Lenovo G550 Power Jack Broken

[MRC1980]

Over the last week my G550's power jack has become less and less reliable and  eventually stopped charging the laptop at all.

I've seen several discussions about this being a problem but no actual instructions or pictures on how to get access to the motherboard.

Does anyone know anything else about this problem?

Thanks in advance.

[topmahof Community Moderator]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-POWER-JACK-CABLE-IBM-Lenovo-G550-DC301007200-/250896377110?pt=PCA_UPS&has...

Hi MRC1980 and welcome to the Community,

The good news is that the power jack is not soldered to the motherboard.  It sits in a housing and is attached to the board by a cable and plug.

The bad news is that you will have to disassemble the laptop totally to get to the jack.  There aren't any disassembly pictures or instructions that I could find.  The only thing I could find on youtube was to clean the fan.

Dave

[jack_g550]

I've also got a G550 -- original power adapter died six months ago, now I suspect the power jack, which has not been stable is the culprit for why the unit won't charge the battery. Runs off the battery fine. Many thanks for the ebay link. I've opened up the laptop already and that is what the power jack looks like. There are many sellers on eBay who offer this item. I'll try to return with any news of how the repair goes.

[topmahof Community Moderator]

Hi jack_ g550 and welcome to the Community,

That would be great.  It would be nice to know what exactly has to be done to get to that component.

Dave

[jack_g550]

To get to the power jack, you are removing most every screw on the case. Remove the panel above keyboard that houses power button, then there are more screws beneath it. Then you can get to hinges, unscrew them, find another screw at each hinge after hinge is out of the way. Also unfasten the keyboard, but don't rip it out, to find a couple more screws underneath the keyboard. And finally you can take the two halves of the case apart well enough and get in to disconnect the power jack. The DVD drive will slide out, no screws attaching it. The wiring for the power jack goes to a location by the memory where it attaches to the motherboard. I disconnected the cable by the memory and pulled it through easily.

Should take a week for the part to arrive to me. Crossing fingers that the whole trouble is this and nothing else. Found other thread here that talks about securing the jack better: http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo-3000-and-Value-line/G550-power-connector-is-this-a-weak-point/td-...

Clearly there is a fault in the design of this laptop model, I think, when many people are having the same fatal issue.

Also, now that I think of it: if you wanted to test if this was the problem for you laptop without the trouble of disassembling everything, you could easily disconnect the power jack by removing the memory cover and unplugging it there; then plug in a replacement power jack (which you'd need to order) and test. If all works, you could then go through the bother of taking everything apart (or finding someone to do it).

[topmahof Community Moderator]

jack_g550,

Thank you for the detailed description!  Kudoes for that.

It's also good to know that you can get to the plug through the memory door.  

I remember that other thread.  I have an x60t that had a loose power jack and it's on a cable. Once in awhile, it would lose its connection, so I epoxied a new connector in its housing. It's tight now. I can see having a wiggly jack would twist it when trying to plug in an adapter and eventually break it.

Older laptops had that jack soldered onto the board.  While that made it more stable, when it did break, it was a nightmare to repair.  I had an x40 where the jack came loose from the board and it was cheaper to buy a new board than to repair it.  I guess that Lenovo is going with the ease of repair as opposed to the stability of the jack.

Anyway, thanks for posting the repair, I know that will help a lot of people.

Dave

[ColonelONeill]

You know, it would be really neat if there was an alternate or backup power jack located somewhere accessible but not exposed like behind a RAM panel or something.

[jack_g550]

I've finally received the power jack I bought on eBay, plugged it in and no go.

The laptop still operates normally off the battery, but I can't seem to connect a power source to it. Either the new power jack I received from Beijing (was supposed to ship from New York, claimed the eBay seller) is as faulty as the one I replaced, or there is a problem somewhere else in the laptop in connecting power to it.

So I am hunting for ideas of where else the failure might be.  Help?

[topmahof Community Moderator]

Did you check the voltage at the adapter tip itself?  Your old jack on the board still works, right? Just intermittent?  That would say that the adapter is okay and the fuses on the board are okay.

Dave 

[jack_g550]

The old jack offers no power; the new jack offers no power. Battery powers up the machine fine; no ac adapter/jack combination does.