Laptop DC Power Jack Repair

A laptop DC power jack endures a great deal of wear and tear during the life of the laptop. With frequent plugging and unplugging, as well as the motions of every day use, all that shimmying will take its toll on the laptop's DC jack. Eventually, the metal connectors that hold the laptop DC jack in place will break loose.

When the laptop DC power jack becomes temperamental, your laptop's power can cut off at any time. This can be annoying, but more so if you suddenly lose power after completing a lot of unsaved work that can be lost. Losing external power can also drain your laptop's battery, if you're not paying attention.

Repairing your laptop DC power jack is a pretty tricky task. It involves taking your laptop completely apart and working directly with the laptop's motherboard. It is possible to do the laptop repair yourself, if you'd like to save some money on laptop repair service and fancy yourself as a skilled electronics technician.

For first-timers, here are some quick tips to get you started:

The first thing to do is to troubleshoot to make absolutely sure that it's not actually the AC adapter that's causing your power outages. Many laptop models have an indicator light to show when the laptop is using external power. If the light is on, then the AC adapter is working properly.


If you don't have an indicator light (or even if you want to make extra sure) you can connect a voltmeter to the AC adapter in order to test it. Plug the power cord into a wall outlet. Then carefully connect one lead from the voltmeter to the inside of the DC plug and one to the outside of the plug. If the voltmeter shows a power connection (usually between 14-19volts), then the AC adapter is in the clear and you can now set your sights on the laptop DC power jack.

When you begin to work on your laptop, the first thing you need to do is make sure that the laptop's AC adapter is unplugged and the laptop battery is removed. The last thing you want to do is give yourself a nasty shock!

Use a large working space. Clear off a large, open table to work on so that you can spread your laptop's parts out. Also, keep a few small cups or bowls near by to hold all the screws and other tiny parts that you may need to remove.


Use a fine soldering tip for your soldering gun. Computer connections are very close together on a motherboard. If the hot iron burns the motherboard or if any stray solder accidentally touches other circuits, the motherboard could be fried. You'll need a very fine tip and a steady hand to perform like a surgeon around all those components.

Apply solder to all connector pins. The break in the DC jack's connections may not be completely visible and it may be more than one connector that's damaged. To insure that all potentially damaged connector pins are solid, reinforce all of them while avoiding accidentally touching surrounding components.

As you can see, repairing the laptop power jack is very risky. One wrong move with the soldering gun and your laptop is toast. For this reason, it's usually recommended that you have your laptop serviced by experienced professionals.

Triangle Laptops is happy to offer our own laptop repair expertise through our new laptop repair service. Our staff has years of hands-on experience with careful computer repair. We're especially knowledgeable in more delicate repairs, like laptop DC power jack repair and replacement.

If you have any questions about our laptop repair service or request service for your laptop, please contact Triangle Laptops by email or call 919-620-6886.

Laptop Repair Service By Triangle Laptops

If your laptop is no longer under warranty, getting laptop repair can get expensive. If you try to get your laptop serviced by a big-name retailer like Best Buy, they're more likely to try to sell you unnecessary accessories (or a whole new laptop). They're more interested in big sales, not servicing the customer.

Triangle Laptops understands that we're in a time where we need to get the most out of the computer hardware that we have. So in addition to being a top source of laptop replacement parts and accessories, Triangle Laptops now offers nationwide professional laptop repair services!

Customers in need of laptop repair can contact Triangle Laptops with their requests. Our professional, experienced staff is fully capable of servicing the top name brand laptops, including Dell, HP, IBM, Toshiba, and more! Better still, each laptop repair service comes with free return shipping!

Among our list of laptop repair services:

Laptop Hard Drive Data Recovery Laptop Hard Drive Replacement Virus Removal & Repair Laptop Operating System Installation

Laptop LCD Replacement Laptop DC Jack Replacement Laptop Keyboard Replacement Laptop Memory Upgrades

If your laptop is running slowly or is behaving strangely, Triangle Laptops can perform a thorough system diagnostic in order to track down the problem and offer the best solutions. Along with repair, we also help with system upgrades and optimization to give your laptop an extra turbo-boost.

