The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: worms on July 16, 2013, 12:12:12 AM
-
Picking up from the thread on "Wall of Shame" about operating systems and the comment about power management problems on laptops.
I have a pile of old laptops which are all perfectly serviceable (running on Linux) apart from the ability to actually power them up. On a couple, I have replaced the power supply connection or re-soldered it but the improvement is short-lived. I've also had bad experience with poor quality after-market batteries from eBay.
What's the answer? Is it possible to hard wire a power supply, by-passing the battery completely?
-
It should be perfectly possible, to replace the entire battery system and replace it with a stand alone PSU, but there just might not be a market for something like that.
And that's exactly why I hate laptops and try to avoid them at all costs. My suggestion, since they're already wiped, is donate them and make them somebody else's problem.
-
Why'd you need to hack something up? You can simply get a replacement power supply, right? Or is that connection damaged somehow? I.e. why did you have to re-solder it?
If that improvement is short-lived, I guess you did something wrong. A good soldered connection should remain put for years, right?
-
Why'd you need to hack something up? You can simply get a replacement power supply, right? Or is that connection damaged somehow? I.e. why did you have to re-solder it?
If that improvement is short-lived, I guess you did something wrong. A good soldered connection should remain put for years, right?
Having fixed a few laptop power connections myself, it is the fact that the solder connection are often damaged by mechanical stress at the connection point that causes longevity issues with resoldering (ie. lifted/severed solder pads, connectors cracked internally). Also, the connectors sink a lot of heat while being soldered, which can further damage marginal solder pads while conducting the repair. Reliability of such repairs can be very hit and miss.
-
Step 1: Sell all of them on Ebay and make a ~$20 profit off of each.
Step 2: Find a better used laptop and buy it for $100?