ktgatlin

My brother's Sony v505bx laptop now refuses to power up.

At first, the battery went out and he was only able to run off of the AC power even after buying a new battery.

At some point, his AC power adapter wire started to run hot for a while, almost too hot to touch towards the end.

One night, while using laptop, he smelt something funny, power wire to laptop was getting very hot. He tried to shut it down. As it was shutting down, he heard a pop and the laptop went dead.

I almost have the laptop disassembled to motherboard. Did the power connection go bad? Is there a board level repair I can make to save this? I am pretty good with a soldering iron and have the correct setup to make the repair. Just looking for someone to give me some hints.

Thanks

TheMatt

Unfortunately it sounds like the power supply died and possibly took the board along with it. Try a new power supply if you can. Replacing the motherboard unfortunately will cost more than buying a new laptop.

ktgatlin

I found a 16V power supply from an older Sony 505 I used to have. My brother's laptop immediately responded - LEDs on front lit up, etc.

Could there still be an issue with a weak solder connection between the power jack and the motherboard that is causing a lot of resistance, thus causing heat buildup in the power wires feeding the laptop?

I have not had enough time to evaluate the new power supply to see if it is exhibiting the same behavior (heating up a lot).

Thanks for the info so far.

TheMatt

It sounded more like a bad power supply. See if the heat buildup is still a problem. I would check the voltage and wattage on the old adapter to make sure it puts out the same volts and at least the same number of watts. If it doesn't you should order a new power supply specifically for that model.