Triangle Laptops is based in the Triangle Area of North Carolina. To better serve local businesses and residents of the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary, Hillsborough, and RTP areas, Triangle Laptops offers special savings on local drop-off and pick-up laptop repair services our facilities.

All customers are welcome to provide their own hardware, software, and back-up data for the laptop service, though some parts may be available through Triangle Laptops directly. Customers are encouraged to check availability of all laptop parts in order to save themselves time and money on their laptop repairs.

To begin maximizing the power of your laptop, please check out our laptop repair service page. For laptop service requests or questions, please email Triangle Laptops or call 919-620-6886.

Get The Most of Your Netbook with an External DVD Drive

Netbooks have exploded in popularity this past year, with their sales expected to exceed $32million by year’s end. At nearly half the size and price of the average laptop, netbooks offer a convenient, affordable means of mobile web access.

With the next school year starting up in just a month or so, many are picking up netbooks as part of their essential school supplies. Netbooks are ideal for parents who are nervous about investing in expensive laptops that may be lost or stolen at school. The limited power of the netbook also lifts many parents’ worry about their child’s school computer being used more for gaming or downloading media.

Our very own Ann from Triangle Laptops HQ recently bought a laptop for her family and was happy to share her thoughts on these impressive new devices. Like most parents, Ann bought her netbook for her son, Cole, to use for school. They bought the netbook this past spring, but look forward to putting it to use when school begins again in the fall.

After researching through the reviews of various netbook models, Ann went with the Aspire One D150. She’d shopped around to find the best price and also to get a hands-on sense for the netbook to make sure it felt comfortable to use.

“It’s great!” Ann said about her new netbook, “Cole no longer has to worry about remembering to back up his computer work at school to take home. He just takes the netbook to and from school and his work stays in the same place.” Thanks to the travel-friendly size of the netbook, most people needn’t worry about having to sync up their data between multiple locations.

Ann also confesses that there is some entertainment value to this educational tool. Cole recently spent some time in the hospital, though the days felt less long with the netbook by his side. “He’d connect through the hospital’s wifi network and watch online videos,” Ann explained. “It was nice, but it would have been nicer if he could have watched some DVDs from home.”

One drawback to netbooks (as a trade-off for their petite size) is that they lack any kind of optical disc drive. Not only does this prevent the ability to watch DVD movies, but it also makes the installation of any disc-based software impossible.

Luckily, Ann found a solution through Triangle Laptops. The external CD/DVD drive for netbooks connects to the netbook with ease through its USB port. With this external optical drive, netbook owners can now access their favorite files and software.

Most netbooks have a limited storage capacity compared to laptop and desktop PCs, so backing up data is a common necessity. The external DVD burner allows you to easily back up your data or music from your netbook to CD or DVD. No matter how careful you treat your netbook, we always recommend routinely backing up your data in case of an accident or hardware failure.

The netbook external DVD drive comes in three snazzy colors, depending on your personal tastes: Black, white, and silver. It’s also super-slim, making it just as portable as the netbook itself. There’s no need to worry about compatibility since the external DVD drive can connect with any netbook, PC, or Mac computer with a USB 2.0 port.

For a faster, more reliable data transfer; these external optical drives also have internal SATA connections.

Now is the time to pick up the right netbook accessories to make sure that you or your student is completely prepared to get the full benefits of a netbook before school begins this fall. Triangle Laptops also offers replacement netbook keyboards and netbook AC adapters, as well as other useful computer-related accessories.

Recycling Your Laptop Battery

Each year, thousands of unwanted electronic devices are dumped into our landfills. This includes laptops and computers that are broken or obsolete. Many of them contain non-biodegradable materials that take hundreds of thousands of years to break down. Some even contain harmful materials that are toxic to humans and are dangerous if they may their way into the environment.

