How "tough" is the A/C power slot on the 5920g? Has anyone broken it? I think I'm close...

This is gooing to sound like I am neglecting my laptop, but its just this specifc scenario in which I am doing so. The rest is taken care of, like new condition even after 2 years.

Bassicaly, how "tough" is the A/C power slot on the 5920g?

As a result of using my laptop around the place I have severy loosned my slot where the cable plugs in to the laptop.
To keep things cool i ussualy lay it on something like a solid clip folder, where i find the latop has always sliden down or hinged itself in the place where the cable plugs into the laptop. This bears the brunt of the weight and force.

I will also sometimes move the laptop beyond the range of the cable and snap jerk it by accident, or someone will walk past the cable and pull on the cord etc, so hard that it rips teh laptop out of my hands but the cord is still plugged in if its in the right angle. I have tried to avoid it, but over 2 years it has REALLY added up and seen a lot of punishment.

When it used to be new it was all solid and tight, now the whole thing where the cable plugs in moves around and is very clunky. Power to the laptop seems fine. I am just wondering, what does this mechanism look like on the inside? Can it be a problem thats it really clunky like this? Or is it just a housing issue and everything is ok? I feel like the whole thing will fall out one day, but power to the latop seems fine So I have no idea what to make of it.

 

There is a centre pin that slides into the hole of the adapter's plug. The outside connection and retaining force is provided by a spring contact that presses onto the outer barrel and by doing so also puts some pressure on the inner pin connections.

The fit may get less tight but the thing ony normally fails in three ways
1) The centre pin breaks off due to impact
2) The spring contact weakens or fails due to impact or wear
3) The solder connections to the motherboard fail due to mechanical stress

Any of these wil tend to show up as intermittent 'unplug' bleeps, power lights, display brightness or a consistent failure to charge.

I don't really get a lot from your description of 'clunky' sorry. If you mean the part on the laptop that the plug goes into is now loose the I believe you have broken the plastic pins that help locate the plug on the motherboard but the electrical connecting pins are for now still ok.

When will it fail . . who knows . .
However along with smashed screens power connectors are among the most common repairs on laptops so any competent repairer can quickly sort you out if it ever does. The part costs nothing, cost is maybe 1 hr of fishing the motherboard out enough to get at it, quick solder plus reassembly. At an honest place anyway . .

If it was me I would likely replace it at a convenient time rather than an inconvenient one. You could try a bodge of getting some superglue in to fix it again without dismantling but this will complicate or prevent any future repair . . Use the time you have to get a few quotes . .

 

Thanks for the reply. I dont expect it to fail in any other way than breaking off the motherboard, or the actual ac adapter cable breaking somewhere. But the docking mechanism itself is perfectly sturdy. I have never seen one of the pins break or the locking mechansm go loose in that regard.

WHat i mean by clunky is I can shake around the innards of the laptop when I plug in the power adapter. The power adapter plug iself is perfectly fine. So is the pin the in the middle of the laptop slot. It all looks normal. And it doesnt slide out easier either. It digs in and holds it in place nicely, the lock mechanish is sturdy, just the assembly OF THE ASSEMBLY that holds the plug in place is loose.

For example try follow this analogy. A pen is the power adapter plug that goes into the laptop, the cake is the hole that you plug the adapter into, and the table is the rest of the laptop case.

If I were to stab the pen into the cake from above, i dont mean the pen is loose and coming out of the cake, i mean the pen is firmly wedged in the cake as normal, but now the whole cake moves from side to side up down, sliding around on the table along with the pen, whereas before the cake was glued onto the table and ddint move. Hope that made sense.


Actually want try find a close up pic of this, im curious what it looks like opended up.

 

Well i guess if you carefully remove the entire bottom casing of the laptop then you will have a clearer idea of what is moving round and hopefully why.

I will venture 99% certain the motherboard is not rattling round in the case, so I don't think you have a socket directly soldered to it. Some laptops don't have the socket mounted directly on the MB, they have a socket mounted on the case or a sub board and a lead over to the MB. Maybe someone who has had one of these apart can contribute their pictures. In this scenario though I warm to the idea of araldite or superglue - which I would never let near the MB