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Charge port - bad connection or just broke?
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DJAmy
3 Posts
(Offline)
1
September 15, 2009 - 10:00 am

I have a dell inspiron 1200 laptop and when the charge cord is plugged in~ if it is moved a little bit sometimes the screen will flicker like it's going from not charging to charging. The plug is also loose in the back a smidge. My fear is that the jack internally is broken and I have been told this would be something that would require replacing the entire mobo. If that's the case I'm at the point of making the laptop into a fixture on my fireplace and only used for hooking into my bigscreen to watch movies. The headphone jack is also broke (broke exactly 1 day, 4 hours, 21 minutes and 17 seconds after the warranty expired) at a DJ gig I was working at. I was also told this is something that would require replacing the entire innards of my laptop, so I just bought a usb external sc and called it a day. The charge port is just something I figure will go out eventually and not work at all.

(later I will post questions about my desktop...that is another day. All I can say about my desktop is, there is NO Award BIOS update for a dated Foxconn!!!)

PS Hi Davedge

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Chad Johnson
867 Posts
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2
September 15, 2009 - 1:03 pm

Hiya DJAmy! And welcome!

I've had this happen in the past, and the center pin in my charging port had first come loose then finally snapped off.

It was about $80 to have a more experienced tech than me go in and solder the charging port back on.

I would take it to a qualified service center (NOT best buy) and have them give you their opinion. Some places charge a small service fee to take a look, but some don't, so do some digging and you're sure to find one.

or if you're not far from Indianapolis, IN, Dave will fix it for free (ha ha, i have no idea if he will or not, so you should probably ask him first).

--zig

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DJAmy
3 Posts
(Offline)
3
September 15, 2009 - 2:41 pm

Well when it rains it pours!! Thank you for responding to my problem but unfortunately it just got a WHOLE LOT worse! lol
I went to boot up my laptop and it went into a boot loop. Did a scan on it and it gave me error 0F00:1344. I have googled this problem and it says the hard drive needs to be replaced....ugh. What a fun day!!!

Amy

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DJAmy
3 Posts
(Offline)
4
September 15, 2009 - 2:45 pm

Oh but the good news is...I have a brand new mobo for it, just haven't figured how I'm gonna get it in there

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David Hartsock
1117 Posts
(Offline)
5
September 16, 2009 - 10:36 am

Laptops are notorious for this. The jack is soldered onto the motherboard, but is only supported by the solder joints and (to a small extent) the case. Over time the weight of the cable and stress put on the cable/plug weaken the joints or the actual tabs to the point they break. In a best case scenario it is the actual cord that broke right where the cable and plug meet - new charger. The second best is the solder connections broke - tear laptop apart (a couple hours) and resolder. The worst case is the actual tabs broke - hunt the interwebs for the exact jack ($10 - $15) and tear it apart to replace.

The error you are getting is Dell's code for bad sectors on the drive. If the bad sectors stored data that is necessary for the computer to boot you are in a world of hurt!

The best bet is a new drive, as your current drive is on it's way to the great electronics graveyard in the sky. Keep the old drive. You can use an adapter to connect the drive to a working computer and (more than likely) get most of your data back. Time consuming? Yes. Worth it? Yes.

Hi Amy!

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