The most dangerous component of these devices is their batteries. Laptops use Lithium-Ion (or Li-Ion) batteries, a dry-cell battery with the average lifespan of 3-4 years. Americans alone purchase over 3 billion assorted dry-cell batteries per year. Just as many then are thrown away, heaping in our landfills and exposing their chemicals into the soil. From the soil, run off from rain can carry them into the ground water, polluting our drinking water supply.

In 1996, a ban was put in place that prohibited the use of deadly mercury in the production of batteries. Many consumers and electronics manufacturers have also switched to rechargeable batteries to decrease the amount of batteries that enter our landfills.

Despite that, the Li-Ion, nickel-cadmium (or "nicad"), NiMH and other heavy metals in rechargeable batteries are still quite toxic. If they’re incinerated, these heavy metals are released into the air we breathe. It’s crucial that when our electronics die or become obsolete, we dispose of them properly.

As part of the law that banned mercury in batteries, manufacturers are now also required to produce rechargeable batteries with recyclable materials. Some states, like California and New York, have made it illegal to simply throw away any rechargeable batteries. The Environmental Protection Agency set up a non-profit organization, The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation, to help organize and regulate the proper disposal of rechargeable batteries.

Once rechargeable batteries are collected, they’re shipped to a recycling facility in Pennsylvania, where they are separated and broken down based on their type. The reusable metals are extracted and then used to make new batteries or other materials, such as stainless steel. All possible elements are gathered for recycling and never make their way to our landfills.

From this process, organizations like the RBRC have saved our landfills from over 50 million pounds of rechargeable batteries from North America alone since 1996!

How can I do my part?

Disposing your old rechargeable batteries is easier than you think! The RBRC has set up the Call2Recycle program, a service designed to help people who want to make a difference. They offer free collection boxes and bags to contain your old batteries and electronics for turning them in. Most of the top retailers, such as Best Buy, Target, Home Depot, and more are participating in the program, offering drop-off centers at their stores.

To find the locations nearest to you, you can look up the listing on the Call2Recycle website, or call their toll-free helpline, 1-800-8-BATTERY.

You can also learn more about recycling other electronic equipment through organizations like Gcycle. Through these programs, we can minimize waste and landfill space by recycling old computers, monitors, video games, phones, and more!

Triangle Laptops is proud to do our part to help improve the environment and our health by recycling recyclable batteries and electronics. Together with CarbonFund.org and Synergy Recycling, we strive to incorporate efficient environmentally-friendly practices in our business.

Turn Your Laptop into a Blu-Ray Player!

Would you like to watch high-definition Blu-Ray movies on your laptop? Of course you would!

Chances are your laptop's current optical drive is beginning to wear out. CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives are one of the most commonly replaced components on notebook computers because of their use. So instead of simply replacing your drive, why not upgrade to the power of Blu-Ray?

With the Universal Laptop Blu-Ray BD-ROM drive, you can transform your laptop into a Blu-Ray player no matter what model of laptop you own! This BD-ROM drive is produced by Hewlett-Packard and is designed to fit into any laptop’s IDE drive. All you’ll need to do is equip the universal Blu-Ray drive with the housing of your laptop’s current optical drive for that perfect fit.

Not only will your laptop act as a portable Blu-Ray movie player, but you can also hook it up to your HDTV to watch Hi-Def movies on the big screen. Check out our previous article about PC-to-TV connection to learn more about getting yourself set up.

Still not convinced? Well, you’ll notice a dramatic difference in picture quality when you compare it to DVD. Click on the images below to see full-sized comparisons between DVD and Blu-Ray.

As you can see, much more detail is visible in the Blu-Ray version. Most noticeably in Spider-Man’s costume webs and the grit on Bruce Willis’s face.

The Universal Laptop Blu-Ray BD-ROM is capable of all the other functions you’ll need from an optical drive. It can read and write single and dual-layer DVD-R/Ws, as well as CD-ROM & CD-R/W.

Most laptops made within the past few years are powerful enough to handle the resolution and processing ability to handle high-resolution movies, but check your laptop's specs to be sure.

Lenovo Includes Spam In Recent Software Update

A warning to owners of Lenovo ThinkPad laptops: If you’ve recently used Lenovo’s ThinkVantage automatic update software to receive updates for your laptop, you may have been hit with some annoying adware.

