My Laptop- Dead for Six months--Hardware Help

[Mitsukuni]

My laptop has been "dead" for about six months. It is a Dell Inspiron m700...I think. I don't know if there is a solution to my problem. I really miss it.

About six months ago I had my laptop on top of my bed. I had it charging, and by mistake it fell of the bed and landed on its side. The little socket inside the laptop got loose and well it stopped charging my laptop. I thought it was the a/c adapter but I had a spare one and it still wouldn't charge. So my battery got depleted and I havent been able to use it.

I don't know if I would have to change the entire motherboard to fix it. I have never worked on a laptop before, so I don't know how difficult that would be. I looked for motherboards online and they don't come cheap.

Any help would be greatfully appreciated. Is my laptop worth repairing?

 

[floating]

As you describe it the power plug is probably either broken inside, or the connection to the mainboard has gotten a hit and does not conduct anymore/the soldering has broken.

If you don't want to spend too much money and you know someone who is handy and skilled with opening laptops it would be fairly easy to check. And even a repair shop shouldn't charge that much money if everything else was still working and you don't need spare parts.

 

[trawler69]

This has got to be one of the most common probs with Laptops. Probably the reason Apple went with the "Magsafe" connector. Anybody with reasonable "fix it" skills should be able to sort it out. To my mind it would be criminal to junk a computer just because a connector broke. It may well just be a case of re-soldering the connections on the charging socket.

 

[Mitsukuni]

Thanks guys I'll ask around to see what I can do about it. I have so many pictures and my music collection on it!

 

[floating]

Thanks guys I'll ask around to see what I can do about it. I have so many pictures and my music collection on it!

For $25-40 you can buy an adapter set that allows you to connect all ide/sata 2.5/3.5 inch harddisk with usb to another computer and copy all data. It's an external usb kit but without the enclosure Remove the harddisk from you laptop, plug it in and you can copy your files. Ask around if someone can help you with it.

 

[trawler69]

^ It's never that easy! However maybe this link will help.

 

[trawler69]

^ Yeah giving up smoking is easy, I've done it 100s of times

 

[Mitsukuni]

^ It's never that easy! However maybe this link will help.

What are the chances that the part that I need is SOLD OUT!!!!!! Just my luck.

A friend of mine actually volunteered to help in soldering the part, I just never got around to it.

 

[trawler69]

Actually despite what I said earlier it isn't too difficult but there is often a fair bit of disassembly to be able to get to it. If you are not well practiced in soldering then find someone who is, you need a decent iron if it isn't hot enough you can end up over heating things, sounds crazy I know but it is true that an underpowered soldering iron can cause a lot of heat damage.