Asus Laptop fault - advice needed please
Daisy Bennyboots
Posts: 18,375 Forum Member
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Hi, having third round of faults with my Asus X501A, which is only 20 months old.
Under warranty, the screen, which kept going blank, was fixed. But it came back from repairs with the cmos battery flat. That was replaced by me thanks to some help on this forum. It's now out of warranty.
Now I have a problem with the AC adaptor or loose connection - or battery.
The PC only charges when the adaptors plug is held in and a small amount of pressure applied - let go and the PC shuts down. Occasionally, it will charge a little...but only for a few moments.
So I google and many possibilities come up - battery needs replacing, adapter is gone...but the most frequent answer is that a jack has come loose on the motherboard.
We are frantically saving money, living on a tight budget as we are hoping to move from a cramped flat to a house next year - so I need to spend as little money as possible. My partner has some computer knowledge and a soldering iron, but I'm not sure I want him to try and fix it when we don't have a correct diagnosis of what is wrong.
In this circumstance - a) what do you think is wrong with the PC and b) what would you do on such a tight budget in order to fix it?
Many thanks, DB...who knows very little about laptops.
Under warranty, the screen, which kept going blank, was fixed. But it came back from repairs with the cmos battery flat. That was replaced by me thanks to some help on this forum. It's now out of warranty.
Now I have a problem with the AC adaptor or loose connection - or battery.
The PC only charges when the adaptors plug is held in and a small amount of pressure applied - let go and the PC shuts down. Occasionally, it will charge a little...but only for a few moments.
So I google and many possibilities come up - battery needs replacing, adapter is gone...but the most frequent answer is that a jack has come loose on the motherboard.
We are frantically saving money, living on a tight budget as we are hoping to move from a cramped flat to a house next year - so I need to spend as little money as possible. My partner has some computer knowledge and a soldering iron, but I'm not sure I want him to try and fix it when we don't have a correct diagnosis of what is wrong.
In this circumstance - a) what do you think is wrong with the PC and b) what would you do on such a tight budget in order to fix it?
Many thanks, DB...who knows very little about laptops.
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Comments
If you did have a second laptop you could swap various components round between them. For example swap chargers. If your charger works in the other laptop and the other charger does not work in your laptop then that might eliminate your charger.
Similarly if you swap batteries and your battery charges in the other laptop OK then that suggests your battery is OK. More so if the other battery won't charge in your laptop.
But the two other most common faults are the jack in the laptop breaking or a cable fault in the charger. The most likely places a cable breaks are where it exits the body of the charger or where it enters the plug. These tend to be where the cable comes under most stress. Though obviously damage can occur anywhere, especially if it repeatedly gets bent at the same point.
The DC jack on the motherboard can go faulty in several ways. A dry joint or a broken terminal are two common ones. A dry joint is where the solder does not adhere properly to the terminal so it can work loose and lose connection. If you flex the socket slightly the terminal makes contact with the solder again and starts working, till you let go. Easy to fix just by heating up the joint again and making sure the solder flows properly.
The other common fault is a terminal breaks and the two sides of the break part company. Again flexing the socket can make them touch again so it works for a bit. Not so easy to fix. If you are very very lucky the terminal is accessible and you can solder the two halves back together. But more often it involves completely replacing the socket.
There are other options but they often require replacement of the entire socket.
As I say ideally you need to eliminate the charger and battery from the mix. One other test may be to try and run on the charger alone, take the battery out. If that works then you may have a faulty battery that is causing the charger to shut down.
But eliminating battery or charger is harder if you don't have anything to swap them out with to test.
As for repairing the socket, if that is the problem, not a major job for a competent solderer to do. Getting at the beastie in question may be the hard part. Getting hold of a replacement part may be a problem as well.
You never know there may be a YouTube video showing someone taking the laptop apart as a guide to how difficult it might be.
I have just removed the battery and plugged the charger in. The PC fires up as normal...but the second I stop applying pressure to the charger - I lose power instantly...faster than when the battery was in. Does this mean the fault is unlikely to be the battery? Or is there no real way of telling without a straight battery swap?
It's unfortunate - but no-one in my family has the same charger as me so I can't test it against another machine. I have considered buying a replacement one and (cheapo Amazon brand £13) perhaps I should do that anyway?
