Compaq Presario R3000 power cord issue - Page 9

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I finally decided to pull my R3000 out of the closet and try to fix it -- Had problems with it charging right after i bought it.. got frustrated and tossed it in the closet

Now i need a laptop for some software in my car.. so time to fix it

I replaced the connector on the laptop, but that didn't solve the problem...

I'm thinking about just attaching the cable directly to the mobo and calling it a day or something along those lines

Anywho, which pin is the positive, and which 3 are the negative ones?

I assume the center one is the positive... and the others are negative

Correct.

After 3 failed attempts to solder by a opening I created on the top of the mother board over the power connection, I finally solved my problems with a big bill of 2$ !

I'll post pictures later but here's what I did...

When to my local electronic shop, bought:

- Female connector for my power cord.
- an 8 pins connector
- Some wires

The 8 pins connector fits perfectly in the Expansion Port. Kept the first and last pin.

Soldered the female connector to wire to connector.

Ground is on left, Positive on right.

Works like a charm!!!

after I plug through the expansion port, it behaves normally:

charges the battery and lights up the lightning bolt.

No, what I purchased is an 8 pin connector that looks like this:

http://rocky.digikey.com/weblib/CT [...] SERIES.jpg

The width fits perfectly in the expansion port

Thanks intelmic,

So with this connector you soldered wires to connect to your power supply ? I believe it's the two outer most connections that I should supply power to:

X111111X

A little late answer, but I get the same voltage on the docking port pins as the adapter gives. Is this with your battery in, it looks like your 14 volts come from the battery and not from the adapter? What do you read with the battery removed?

I replaced the entire DC power conecter make sure you use pleanty of solder I used about a map pins worth of solder on each post and my machine is now 100%. A bit of advice Iistead of makein a map for all the srews I just taped them in their respective holes or next too their hole this worked really well and I had no lost screws when I put the computer back together The DC power port cost me 10.00 dollars U.S. and the soldering iron was 12.00, solder was 1.95. Just have patients when you clean the connectors I put the solder iron right on the board around each pin hole to clean out the old solder. This works and when I disected the dc coupler sure enough it was cracked. This is a good computer and why Compaq would not step up is a mystery. I like the computer but will never by another Compaq/HP due to the lack of support, which is a really stupid reason to lose a customer over!!! The Ronin

I have a problem that I have never been able to resolve, so I am wondering if the symptoms are similar enough. My R3240US randomly shuts off, not shuts down, but instant power cut. When I say random, there does not seem to be a pattern to work with. Sometimes I can run the laptop for hours, other times it shuts off repeatedly.

I have tried numerous other R3240 AC adapters, all of which work just fine on other units. Sometimes it does shut down when the laptop is under increased activity, yet it will also shut down when just idle as well.

I ran the standard test, one pass this time and found no problems. I now remember running this long time ago with numerous passes without errors.

This is OS independent. Previously I had both Windows and Linux, and it not only will occur in both, but this will also happen before the OS loads. Sometimes before even the boot screen. Besides, this is not a reboot, but a sudden shut off, just as if I pull the power cord with no battery. And this will happen regardless of having any battery in (I have batteries for this, one was never used).

Yes, in fact the first thing I did was try it out without the AC adapter, because I thought it was the AC adapter doing this. Well much to my disappointment it shut off repeatedly with just the battery.

Hey guys,

I got ALL the way down to the motherboard. I was looking at the shiny silver "box/shield" that was covering the power port. I didn't see anything wrong or disconnected there...

On the other side I saw 3 very tiny goldish/silverish looking nubs. They didn't look like anyhtig i've seen in the pictures in this thread. I have the AMD version of this laptop.

I don't know where to solder! What should i do??? Everything looks okay... but I know my power port isn't connecting to the battery/laptop.

Thanks

Hi Guys. Have got the same power cord issue on my R3000 laptop; Have replaced the jack by a new one from ebay but steel no luck. What happens is that before reassembling the laptop i have connected the AC adapter to the new soldered jack for testing purpose, the fans goes ok; have disconnected the ac adapter and reconnected it just to be sure and here nothing happens (the fans doesn't speed up..). After that i disconnected the ac adapter and connected the battery and the fans speed up.
So finally I'm with a laptop wich works fine with battery BUT won't boot up with the ac adapter???

I'm pretty sure the jack soldering is enough good,
what may be the problem and is there something else to test.
Thanks.

After cheking there is no power on the most left and most right contacts of the docking port connector (0 volt).
By the way it's an AMD CPU.

Hey so I finally did it. I had a friend help with the soldering...

We basically used a braid to melt off the solder on the 4 nubs. Then we gave it little tugs and the old AC jack came out.

I had to make the holes slightly larger so the new one would slip in all the way. I eventually slipped in nice and snug, and then I used very thin rosin-core solder from radio shack to completely cover the nubs. (it was REALLY hard... it wanted to make little shiny silver spheres and would roll around - it took work to get it to sit on the nubs and smush it down a bit). I also smushed a solder-sphere into the top on the positive node so that i had solder on both sides.

So anyway, the job wasn't professional, but it was definitely satisfactory.

