Compaq Presario R3000 power cord issue - Page 6

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Same here, never a new HP or Compaq, but a secondhand one, oh well. You might get lucky by upgrading the powerbrick from a 120 to a 135 watt model, if applicable. I get over 19Volts from the adapter itself, and 19Volts at the docking port. The 18V from yours, is this from the adapter itself too, and within it's specifications?

I guess if the voltage is low from the adapter, it may shut off the charging capability to continue running system.

Hello All, I just finished the legendary Presario R3000 stri down and solder scenario, successfully in that i felt the process went well and i had no pieces left over. However after reconstruction I still have no power input.
Just a little flashing light!
My Presario had a new power board fitted by teleplan at the cost of £200 in the U.K a year ago, the problem was not sorted.
Has anybody got any ideas what i can try next?
Spares or repair!
What a waste.
I payed good money for this piece of crap and its hardly ever worked ever!
Many thanks to all the input from everybody. It was very helpful in the stripping down of My Presario.
Miazmo

Dear Que,

I am most impressed by your informativeness on this matter. I have an AMD-variant R3000. The jack had become loose, and I attempted a re-soldering of the jack (with a generic DIY 25w thin-tipped soldering iron, some desoldering braid and standard rosin solder). Now, it will power up, POST, and run fine off of battery power, but when I attempt to power it up on AC with no battery in, it will power up, and the CPU will become quite hot and the fans will run, but it does not POST on AC power, nor does it power the up the LCD or its backlight while on AC. I haven't tested to an external monitor, but I frankly don't trust that it is producing output while on AC. I do not own a media cable to test the circuitry from another angle. I am too afraid at present to try to see the outcome of running it on AC with the battery connected. I am wondering whether I may have damaged a resistor, capacitor, SMD, etc in the process of re-soldering the jack, or whether the jack may not be making contact with the solder traces on the motherboard (the bottom traces, especially the center ground, appear to be slightly burnt, but there is still a decent amount of the metal contact/trace left). I've looked for the 100mfd AA8 capacitors, and I've located 6 of the 7 you mention this board has, but I do not see any damage to them from their outward appearance. Might I have caused something to blow internally from heat damage, or do you think I need a new jack ? If you think it is an SMD or resistor, I would appreciate which you think might be implicated. If you think the traces might be bad or useless now, I am wondering if I could use electrical wire and connect a new jack to the traces on the leftmost/rightmost contacts of media connector, and perhaps hotglue the jack in place upside down.

Can't seem to edit my own message so:
The amd board only needs to be soldered on one side of the board. Is your adapter a 120 or 150 watts? You could increase the power to the board, by removing the drives, a second memory stick, even press the switch that turns off the screen when the lid is closed, and see if it gets past post then. Would give a clue.

Thanks for all who have posted their experiences and like everyone else, I wish I had found it sooner. Special thanks to rshcults and que for your detailed instructions.

Armed w/printout of the HP Maintenance manual provided by earlier link(s) and pictures by rschults I tore my daughter's unusable laptop completely apart. Found the 4 pins (3grounds & 1 center), and resoldered. They did not have enough solder flowed to cover the copper traces much less to provide current for laptop and battery charging.

For all who are buying soldering irons @ nearest home improvement center or Radio Shack, I hope they are selling zero voltage tips or grounded tip irons. Years ago that was not the case and caused the ruin of many a chip. I would encourage all to also use soldering flux......yes I know the solder is supposed to have some in it, but it is never enough. I used to do a lot of component level repair and found that to be the biggest falacy. Flux the tip when hot & wipe off w/damp rag, then put fresh solder on it.

Anyway, I cleaned up the board w/little alcohol and put an ohmmeter on pins. I also touched up the audio pins mentioned by rschultz, however they did not seem to need it. It took me longer to go down to electronics store to buy the anti-static wrist strap and work pad than to do the repair. Yes, static will ruin your board; personal experience and sometimes it will not manifest itself until device is put to full use. It has been years since I did any component level repair, so it was an enjoyable afternoon.

I noted after repair that my battery would hang @ 3% charge for 20min, suddenly go to 100%. I pulled AC plug and it ran for 20min & died, bad battery; probably from not being adequately charged and repeatedly drained completely. Again, thanks to all for your input, and shame on HP/Compaq.

Oh - one more thing...I know the processor pin is not the cause of my mouse issue because I am able to use a usb mouse - thanks again

Hi, really an adventure into hardware land, not? Tried all your keyboard keys writing a textfile? You might have some not responding or giving wrong output, can be a not right aligned flatcable in the slot. About the latch (don't know the English word) that secures the keypad's cable, take it off the other board, or use one of the not used connectors on the board? They are much bigger, but are better to secure with tape or glue than just the cable.
The keypad/mouse/touch pad is another port than the usb, it is mentioned as a ps2 mouse in device manager if I remember right. If the broken processor pin could be the cause why the keypad is not working (don't think so), then a working usb mouse would not indicate it is not the issue, because usb and ps2 have no relation hardware wise.
If your processor is running fine, no failing instruction sets in gaming, I wouldn't bother replacing it, it might just have been a ground pin. Don't know much about processor sockets, mobiles are preferred when battery life is of importance.

Why not buy the $50 all-in-one media cable off ebay, does the same as the docking station, without the speakers.

Ok! Thank you! I'll probably be purchasing the media cable today! Thanks so much for getting back to me!

If the light stays on, the jack is ok. No fans spinning, no light on the lcd, not a beep, nothing at all?

Don't think so, remove the battery and you are sure, because it should work off ac only. Maybe the on/off switch went bad, check the video/disassembly topic and take off the strip covering it. Remove your memory stick(s) (one under keyboard, other at the bottom behind the small single screw plate) and reseat them. If you have 2 sticks, test per stick. Once you have the strip covering the on/off switch removed, also disconnect the lcd cable, and see if it will boot without it connected.