Owners of Lenovo laptops are noticing a pop-up ad that appears every couple of hours offering discounts on other Lenovo products. The intrusive ad does have a tick box for those who want to turn the pop-ups off, but customers are already reporting that this does not work.

Many Lenovo laptop owners have become enraged (and rightfully so) that Lenovo would so deviously include adware in with a software update and force them upon their customers. The source of this pesky pop-up appears to be in the latest update for Message Center Plus, an application intended to warn users of conditions on the laptop’s system that may need user attention. Normally, this would be a handy tool for system maintenance, but the inclusion of the ads corrupts the actual value of the application.

So far, users are recommending a complete removal of the Media Center Plus software, offering instructions on how to not only uninstall it, but also prevent it from being automatically installed in the future.

Lenovo has not yet given an official response to these accusations of abuse. However, ThinkPad owners are demanding an explanation along with a fix. Hopefully, Lenovo will remove the inclusion of advertisements from future software updates, or will at least give the user the genuine ability to disable them.

Triangle Laptops strives to promote the best system maintenance to improve the longevity of your laptop! For the best deals on Lenovo replacement parts and repair, check out the IBM / Lenovo sections of our online store!

Re-Use PlayStation 2 Controllers with Your PlayStation 3!

One of the biggest hassles of buying a new video game console is that you have to buy all new accessories! When the PlayStation 2 was released, not only were older PlayStation games playable on the PS2, but you could use all the same controllers as well. But when the PlayStation 3 entered the scene, Sony went wireless, creating a need to buy accessories that are PS3-specific.

Luckily, there’s still a way to re-use your older-generation controllers on the PS3! The PS2-to-PS3 controller adapter will allow you to connect PS2 controllers to the PS3 via its USB ports. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never owned a PS2 before; you can still save money buying much less expensive PS2 hardware. You won’t get the full functionality of a PS3 controller, but for many games on the market, this is still a wise, economical solution.

Here’s just a few...

In this past year, there has been a revolution of arcade-style fighting games. Series like Street Fighter, King of Fighters, and Tekken have had a long-running fan following, with new gamers eager to get on board. Fans know that the best way to play these games is with a full-sized arcade stick. But buying an arcade stick with the game can quickly turn a $60 purchase into a $130 purchase ($200 if you buy a stick for player 2).


But with the PS2-to-PS3 controller adapter, you can revive your old PS2 arcade stick for under $10! This is fantastic for those who have already invested in beautiful, custom-made arcade sticks, which can go for hundreds of dollars online. Casual players who still want to share the arcade experience can pick up cheaper arcade sticks for the PS2 for as low as $15. Quite a deal!

Similarly, music and rhythm games have grown in popularity over the past decade, starting with Dance Dance Revolution and leading up to Guitar Hero and Rock Band. The PS2-to-PS2 controller adapter makes it possible to use their PS2 counterparts on PlayStation 3.

Now you don’t have to burn money away on getting a healthy dance workout or rocking out with your friends!

And of course, it only makes sense to use PS2 controllers when playing PS2 games! Early adopters of the PlayStation 3 are able to play older PS2 and PSone games on their current-generation console. Plus, more classic PSone titles are being made available to download on the PlayStation Network, with talks of PS2 games to come!

Also available in our store is the PS2-to-PS3 memory card transfer cable, for moving your old game saves off your PS2 memory card onto your PS3’s hard drive!

Upgrade to the Xbox 360 120GB Hard Drive with Ease!

If you’re one of the early adopters of the Xbox 360 who only have a 20GB hard drive, you’re probably feeling the pressure of running out of hard drive space! There’s so much entertainment out there and within your grasp… Why let a little thing like storage slow you down?

Since the release of the Elite model, an Xbox 360 120GB hard drive upgrade has been available for those who take their gaming seriously. It holds 6x the data than the older 20GB hard drives, with plenty of breathing room for all your downloadables.

