I have a friend whose daughter has, damaged her laptop

From what I have been told I suspect she knocked it off something like a coffee table onto the floor with the result that the power adapter socket on the motherboard has either become completely broken or has cracked around the case and is now loose in the laptop.

Can anyone recommend (or does anyone actually do) a laptop repairer who she can send it to for a quite look and repair estimate? She might pop it over to me at work tomorrow but I know nothing about repairing laptops and she is not financially very well off so is worried it might be a "write-off".

I have done a couple of laptop power jacks where they've done exactly the same thing. Including my own, after the dog jumped off the sofa while my laptop was on the arm.

Where do you live? If you're not far off, I could have a look at it for you. I have loads of power jacks here, and I'm sure I could make one work.

Northampton - just a note it sounds like the power jack on the laptop not the adapter (brick end)

We use Odyssey Technologies at work. 01252 721821

Had laptop in to look at and, having disassembled it, the power connection pin was broken off the motherboard and was loose inside the case

Looks like a new board and as laptop is now 4 years old I have told the owner probably uneconomical to repair it.

At least she is insured so looks like she will try to put a claim in for accidental damage.

Is it just the jack that has broken off, or pulled some traces off the motherboard?

If it's the jack, then it's about a 80 pence fix. If its a trace, then you're screwed basically.

Looks like just the pin that you shove the power adapter into - looks like it was soldered to the motherboard somewhere and it has snapped clean off.

You should be ok to solder a new one on then.

Yes if I knew for certain where it was to be soldered to!

Desktops/servers/printers I'm ok with.

Laptops - not much of a clue when comes to fixing.

I wish I'd remembered this thread earlier!

If I can't fix it, I know a guy who probably can. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no spare time in the foreseeable future.

Post some photos? It really shouldn't be that hard to see where it goes.

I've put the laptop all back together again so don't really want to take it all apart to take photos.

I've kept the broken & bent pin seperate if a photo of that is any good?

There is an alternative that isn't pretty, but it's worked for me on two laptops.

So long as the motherboard isn't broken, then it should be a simple matter of replacing the connector, but- I have found that with the size of the connections and the heat-absorbing properties of the power connector, I simply couldn't desolder the old one on one of the two I have repaired.

So, what I did was get a compatible line connector from Maplin and solder a cable onto the +'ve and -'ve connections on the motherboard and secure the connector externally. It will probably mean drilling a small hole in the case to let the wires/cable out.

It does work on an old laptop that is uneconomical to repair.

It no-one fixes it- too expensive or not bothered, then break it up and sell it as parts on ebay. I've just given a mate £100 for his laptop bits and pieces sold on-line.