Thanks for reminding me about youtube, I'll have a quick look around. As I say, my partner has soldered things in the past but he and I both think it's a bit of a stab in the dark and we don't really know what we're doing - maybe youtube can give him some visual guidance.
I'll report back:)
By pressure to the charger I assume you mean the plug in the side of the laptop as implied in the OP.
That implies it is either the plug or the socket. The reason it lasts a bit longer with the battery in is because the battery takes over for a short while with the small amount of charge it has.
It would be a waste of money buying a new charger at this stage, Not until you have eliminated it. You don't need an absolutely identical charger to test this. You just need a compatible one.
If you look on the charger there will be a label giving the output voltage and current. For example
Voltage 19V DC
Current 4A
Or it may state a wattage, eg 76W
There will also be a symbol showing the polarity of the plug (assuming one of the common cylindrical types) similar to this image
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/Centre-positive.svg/220px-Centre-positive.svg.png
Any test charger needs to be equal in voltage and at least equal in current/wattage. But current/wattage can be higher. So in the example above a 19V 5A charger would work but a 15V 4A one would not. And the polarity of the plug must be the same.
So you could swap with a similarly spec'ed charger even if it's not identical for testing purposes.
Then you will know for certain where the fault lies before shelling out your hard earned for a replacement charger that may not cure the problem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIJsL6U8trk
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Asus-X500-X501-X501A-X501F-X501U-X-500-DC-Jack-Power-Connector-Port-Socket-/271325356054?pt=UK_Computing_CablesConnectors_RL&hash=item3f2c406016
If you don't fancy soldering
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-ASUS-X501A-SI30403X-DC-POWER-JACK-USB-BOARD-32XJ1IB0010-/331200062717?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d1d0fe4fd
With due deference to the previous excellent and detailed advice you have received already; before dismantling the laptop, your first course of action could be the purchase of the aforementioned charger from Amazon.
If it fixes the problem all well and good; if it doesn’t then you can keep it as a spare or re-sell it on fleabay. At least you’d get a few quid back!
Dismantling laptops can be a tricky business for the ‘inexperienced’...........and, sometimes, even for the ‘experienced’ !
Unfortunately, the only way to repair/replace it is to dismantle the laptop. Look for a manual on the Asus support website and follow the stripdown procedures. Don't be in a hurry though, as the previous poster said, sometimes they can be tricky to get apart so don't get frustrated and start using brute force. Sometimes taking a digital photo of the innards before getting to far will help as a reference when reassembling, especial routing internal cables. Approach it calmly and methodically and you'll be fine.
The output voltage level from the charger would appear to be fine....if intermittent !; see post #4.(‘chrisjr’)
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Good advice about the multi-meter;
However, there is a slight caveat that may be worth mentioning for anyone new to using a multi-meter.
When metered, the output from an adaptor may well show the ‘correct’ voltage; but that in itself is NOT a complete indication that it is working normally.
Laptop power adaptors can, and do, ‘fail under load. (this goes for any ‘power-supply’).
An adaptor that is ‘failing under load’ will appear to be ok until it is actually plugged into the laptop and made to ‘work’ by supplying adequate current to the laptop/battery etc.
A failing unit will be unable to sustain the correct voltage of e.g. 19.5v and it drops away to a level that is insufficient to run the laptop properly.
The duration of the ‘fail under load’ conditions can be anything from ’instant’ to a few minutes, or more.
Anyone using a multi-meter, who is unaware of the ‘failing under load’ scenario could be well and truly ‘led up the garden path’ !
We have opened up the laptop and removed the DC jack .
The solder joints look fine.....but the actual pin is wobbly. (can be easily moved left to right but not up and down)
Looking my partner's Asus PC pin - his pin does not wobble...it's stuck fast.
Is a wobbly pin a probable cause, or is it stabilised by putting the plug in...?
Not sure where to go from here!
(p.s will be testing power lead with a friends's compatible one later today)
(although it is not good practice to rely on solder joints for mechanical strength anyway.)
Maybe the plastic cracked and undue force was then transferred to the joint.
It's possible the pin itself has fractured and is just being held by the plastic surround.
If remelting the solder cures your wobble, that might be OK for a while.
If not, you will need to replace the jack.
Desolder with a solder sucker, use fine pliers to wobble legs so that they are free in the holes, then just lift the jack off the board.
