-Don’t put extra tension on your power cord. An example of this is sitting on the couch or bed and the wall socket is to far away. You stretch the power cord out just barely so you can get power to your laptop. This tension on the cord can slowly loosen the dc jack. Keep some slack on your power cord at all times.
–Use a factory original power cord. When you buy a cord from dell or whatever the company of laptop you own you’re getting the specific power configuration for your laptop. This means the voltage, amperage, and tip size are correct and exact for that laptop. Buying a replacement or universal might be cheaper or get you by (factory cord died) but this can lead to problems. On replacement and universal cords the voltage and amperage could be off or not correct for your model. This could result in solder degrading faster or components to fry or not function properly due to incorrect voltage. The tip size might also be slightly off. With an incorrect tip size you could be forcing the power cord tip into the dc jack or moving it around to get it to connect properly.
–Don’t position the power cord tip to get your laptop to power on/charge. This is assuming you already have the power jack problem. When a dc jack goes bad it’s not making a good connection with the motherboard. Sometimes you can wiggle or hold the end of the power cord to get it to work (power on/charge). If you wiggle or position the cord to hard you run the risk of damaging the motherboard. Too much tension can break the traces and fry the motherboard. It’s tempting to use this as a remedy (taping, glue, wrapping the cord around the laptop) but isn’t worth your laptop becoming completely unusable.
–Do some research into the make and model of laptop you’re thinking about buying. If purchasing a new laptop it can be hard to know if you’ll get the dc jack problem down the road in its life. Getting a laptop with a three year warranty or buying an extended warranty can be beneficial in the long run. If you plan to use the laptop portably all the time take this into consideration.
If you’re thinking of buying a used laptop do a Google search like, “dell inspiron 1150 dc jack problems”. After dong this search you’ll see thousands of results. Every laptop is susceptible to dc jack problems but some are much worse than others. Also keep in mind companies like dell sell a lot of laptops. Laptops like the dell 1150 and hp zv5000 have class action lawsuits against them and should be avoided.
–Use a dc jack prevention device like jerkstopper (jerkstopper.com) This is a CRD (Cable Retention Device). It connects to RJ45, USB, and RJ11 to take the tension off your dc jack.
-Use a docking station of your model supports it. Not all laptops have the option of using a docking station but some do. I use a dell latitude d630 laptop. By plugging into my docking station I bypass the power plug. Taking the dc jack out of the equation can help prolong the life of it. This only works when at a desk but will charge the battery as well while plugged in. Simply undock and use your laptop portably.
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