Thinkpads Forum

My son's ThinkPad 420s seems to have a loose power jack. When he plugs in the power, the machine starts chirping and doesn't stop, and the power indicator on the Windows taskbar oscillates fairly quickly between showing the machine as plugged in and on battery power. By fussing with the power plug, he can sometimes get it to show that it's connected to AC power fairly consistently, and he can get the chirping to stop. But it sounds as if it's time for a repair. Is this likely to require a full motherboard replacement, or just a part? The HMM doesn't seem to provide any guidance, but maybe I'm missing something.

Many thanks for any help with this.

Sounds like the yellow plastic power jack may need to be replaced. I don't suspect the motherboard. Unfortunately gaining access to that part to replace it requires a nearly complete teardown.

Brad

Thanks, Brad. I asked my son to check the machine, and it's actually still in warranty until August. I don't remembering buying three years of EZserv, but I seem to have done so. So it's back to Atlanta with it, I suppose.

Good news.

Brad

I've seen the yellow power port/jack/daughter card etc break on upwards to a dozen T420s and T430s machines.

I think it's a bad design on the part itself in that either the solder leads from the yellow port to the circuit board break, or the power port itself (the yellow plastic) fall apart from use.

If your machine is still under warranty, that is definitely a free repair and it needs to get fixed.

EZserv is sending a box; the three-year warranty was definitely worth the money.

Just a follow-up report. I had amazing luck with EZserv. I shipped the laptop to Memphis TN on Tuesday and got it back, repaired, today, Thursday. Without my even asking, they replaced the worn-out lower panel and palm rest. The machine looks good as new. This is really amazing, since they hadn't done anything like that on my previous repairs.

wow, that's cool to hear! My 1 yr base runs out next month, I may need to see about a warranty upgrade