LAPTOP FORUM

Does anyone know how to replace a power supply in an HP Pavilion ZT3380
laptop please?

The power plug seems to be exceptionally loose and if the computer shuts
down, you can occasionally get it turned on again by turning the plug around
in the socket 180 degrees so that something makes contact with something
again. But I dont think this is the whole story.

The computer does work as a desktop but once it did shut down overnight for
no apparent reason and once during use while I was trying to soak-test it
for this very problem. When it shut down overnight, by the morning, when I
turned it on, the orange charge light having presumably been on all night,
it showed 0% charge. Suspicious.

More importantly it shuts down completely if you accidentally jiggle the
plug, not going to battery power at all. In addition, when you start it with
a largely dead battery and then try to plug it in to charge the battery, the
battery doesnt charge at all. It CAN also show an orange charge light
overnight when off and by the morning, show no increase in charge: This
doesnt just seem to be a loose plug!

I upgraded the BIOS and this seemed to improve things for a very short
while, with the new BIOS having a battery calibration utility which worked
once. However, now it wont even charge the System Battery except
excruciatingly slowly. Isnt the system battery something like a
rechargeable CR2025? Which should discharge/charge in a few minutes. When
the battery utility did discharge/recharge the main battery, it did do it in
around a half an hour.

We HAVE tried changing the AC adapter in case the problem was with the
internal wiring of the plug itself and isolated that as not being the issue.

Someone once referred me to a service manual for my Pavilion 5415 which had
a similar problem but I cant now find the reference to it (and replacing the
power supply for the 5415 involved a completely uneconomical taking apart of
the whole computer down virtually to the last screw!). These internal power
supplies do occasionally come up on ebay and sell for a few bucks. possibly
for this reason?

Hopefully the situation wont be the same for the 3880? Though an alarming
number of them seem to come up very cheaply at places like Frys, -
reconditioned .

(Incidentally it refers to itself on its screen panel as a ZT3000, on its
underside as a ZT3300 and on it serial number plate as a ZT3380US)

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc news.rcn.com wrote:

> Does anyone know how to replace a power supply in an HP Pavilion ZT3380
> laptop please?

> The power plug seems to be exceptionally loose and if the computer shuts
> down, you can occasionally get it turned on again by turning the plug around
> in the socket 180 degrees so that something makes contact with something
> again. But I dont think this is the whole story.

> The computer does work as a desktop but once it did shut down overnight for
> no apparent reason and once during use while I was trying to soak-test it
> for this very problem. When it shut down overnight, by the morning, when I
> turned it on, the orange charge light having presumably been on all night,
> it showed 0% charge. Suspicious.

> More importantly it shuts down completely if you accidentally jiggle the
> plug, not going to battery power at all. In addition, when you start it with
> a largely dead battery and then try to plug it in to charge the battery, the
> battery doesnt charge at all. It CAN also show an orange charge light
> overnight when off and by the morning, show no increase in charge: This
> doesnt just seem to be a loose plug!

> I upgraded the BIOS and this seemed to improve things for a very short
> while, with the new BIOS having a battery calibration utility which worked
> once. However, now it wont even charge the System Battery except
> excruciatingly slowly. Isnt the system battery something like a
> rechargeable CR2025? Which should discharge/charge in a few minutes. When
> the battery utility did discharge/recharge the main battery, it did do it in
> around a half an hour.

A CR2025 explodes if you charge it.

> We HAVE tried changing the AC adapter in case the problem was with the
> internal wiring of the plug itself and isolated that as not being the issue.

> Someone once referred me to a service manual for my Pavilion 5415 which had
> a similar problem but I cant now find the reference to it (and replacing the
> power supply for the 5415 involved a completely uneconomical taking apart of
> the whole computer down virtually to the last screw!). These internal power
> supplies do occasionally come up on ebay and sell for a few bucks. possibly
> for this reason?

