen are always nice sized so it shouldnt be too small) on my gateway the dc jack is on a separate smaller pcb where is the dc jack on your mobo?

by dirty do you mean its like brownish or something? i just use alcohol of the highest percentage i can find to clean electronics (something in the 90's). as for powering it up disassembled i pretty sure that on most laptops it has several grounds it get from the chassis so i for most of em i figure you would need to assemble them back up but i know you can power up and use a desktop mobo just fine without it being in a case (i would just reassemble it to be on the safe side.)

i cant really say where to go from here youll have to unfortunately take pictures of your mobo. take one of the whole board as clear as possible. then take several pictures of the mobo as close as possible around the dc jack and the traces following up to the dc jack. it has to be something wrong with the dc jack somewhere in that vicinity because you say the laptop runs fine off battery so it cant be anything wrong with the computer itself.

 

OK here is the ugly scene:



I know it doesn't look pretty, but it ought to work, at least on and off. The other side of the board has clean soldering, but the side, particularly the + connector on the left side of the photo is what has been giving me all the trouble.

That hole just keeps getting bigger and bigger every time I mess with it, so I wanna quit before I completely destroy it, unless that's already a done deal.

 

So assuming, for the sake of argument, that the AC power contacts are irreparably hosed, does anyone know how I might go about powering the laptop via the battery connector, which after all this, still works?

That was my main question anyway, since I think I have explored every possible option for getting the AC inputs to work.

 

I think you never really liked your laptop.

 

Thanks Maverick, that was very helpful. Any other constructive contributions?

Here is the other side of the board, FWIW:

 

dude no offense but it doesnt even look like you know what your doing when it comes to soldering. did you even use flux? there shouldnt even be any solder on the top of the board only on the bottom where the pins come through. you should just remove whatever it is you did there and give it a good ol cleaning and start over. to remove the solder use a desolding braid and a little flux. how many watts is the iron your using by the way? i personally dont use anything over 15 watts my current iron is at 12 watts.

in all honesty though unless you read and/or watch several videos on soldering your might as well just clean it up and send it in to be fixed.
it kinda looks like the iron you use was a very high wattage iron so if i was you i would go over the entire board carefully checking for solder splatter. assuming the laptop still functions correctly it shouldnt be that hard to clean that mess up and fix it.

 

No offense, but I really was not asking for a critique of my soldering skills. Here was my original question:

My question is then, does anyone know of a way to

1.) Wire an ac connection to where the battery goes in (I'm not sure if this is even possible)

or

2.) Is there some sort of battery that can run off AC power, such as an uninterruptable power supply, that i could connect to where the battery attaches.

or

3.) Know of some other solution that will make this notebook usable to where it will run off AC power?

Thanks in advance!

PS: I don't think simply replacing the power jack is really viable option, since the old one seemed intact when I looked at it after removing it, and also I may have burned away the contacts on the motherboard while removing the old one.



I didn't see anything in there about, "Can you please critique my welds and give me suggestions on soldering correctly?" Do you?

Therefore, I take it you don't know the answer to any of these 3 questions. So if not, thanks anyway. "Send it in to be fixed"? Wow, that's brilliant, who would have ever thought of that one?

FWIW, I don't think there was ever anything wrong with the power jack to begin with, since it was essentially intact once I desoldered it. And until you have desoldered something that small yourself, I would not pass judgment, it's a very difficult job.

 

look im not trying to be nasty in anyway so there is no need for that but im telling you this for your own good im not trying to insult you but if you cant even solder properly then there is absolutely no way you are going to be able to fix this. in your position i think the best bet would be to take it to someone who does know what they are doing. i will no longer be helping you in any manner as you cant even take advice without getting defensive. i also wont humor you by posting here any further. good day.