Or buy a whole new board as shfttw linked to earlier.
Google again to see if there are cheaper boards and jacks for Asus X501A, if you do need to replace.
Use 'thin' electrical solder to wet the joint, then suck, and for resoldering. Don't use big thick plumbers solder you may have knocking around. Soldering iron is better with a fine tip and if you apply too much heat you can damage the copper tracks.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?pws=0&gl=uk&q=solder+sucker#gl=uk&pws=0&q=how+to+desolder&safe=off
The fact that pushing against the charger plug gives the laptop power supports this. The battery will not have been getting any power, so it will be drained.
It's not usually possible to fix this with soldering, the centre pin is not soldered to anything.
The DC Jack needs to be replaced. Is it on a seperate mini-board that plugs into the main board? You might be able to buy this mini board.
Maybe upload some images, I have found this site is very good:
http://imgur.com/
Tassium, is the separate mini board you describe, is it what shhftw talks about in this link?:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-ASUS-X501A-SI30403X-DC-POWER-JACK-USB-BOARD-32XJ1IB0010-/331200062717?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d1d0fe4fd
http://i.imgur.com/0aQ3cE8.jpg
(It seems to be quite expensive!)
Anyway, it's just possible that soldering could fix it. When the centre pin is pushed to make it wobble, observe the back of the DC socket. Is this thick brass wire moving as well?
If it is then soldering the bit marked with a red arrow might fix it. Use a fine soldering iron.
WARNING! This is a power connector and getting a solder "blob" in the wrong area would be a bad thing.
Well that board is described as being for an Asus X501A, you have opened the laptop so you know if you have a board like that don't you?
Certainly identical looking.
Sorry I didn't take photo, just put the thing back together - it's decided today of all days to charge...but I know tomorrow it won't.
I'm not sure about buying in a used item from abroad...is is nt possible to buy these components new?
Oh what to do. I have PC problem fatigue, I really hate knowing beggar all about computers.
2nd Hand and it's £40
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Asus-X501A-DC-Power-Jack-Board-Socket-USB-32XJ1IB0010-/161267026233?pt=UK_Computing_Other_Computing_Networking&hash=item258c438939
Which suggests it isn't available new, hence the rip-off prices.
When you next open the laptop, wobble the centre pin and see if the thick "brass" wire coming out the back is also moving. If it is then you could try to solder the pad that the "brass" wire is soldered to. (marked with a red arrow in picture)
The solder pad it goes to might also look cracked.
Be careful though. You really need a fine sildering iron for stuff like this.
Hope your ‘PC problem fatigue’ soon passes.:)
Is this any use?
http://www.lapdiy.com/asus-x501-x501a-x501f-x501u-ac-dc-power-jack-socket-charge-port-p-19499.html#.U3deuvldWSp
Cheap enough and they ship worldwide.
Maybe worth a punt........& it will be a good soldering exercise.
No need to buy anything! (maybe a soldering iron)
If you look at the socket you can see the central pin is brass, the piece coming out the back is the same material. It's a solid piece of brass with no rivet.
Obviously strain on the center pin will tend to pull the other end from the mini-board and eventually it did it and cracked the solder. But it can be made to touch the solder by wiggling the charger plug.
If the OP does not have a fine soldering iron they can be purchased on Ebay:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/40Watt-Ceramic-Soldering-Iron-Kit-Pointed-Tip-Lead-Free-Solder-Wire-Stand-Rest/141094888291?_trksid=p2045573.c100034.m2102&_trkparms=aid%3D555012%26algo%3DPW.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140107092241%26meid%3D6964279642444898104%26pid%3D100034%26prg%3D20140107092241%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D321323517933
The seller seems allright.
Not worried about our soldering iron - it's a maplin one designed for intricate electronics.
So...it's been taking charge for a couple of hours now - it's on the table and lodged against a wall. Off on a battery tangent for a minute....
Battery message:
69% available (plugged in, charging) - consider changing your battery.
The battery graphic features an 'empty' battery, a red x and a plug.
Surely if the battery was charging, the little graphic would look like it was 'topping up'?
Also, I know if I remove the power lead, I'll get a few minutes of battery power - not 69% worth.
In short...do you think the battery has also had it...or is it just grumpy because it's not getting charged properly.