Bad news though.. STILL SAME PROBLEM! I'm happy the motherbaord didn't catch fire... but still... the battery doesn't charge when I plug it in. When I press power button, the "lightning bolt" light just blinks as if the battery was saying "charge me".

What else can I try?

I will also mention, it might have been pointless for me to replace the AC jack. The original was soldered REALLY well... and was snug and didn't budge. Maybe my problem is with something else... i've already spent 8+ hours on this laptop and I'm so determined - i need to fix it!

To all with the Presario R3000. The problem is the lousey soldering job the Chinese did when they attached the power unit onto the motherboard. I fixed my problem for $9.00.. You need a good soldering iron and have to do some minor cutting underneath the plate above the keyboard to the right. There, you will see the solder points that need to be re-soldered. I fixed my computer 1 1/2 years ago and it works great. Yes, as some mentioned on this post, you can by-pass this by using the all-in-one media plug to the right side of the laptop. But $9.00 is alot less expensive then the $$$ I'm reading these plugs cost.

Compaq/HP know of this problem.. Yet, they have refused to fix as this would have been a tremendous expense for them.....

does anyone have a picture of where to solder? thanks

DEAR R3000 OWNER. BEEN THERE, DONE THAT. THE R3000 IS AMONG THE WORST OF MANY LAPTOPS THAT EXPERIENCE THIS PROBLEM. YOU HAVE TO REPLACE THE SMALL RECIEVER UNIT INSIDE THE CASE OF THE COMPUTER THAT RECIEVES THE METAL LEAD FROM THE POWER CORD. ITS ABOUT $30 FOR THE PART, PLUS 1.5 HOURS LABOR. ONCE YOU HAVE THE OLD RECIEVER PART REPLACED AND THE COMPUTER IS WORKING NORMALLY - DON'T MOVE THE COMPUTER ANY MORE THAN YOU HAVE TO OR IT WILL BEGIN TO FAIL AGAIN! ITS JUST A BAD DESIGN.

Hi guys

Thanks for the reply, but what I need is working links to the following.
Would love the illustrations so I can follow them but I keep getting a "HTTP404 Website not found error"

Thanks in advance for some working links.

Tracey

Ripped apart link
http://206.130.101.158/pictures/Ripped%20Apart.jpg

Solder Here Link
http://206.130.101.158/pictures/Solder_Here.jpg

Sound On/Off Button Resolder Link
http://206.130.101.158/pictures/So [...] Solder.jpg

Didn't realize they were HPs own videos...hmmm....why do they need to put up a rpr video if it isn't a systemic problem!!!

Well I am going to pull the back off and have another go. But now when I try to start it up I have a blank screen!!! No lights, not writing, nothing!!

Have taken the HD out and tested it using a USB case on another computer and it appears to be working OK, so it isn't that. Would RAM prevent it 'lighting' up??? Am thinking that there is nothing wrong with the screen itself as it all worked fine (apart from the power cord problem) before I pulled it appart to try and fix that.

ANY help appreciated, or suggestions of other things to try to test the screen.

OH did plug in a external screen using the cable, but didn't wokr either, but I am not sure if you have to press something on the Compaq to make it use an external monitor or if it will automatically do so if once is plugged in to the back screen socket.

THANKS HEAPS

Tracey

By removing the 4 spring screws. Wiggle it a bit, dried out thermal paste seems your issue, re-apply fresh paste when assembling again. The cpu itself is fixed by a lever (amd) or a single screw (intel).
No screen on startup is bad. Memory (main- or video-) failure (change, try per stick if 2 sticks are mounted), or a dead cpu can be the cause.
ps. try Fn-key + F4 key (switch screen)?

I would save the money, sell the parts, and buy a used working laptop.

I have the same problem. I plug the cord in and out a few time until I have power. I will have power from 5 min to a few hours. I do see it is getting worse so I will need to have it fixed. I did find a sponsor at the bottom of the page that states they will fix it for $99.00 with a lifetime garantee. Sounds pretty good.
http://comprehensivecomputing.net/ [...] ir.htm#faq
Has anyone tried them? i think it is worth a shot since I do like my R3000. I have been using this PC for 6 years now without a problem.

In my opinion, Joe, pay for the sponsor to do it. After I pulled mine apart to 'have a go', found the forcecon glued solidly and rather than risk breaking the motherboard decided I would get someone to fix it for me. Then when I went to power up, no screen, so either I wrecked something else, OR another problem just coincidentally happened.
The DIAGRAMATICS for soldering have been removed, the link is dead. I believe in a previous link someone said they were from a HP site, guess they no longer wish to be seen as showing that this IS a MAJOR issue with this laptop.
GOOD LUCK, looks like mine is now going to be a 'sell for parts' job.
THink I might pay the guys $99 for a quote first, because I can't afford to spend the money to get another decent even 2nd hand one (which may come with its own issues).
THANKS to all who tried to help
Tracey

You are welcome.
Yes, negative on the left. If you can get any power in over the regular dc-in jack (maybe by holding the dc-in plug from the adapter in a certain position) you can also measure that voltage on that docking port connector.
If you have power on the docking port and it is not dropping when you move the adapter's plug to the laptop, the problem is somewhere else.