Business Plans

[finlay666]

No offense but I do have quite an idea about this stuff.

Quoted for comedy

[Ben Rogers]

Stilll the same word though lol.

c

It was not merely a fluke that over 20 AC Adaptors failed the test with the multi metre (zero or very low reading at best) and all of these were tested on laptops and none of them worked!

[golwg]

Might also be a good idea to phone around a handfull or more of your competitors to see what they charge for different jobs. Should give you an idea of your costings.

[Ben Rogers]

Might also be a good idea to phone around a handfull or more of your competitors to see what they charge for different jobs. Should give you an idea of your costings.

I have been researching this online and not over the phone as it's cheaper.

[golwg]

I have been researching this online and not over the phone as it's cheaper.

You should go through your local yellow pages and find out some info from there as a lot of the small businesses probably are not online!

[TheAnimus]

Stilll the same word though lol.

c

It was not merely a fluke that over 20 AC Adaptors failed the test with the multi metre (zero or very low reading at best) and all of these were tested on laptops and none of them worked!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratified_sampling

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched-mode_power_supply

Seriously, you can often get the right reading, but unless your using a very high end multimeter (I used to use my fluke 123, and even then i would normally load it), it might not always be true.

Also remember I posted the advice on a forum where someone was asking for help, I've never said that it is always the case that you need to see this effect, but I've experienced it, and thanks to my engineering lecturer was able to figure out what was broken inside the PSU quite quickly. This was a few years ago, but to my knowledge little has changed, they are still switch mode PSUs.

Now given that your starting your own firm, and that from forum postings you might see that I started my own 8 months ago, I might have some useful advice, or you can ignore it if you wish. My company is also generating a very healthy profit, so something is probably been done right, or you can just ignore everything I say, I know i'm right, wikipedia links agree with me. (no i've not been editing again )

[golwg]

How difficult is it to replace the power adapter socket on a motherboard if it is faulty? Any special tools needed? I as my girlfriend's laptop is acting up and i am sure it is where she plugs the power into the laptop as when you wiggle it the power goes off. Tried it with another adapter (Same model) and same thing happens!!

How would i go about replacing the thingy that is attached inside the laptop?

There is no problem if i muck it up as it is an old lappy so be good to have a practice! Anywhere on the net that helps with this particular process / tools needed?

How do you test an adapter anyway? and with what?

Remembering i am a noob when it comes to these type of things!! I can replace a mobo, cpy etc and install windows but thats as far as i can go!! lol

[TheAnimus]

The plug is less scary to replace:
http://www.fonerbooks.com/laptop_7.htm

For the laptop socket, its often easy, but depends on the design of the laptop.

You can sometimes wedge it in with blutack or modelling clay (Fimo stuff I used to use!) but these are quick hacks. Now thats not to say some of my greatest robots weren't hacked together just before a demo.....

But if you want to do it properly you will probably need to re-solder it, when you see the socket wiggle, and there is a gap (no matter how tiny), then you need to solder it up.

Buy a soldering iron, I'd recomend the antex for a good quality low cost iron, and get some stripboard and a few resistors, pratice soldering on them, then give the real thing a shot!

[golwg]

The plug is less scary to replace:
http://www.fonerbooks.com/laptop_7.htm

For the laptop socket, its often easy, but depends on the design of the laptop.

You can sometimes wedge it in with blutack or modelling clay (Fimo stuff I used to use!) but these are quick hacks. Now thats not to say some of my greatest robots weren't hacked together just before a demo.....

But if you want to do it properly you will probably need to re-solder it, when you see the socket wiggle, and there is a gap (no matter how tiny), then you need to solder it up.

Buy a soldering iron, I'd recomend the antex for a good quality low cost iron, and get some stripboard and a few resistors, pratice soldering on them, then give the real thing a shot!

Great, thanks. Might be a nice little project for me! I would want to go the solder route. Is it easy to de-solder / re-solder? Are the motherboard sockets easy to source? How do i know which one to get?

Sorry for hijacking the thread a little but might help the OP too!

[TheAnimus]

Odds are you won't have to replace the socket.

I did a quick fix on a mates fruity themed laptop a couple of months ago, I don't do this sort of stuff much any more, and I found it very easy.