It's all getting so meh. Anyone got tonight's winning lottery numbers? Thanks
Quite possible the battery isn't charging. Make sure that it is properly and securely inserted into the laptop. It might even be worth checking the terminals on the battery and inside the battery compartment and give them a wipe with a clean cloth just in case there is any gunge on them
Try taking the battery out and see what happens, should run OK on the charger alone. But if the icon doesn't change then it might not be seeing the battery properly. And of course it is possible that when taking it apart you disturbed something that has affected the charging circuits inside the laptop. Or the charging circuit could simply have died.
Yes I do.but the jackpot is all mine, hands off
I had the same problem with my Asus, not the same laptop but pretty much similar experience, it would only charge if I didn't move it and I had to keep it held in at times get any power charging.
It's wear and tear, going in and out and possibly you tripped on the lead a few times.
I took mine to a laptop repair shop and put a new jack on, that was over a year ago and I've been using my laptop perfectly ever since.
You need to get it left in as it will never fix itself, I left mine and left mine and put up with it and it became a pain in the ass trying to use it all the time without actually moving it much so it would stay charged.
It cost me 50 pounds to repair it but if you do, it'll be as good as new and will last a long time. I would highly recommend not soldering it on as you probably need a new jack completely. I looked for various places and 50 for the job seemed to be the cheapest but you might get it cheaper.
If you can find someone who knows about laptops to fix it, then maybe buy a replacement. You can get replacement jacks online anyway and they're really cheap then they can put it on but if not I'd say all you can do is get it left in to a shop, most shops can do it easily.
If it was another computer part I'd say do it yourself and I was contemplating mine but because it's he power supply if you mess that up, it will not be good. But you deffo need to get it fixed because it's loose and it shouldn't be.
But if this laptop is only ever used on the charger then there is really no need to replace it.
As long as it keeps the laptop on for at least a few minutes that's all right. That's because if the laptop went off straight away if the charger is removed you could lose some data.
"Thanks for all the advice and help. Having read through it and taken a look at the laptop I think there are 2 issues - the power charging jack and the battery.
Power charging jack.
I've opened it up again and took some pictures this time - I've uploaded them here: http://garysshed.co.uk/wp/?p=573 )
Firstly, it is dead easy to get to as it's on its own circuit board and the keyboard doesn't even need to be removed (so no fiddly ribbon connectors to deal with!)
The central pin in the connector is wobbly and makes a rattle when shaken. The exposed end of the pin that is soldered in to the circuit board doesn't move at all. I
checked with my meter and the continuity is broken when the pin is in certain positions so I am assuming the pin itself is broken somewhere in the connector.
While it was out I went over all of the connectors with the soldering iron, partly to double check for dry joints but mainly to see how easy it is to replace - it's
fiddly and needs quite a bit of heat to get through the solder but a fairly simple task.
Battery.
The laptop charges when plugged in (and the cable wedged) however when it gets to 69% the light on the front goes off and the icon in the system tray says "plugged in,
not charging, consider replacing your battery".
When unplugged the icon in the system tray shows a flashing x on the battery.
The laptop won't power on unless the battery is present.
It completely dies every so often - total power outage similar to unplugging a desktop. I've been running BatteryInfoView (
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/battery_information_view.html ) on it which showed 66% charged just before it shut off. When it restarted it showed 0% and won't take
charge.
In summary I'm going to change the power jack as it is cheap and fairly easy. I'd like to avoid changing the battery until I am sure that it is at fault rather than
some other issue within the laptop itself so would appreciate any advice on checking the battery.
Thanks, G (Mr Daisy Bennyboots!)"
It's actually quite difficult to do (without damaging the board) because of the amount of heat required, the case of the socket acts like a "heat sink".
I'm quite experienced at this kind of thing and even I would be wary of doing it.
Here is a link to what appears to be the mini-board itself, for $22 inc (£13.07):
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DC-POWER-JACK-USB-IN-BOARD-FOR-ASUS-X501A-SERIES-60NLOIO1001X01-32XJ1IB0010-/221425844117
It's for the "Asus X501A Series", probably the right board... Under £15 so should not incur any customs charge.
If possible do the same for the other connectors, that leaves less metal "mass" to suck away heat.
Use tweezers to pull away the remnents as the soldering iron does it's job.
The old socket is dead anyway, it's better to do this than damage the mini-board with excess heat.