[Kassandra Kaplan]

Update for those that are interested.  I soldered the sheared pin.  This fixed the problem for a short time.  The way the jack stands so proud of the jack allows a good amount of leverage on the back to pins.  A soldering job alone didn’t solve the problem, the solder joint broke testing the connection.

I ended up adding a bit of epoxy to reinforce the connection between the PCB and the jack.  I also added a small bit between the jack and the case.  My thinking being to lock down movement around the jack.  Epoxies have a high operating temperature and are pretty solid without being brittle.  I took care not to cover anything that would be conducting electricity so that they could dissipate heat.  I attached a modified image version of my last image to give a better idea of what I did.  This repair has been working well for several days with a bit of rough handling to test it out.

A bit of reinforcement at the jack might be a good idea if you want to rely on the DC jack and you are doing the thermal mod or have the case open anyway.  Otherwise, you might want to consider a 90 degree barrel adapter or something that doesn’t stick out so much.  Particularly, if it gets any abuse at all.  If you need to push your cable back to get  it to register it is a sign that one of the DC jack pins has come loose or has entirely broken free.

Good luck

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[Kassandra Kaplan]

I am having the exact issues right now.  If I would push the 12 volt barrel connector backwards, it would charge.  At least for a while, eventually it would not charge at all.  I tried two different 12 volt supplies, the stock charger and another, both deliver a bit over 12 volts without a load and my supply I had recently tested at 5 amp, rated to 6.

I removed the case to look the pins on the jack.  It seems on has broken loose. It is the pin next to screen printed “1”.  I attached a photo*.  I have not tried make a repair yet, but pushing the pin against the joint didn’t seem to help.  Also have not tried bypassing the jack with a bench top supply either.

It maybe be that voltage is not the only factor the charge protection circuit is preventing the battery charging even if it detects a plug.  It may not like any noise or other factors.  Also if putting a plug in a jack connecting just 2 ground pins or 2 positive that could complete a sense circuit, but not having all the sense circuit triggered would tell the computer it’s not safe to charge.

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