In this past year, digital distribution has exploded with a wide variety of downloadable games, movies, and other services. You can buy full movies in the Xbox Live Marketplace and also for rent via the NetFlix service. Most are also available in high-definition, though many standard definition shows will take up over 1GB of your hard drive space.

It's not just the downloadable content that sucks up space on the Xbox 360’s hard drive. Modern video games often require installing most (if not all) the essential game content to the hard drive; some titles taking up a few gigabytes of storage space. Not to mention the expansion packs that may follow.

The Xbox 360 120GB HDD is now available in our store!

The Xbox 360 120GB hard drive will require a data transfer kit (not included) in order to move your data from your old hard drive onto the new one. Even without one, installation of the new 120GB HDD is a snap and it’s still possible to re-download your purchased content from your Xbox Live account.

Digital Transition Complete! Media Center Users Still Waiting...

Did you catch The Simpsons this weekend? If so, that means that the digital conversion went pretty smoothly for you this past Friday. Of course, not everyone was as lucky...

According to the FCC, nearly 700,000 people called the federal hotline last week about the national switch from analog television signal to digital. Almost half of those calls took place on Friday, the day of the conversion deadline. The FCC had enlisted over 4,000 phone operators to handle the workload, making the average wait time under 5min per caller.

Users of Microsoft’s Media Center have been hit hardest by the transition, since the software was not able to reconfigure itself for the change in channel assignments. Microsoft has not yet sent an update to correct the flaw in Media Center, but is expected to as soon as possible. In the meantime, Media Center users who are more tech savvy can make the adjustments manually with these instructions.

The TV Digital Transition Starts Today!

A new digital era is upon us! Are you ready?

Today is the last day before analog television signal shuts down for good to make way for the digital. The digital transition has been in talks for just a little over a decade, with public service announcements preparing viewers since last year.

Several countries in Europe have already made the transition within the past few years, with the United States just catching up. There's no reason too feel bad, my fellow Americans—most other countries have yet to fully move to digital. Many countries like the United Kingdom have faced delays from technical complications and some have only scheduled to make their switch as late as 2020!

While the official deadline for the transition is tomorrow, June 12, 2009, over 800 television stations got a head-start on the switch. In September of 2008, Wilmington, NC was the first city in the United States to switch completely to digital signal. The FCC used the experience as a testing ground for how the transition may affect other areas around the country.

The common misconception is that a high-definition television will be needed for the transition. This angered many consumers who believed they now had to buy whole new (and then-expensive) TVs. While HDMI cables do carry a digital signal to a television, a high-definition set isn't necessary to continue watching your favorite shows on your faithful old TV.

In fact, as long as you subscribe to a cable or satellite service, you shouldn't need to do a thing! Those most affected are TV owners that rely on an antennae (or “rabbit ears”) to receive signal. TVs with digital antennas may need to be adjusted to adapt to the new signal, but otherwise will work fine.


A digital converter box is necessary to translate the digital signal over the airwaves into analog for older televisions. The US government invested over $2 billion to help people with the transition, funding vouchers to help pay for the converter boxes, public service announcements, and call support lines for those in need of further help.

Unfortunately, it's expected that approximately 3 million homes won't be able to make the switch by this weekend. The supply of government vouchers ran out well before they could get into the hands of everyone who needed one. Most of the people at risk are the elderly and those who live in deeply rural areas, whether because they could not afford a converter or news of the transition simply hadn't reached them. Additionally, viewers that live on the outskirts of broadcast areas may need to acquire a stronger digital antennae (even if they have a converter box), since digital signal has difficulty overcoming interference.

Less than 15% of American television owners rely on over-the-air signal to watch TV, but the challenges posed in the digital transition have inspired many to sign up for pay services like cable or satellite. Time Warner Cable and Direct TV gained nearly 100,000 new subscribers each within the past few months alone!

Others have investigated free online video services like Hulu to watch shows on their home computers. Even consumers who have grown tired of the increasing prices of cable or satellite have hooked their PCs to their TV as a more economical alternative.

If by Saturday morning, you wake up to a blank screen on your TV set, you can contact the FCC for help at their DTV website or call 1-888-225-5322.