Hey All,

So I thought I'd share this...

I have an old HP Pavilion zv5000 notebook... it's about three years old, and of course out of warranty.

The AC Adapter plug is loose or broken on it, so it constantly runs on battery power, and of course won't recharge.

This is probably a $20 part at most.

I called HP today to see if I could get it repaired... I just want it for my kids to play their games and such, I have a newer notebook.

HP charged me $40 just to speak to a technicial to "diagnose" the problem, which I of course know already.

THEN when I do finally get to a technician, the tell me it's $395.00 MIMIMUM.

Insane... $395 for a 3 year old notebook's AC Adapter plug.

I guess their logic is that I'll buy a new one instead... but guess what, if I do, it won't be an HP.

I'm so disgusted. So my choice is to throw it out, or pay $400 for a repair.

As I type this I'm on hold trying to get my $40 technician fee refunded.

-Mike

I think it's crappy that HP charges $40 just to learn what their repair rates are. Regarding the cost of the repair, if you are talking about the power connector on the motherboard then I suspect the reason for the high estimated cost of the repair is that the HP technician won't spend any time actually fixing the connector itself and will simply replace the motherboard.

You need to find an independent shop that is willing to resolder the power connector itself, but be aware that the part might not be available (in fact, I highly doubt that it would be) and that the motherboard will require replacement if the power connector assembly has flexed and cracked the board (which is often the case).

I work for a shop that does computer, television and consumer electronic repairs and none of our computer techs have any soldering skills at all. They have to hand off all such work to the consumer techs to complete and many times the requisite parts are simply not available from the manufacturer.

HP isn't the only ones who do it. Every computer maker does it and it happens in every other place of business where repairs are made. I recently had to replace some stuff in my car so that my fan would work. The parts probably costs 20 bucks but they charge way more and than you also get charged for them working on it.

If I am reading right, the item that is broken is inside the laptop so the technician needs to unscrew everything to replace the item that is broken.

You expect not to pay for a tech phone call when you are out of warranty. M$ does this even in warranty.

Mike, is this the AC jack on the laptop itself, or the plug on the AC adapter? If it's the AC adapter, I'm sure you can find a replacement on ebay for peanuts. If it's the jack on the laptop, then I understand the estimate. These things are never repaired these days, so the quoted price would be for swapping out the entire circuit board that the jack was soldered on to.

It's likely that it can be repaired for next to nothing, but you should know your way around the insides of something as densely packed as a laptop and, or course, be a master with a soldering iron.

Mike,
We use local Toronto shop that is very reasonable and will fix broken connector for you without replacing the mother board. PM me if you need more info.
If it is an adapter only you can get one for about $75 from any online retailer in Canada.

Thanks for the comments all...

I see on ebay that the power jacks go for between $10 and $15 per.

With luck I can find a shop that will do it. I suspect somebody who knows how to solder can do it pretty easy... maybe doesn't even need a new jack.

HP makes amazing computers but you're right once the warranty goes one can be hard pressed to find a solution, did you find anyone to take care of that issue?