Dell Vostro 3550 - no power

Hi guys. I've got a similar problem to one I've had before. My laptop is not seeing any power and the battery is currently out of juice. Here is an old thread to give you some background and my replacement parts history over the last year.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/vostro-3550-charging-problem.778738/page-2

But to summarise, I'd bought a new charger and battery last year.

Something I don't think I posted about was this new DC Jack Power
Socket Connector that I also bought this March and installed which fixed a problem of charging. So I've replaced everything I can think of to do with power and charging.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00FIZLBTG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Recently though I've been getting the warning again that my PSU isn't recognised and I should connect a 90w adapter. Charging has been random. Sometimes it would charge, but mostly 'plugged in not charging'. A few days ago however the laptop wasn't seeing that my psu was connected and eventually the battery died. Now there is no power getting to the laptop at all, it's completely dead.

I just received a new 90w PSU direct from Dell this morning, the old brick style one like my original psu. Connected it........ no power

So now I'm wondering if it's the DC Jack connector that has failed. I've got to get right down to the motherboard again to see if the pin connector has come loose which I doubt.. Otherwise, I'll have to order another one.

Is there anything else on the motherboard that could stop it getting power?

 

I would try to check the voltage (with AC adapter plugged in) where the DC jack socket connects to the mainboard. This should help confirm if the problem lies with the socket or elsewhere on the board. If you haven't got a small multimeter yet then it's time to go shopping. Something inexpensive is good enough to indicate whether or not the power is getting through.

John

 

HI John. Thanks for that. I would have bought a multimeter but then I fixed the issue.

Not 100% sure how, but I noticed one or two screws were not very tight on the part of the motherboard holding the DC connector underneath, so I tightened them. I'm guessing this is what fixed the problem of the power getting through.



I also made sure the power button ribbon connector was inserted which would have stopped it powering on of course. When I removed the top panel, the power ribbon connector was a bit loose. Whether that happened before or after I removed the panel I don't know.

So now everything is working fine. I checked in the BIOS to see that the new PSU is recognised and it is, it says '90w' next to adapter type. But I decided to try the old PSU and that's working fine now, with no warning message anymore. And it's also recognised in the BIOS saying '90w' whereas before it said 'none'. So it's all rather odd but the various issues of the battery not charging, the warning message of not recognising the power supply, and power not getting through must have all been down to the DC jack being loose. I don't really need the new PSU and might return it to get my £66 back from Dell.

Finally, I don't know if you've seen this sort of thing before but I noticed some dark marks on the pins of the DC jack connector and the same marks on the motherboard connector that the DC jack connects too. I'm not sure what they are but I'm guessing it's some sort of damage? Burn marks perhaps from the DC jack being loose, barely connecting and causing sparks?

Sorry, don't know why these pics are displaying in the wrong orientation.

 

Thank you for the update.

A bad connection could cause a bit of sparking - 90W (if the computer ever uses that much) is over 4 amps and this would leave the contacts slightly blacked. The contact which carries the PSU info will be lower voltage and unable to provide a connection once there is any hint of a gap.

John

 

Thanks for the info John.

Well, it's easy enough to replace the DC Jack connector again if I ever needed to. But not so easy to replace the pins it connects to that are part of the motherboard.

Hopefully the blackened contacts won't cause a problem or completely die and kill off the power, and maybe I just got away with it by finding out the problem before it got worse and burnt more contacts!