The sockets are metal with a plastic surround, the plastic is often a thermoset, that is to say its not the weakest link in the chain.

What normally happens is the metal pins work loose, sometimes they can take the "solder pad" with them, when this happens the plug just wobbles, but it normally works just fine until it completely fails, there is no real intermidate failure stage.

So odds are its the metal pin completely loose. This is normally easy to re-solder because its large (designed for high current) and there is little that is too fragile near by (some things don't like the heat of the iron!). As such you will probably find it very easy, get some solder braid or a solder suck to clean the old stuff away, and make a new joint, don't be scared to use a fair bit of solder to make the join stronger.

Practice on some stripboard and it should be fairly easy. Obviously only do this on a laptop you don't mind bricking too much

[Ben Rogers]

If you have a dc jack that needs replacing it can be a bit awkward to remove sometimes but once its out its easy to fit a new one once the holes are free of solder. Just make sure that you note how to take the laptop apart so you can put it back together. A pin in the dc jack itself can sometimes go too far in so the plug on the adaptor end doesnt make full contact causing spikes when it does make contact and can cause motherboard damage. As said dry solder joints are a lot more common than having to replace the jack itself but the jack can be damaged inside easily enough.

I practiced soldering on old TV circuit boards at college until I was good enough to solder boards that had value. Before that you need a decent soldering iron to de-solder many solder joints on the dc jack about 750-800F I think so maybe between 35-40W iron but I wouldn't use one that gets too hot as the heat will damage the board or if you do have to use an iron that gets very hot then don't solder more than you have to, to say the least.

You can mod it so that the dc jack can be located outside of the laptop itself so there is no chance of the jack becoming loose again if you glue the wires connecting the jack to the laptop inside somewhere before it exits the laptop, through a hole. This is a good solution but it doesn't look too good.

You also need a hex screw driver when removing the motherboard to loosen the connectors that poke through the back.

To find the dc jack you require go to the well known auction site and search for laptop model dc jack and it should come up with a few.

My multimetre is a cheap one but it is digital and I have tested over 20 adaptors that didn't show voltage and they didn't power laptops and I have also found that working adaptors showed voltage correctly and it has been consident even though mine goes for £10 on the auction site. My metre is a Rapid 318, it works and also tells the ambient temperature, continuity etc. I read that the fluke 123 costs a grand? why does anyone need a multimetre that expensive????

On that wiki page for switched mode PSUs it says: Voltage varies little with load.

[TheAnimus]

about 750-800F I think so maybe between 35-40W iron but I wouldn't use one that gets too hot

I'm not picking on you but this is dangerous advice.

The whattage only effects the power that can be put down, the higher the whattage, the larger the joint.

The temp is dependant on the type of solder, these will all be lead free and as such you want just a standard iron, you DO NOT NEED a temp controlled one, you don't want to go in too hot.

I used to have a about 5 irons whilst I was studying, my favourite for simple things like this was always:
http://www.antex.co.uk/product.asp?s...D=180&P_ID=821

an 18W is MORE than enough for this type of work.

The higher the whattage the more likely you are to be able to damage things quicker.
(on that note, solder it with the jack in, the wire will take away the heat quite effectively, if you get it hot enough to melt the insulation, your going to be breaking the laptop anyway.)

So lower whattage is probably safer, the only time this isn't true is if it takes 5 minutes to heat the joint up.

[Ben Rogers]

I got a 25w one from college for free and it did not de-solder jack points on an acer aspire laptop at all...

You can get a 40w weller one for the same price.

Using an iron that is hot enough the joints 'should' de-solder in a second or usually less.

[SammEl]

From what I've been reading, aint this suppose to be a BUSINESS thread and not a battle of who is better than who.

Arguments don't work and will NEVER work on the internet, one side will say Yes, the other will say No, you will never change the "No", so it's pointless.

.....

[TheAnimus]

I'm just trying to stop someone damaging their friends laptop!

[finlay666]

From what I've been reading, aint this suppose to be a BUSINESS thread and not a battle of who is better than who.

Arguments don't work and will NEVER work on the internet, one side will say Yes, the other will say No, you will never change the "No", so it's pointless.

.....

Just wait until he cuts a bit off the PCB to fit a PCI-e card into an AGP/PCI slot