Weird indeed, so yours is up and running again???

Hello Que,
You seem to be the one here with solutions.. So I will ask you, without going into ALL the details. I too have the same power issues with r3000. After 6 months of bending, pulling, stretching, rapping (and cursing) the cord around my computer to get it to stay connected, I purchased another power supply cord, it does the same thing, however, it now will only charged my battery and not my computer. Computer will run until my battery dies. I still have my original power supply cord, I had to remove the tip and cold solder everything back together because of bending it so much. It also only charges my battery. After 2 estimates, being told the mother needed replaced to fix the problem and a charge of $365.00, one said just to solder, the cost would be $289.00, glad I found this site first.

Someone asked you about the HPDL516A solution. What is that?

Has anyone contacted HP about this? What is they view on their problem with upset customers?

Hello,

I have read all the post listed here. I am having the same problem. I have a Compaq Presario R3000. I have had the laptop since 2004. I saved to get a nice system because I knew I would not be able to afford another one any time soon. I will say a year after having the laptop, I started having jack problems. It progress more and more. To now it will not hold it at all. It just flashes when in there and on a good day I can get it to charge but I bettr not move it. Everything that is important to me is on the laptop.

After reading this blog and talking to HP (I have talked to them on the phone, through their chat, and email exchange). I thought sending me links to where to buy the All-In-One Media Cord and the jack was funning. It lead me to E-bay.

I sent for the jack today. The cord cost to much and it was none to buy out right. All of them were to bid for. I would like to get the cord or the docking station. I am really scared of doing the soldering myself. I have the soldering iron and everything. I can actually solder but I just don't want to mess up anything.

If someone has the All-In-One cord for sell or know were I can get one out right please let me know. If not, I will try to replace the new jack I brought. I really can't afford much and I really can't afford to replace the laptop or the items I have on it.

Thanks in advance!
Tinamarie

Thank you, Que!

No,whizkid. I think I will try it if I can't find the cable.

Hello Again,

I was able to fix the part. I took it apart and soldered in the part. AND IT WORKED! But I have a new problem. After awhile (I will say about a minute) it goes into stand by (when the power switch light is blinking). Any ideas on what that my be?

Thank you,
Tinamarie

My jack needed replacing which I did. Pretty easy with the right tools. But it will nost POST, or anything. The battery light just blinks rapidly. I got this laptop from work, my IT guy said I could have it if I could get it to work. They had the same problem before I got it. Upon inspecting it I noticed the jack was in terrible condition and replaced it. But nothing except the blinking light. Can anyone help point me in the right direction?

And finally i just measured again the voltage at the dock point and got 14.83-14.84 steady. Thats with the 95w PS plugged in.

Way too low, it should read 19 volts. Some could not even keep it running with a 120 watts adapter, and had to get a 135 watts one, to compensate for the degrading capacitors/charging circuitry of these boards.
Best you take it to a comp. shop, and ask for an adapter to try?

I'm getting kidna worried here cause I too experianced the dreaded R3000 powerjack problem. I recently took apart the laptop and resoldered the powerjack pins to the motherboard. And the computer started up fine and everything. However, after an hour of use, the indicator light that looks like a thunderbolt on the front of the notebook shut up. The computer runs fine when the power cable is pluged in, but the thunderbolt light doesnt come. Does the light only come on when the battery is being charged?

Ok Ive read all the comments here in this forum, with my workings , this is what I have done
Removed the faulty where you put your powercord into.
I then clipped the end of the powercord and revealed the two wires white coated and the regular wire with no coating
found on the mother board where to soder them to. by doing this i was able to charge the battery again. however it will not work without the battery.
wondering if i take the battery out and put my two wires on the GOLD CONNECTORS for the battery , far sides or right or left seem like a good idea, at least then if if did work it would stay on. has anyone tried this to see if it will work. obviously it does then the laptop would transform into a desktop , wereas you would have to plug it in to make it work.

Hey I have a Presario r3000 and I am starting to have this power issue where the cord is plugged in but the computer is running off battery and I have to kind of pull the cord out and giggle it etc. I read all the other posts on here. I am techincally challenged to say the least. I wanted to know before I spend 189.00 to get a cord like this, how does this change the need for the soddering?

http://www.techexcess.net/hp-xc100 [...] v318a.aspx

I've learned alot reading this thread. I've experienced similar problems with the loose power cord, but now if the power cord becomes disengaged, the PC shuts off and I have to reboot. The battery reads 99% charged. But it will not do anything until I plug the power cord back in. I'll probably try soldering the pins, but thought I'd ask if this is a different issue. Any helpful thoughts?

It bypasses the power-in on the back by using the docking port on the right side, which has a lead to the same power circuitry. Expensive!

Not really difficult, just handle anything with care, and follow the tutorials and maintenance guides.
http://h20181.www2.hp.com/plmconte [...] 1CA8A20D6A
There's no need to remove the cpu and frame that supports the mainboard.

Google for the rmclock program, it doesn't need to install, it's an exe file, that will give you instant acces to the temperature of the cpu. Have you removed the cpu from the board, if so, have you put proper thermal paste back between the cpu and heatsink? Are both fans working, and clean? Report what RMclock reads.

Tinamarie, stop using the computer and apply some good thermal paste, like Arctic Silver 5, get it from a computer shop. Look at the instruction video for removing/replacing the heatsink.
Use some alcohol to clean the cpu and apply a paper-thin layer of thermal paste on the cpu metal core, clean the heatsink's surface with alcohol too, and fasten the screws turn by turn, jumping from screw to screw in a diagonal way, so the sink stays flat on the cpu.
What is rmclock saying about the temperature?