> Hopefully the situation wont be the same for the 3880? Though an alarming
> number of them seem to come up very cheaply at places like Frys, -
> reconditioned .

> (Incidentally it refers to itself on its screen panel as a ZT3000, on its
> underside as a ZT3300 and on it serial number plate as a ZT3380US)

It may just be a contacrt problem. THese are best tackled with contact
spary and bending the contact so that is presses firmer on the plug.

Arno

Arno Wagner wrote in message
news:5k2rinF1sn38U1@mid.individual.net...
Yes, I suspected that: So the problem may well be with the CMOS battery
itself? The utility at first stopped the charging process at 99%.
Thereafter, it wont get much past about 8-10%. I wonder if this could
account for the whole problem? (see below)

Actually when I now go into the BIOS utility, I am not offered the option of
calibrating the Main Battery any more (I did go through the process of
recalibrating the main battery, - successfully, - once), just the system
one
The reason why I included such an amount of detail in what could be a
contact problem is because MOST OF these symptoms dont seem to point to a
contact problem. Such as: Why cant it switch from ac to (a fully charged)
main battery like all other computers when you simply take out the plug? Why
does it shut down completely when you arent actually doing anything on the
computer if it is a contact problem? Unless the contacts inside the socket
are completely burned out, carbonised and pitted, why doesnt it charge the
battery on re-plug in if it is just a contact problem?

If it IS just a contact problem, surely just spraying it with WD40 will make
the problem completely go away for at least a while until the metal under
the oil starts encountering the carbon again? And for fear of repeating
myself, why am I getting all these mysterious problems with the calibration
utility if the problem is with the contacts?

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc news.rcn.com wrote:

> Arno Wagner wrote in message
> news:5k2rinF1sn38U1@mid.individual.net...
>> In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc news.rcn.com wrote:
>>> Does anyone know how to replace a power supply in an HP Pavilion ZT3380
>>> laptop please?
>>
>>> The power plug seems to be exceptionally loose and if the computer shuts
>>> down, you can occasionally get it turned on again by turning the plug
>>> around
>>> in the socket 180 degrees so that something makes contact with something
>>> again. But I dont think this is the whole story.
>>
>>> The computer does work as a desktop but once it did shut down overnight
>>> for
>>> no apparent reason and once during use while I was trying to soak-test it
>>> for this very problem. When it shut down overnight, by the morning,
>>> when I
>>> turned it on, the orange charge light having presumably been on all
>>> night,
>>> it showed 0% charge. Suspicious.
>>
>>> More importantly it shuts down completely if you accidentally jiggle the
>>> plug, not going to battery power at all. In addition, when you start it
>>> with
>>> a largely dead battery and then try to plug it in to charge the battery,
>>> the
>>> battery doesnt charge at all. It CAN also show an orange charge light
>>> overnight when off and by the morning, show no increase in charge: This
>>> doesnt just seem to be a loose plug!
>>
>>> I upgraded the BIOS and this seemed to improve things for a very short
>>> while, with the new BIOS having a battery calibration utility which
>>> worked
>>> once. However, now it wont even charge the System Battery except
>>> excruciatingly slowly. Isnt the system battery something like a
>>> rechargeable CR2025? Which should discharge/charge in a few minutes.
>>> When
>>> the battery utility did discharge/recharge the main battery, it did do it
>>> in
>>> around a half an hour.
>>
>> A CR2025 explodes if you charge it.
> Yes, I suspected that: So the problem may well be with the CMOS battery
> itself? The utility at first stopped the charging process at 99%.
> Thereafter, it wont get much past about 8-10%. I wonder if this could
> account for the whole problem? (see below)

> Actually when I now go into the BIOS utility, I am not offered the option of
> calibrating the Main Battery any more (I did go through the process of
> recalibrating the main battery, - successfully, - once), just the system
> one
>>
>>> We HAVE tried changing the AC adapter in case the problem was with the
>>> internal wiring of the plug itself and isolated that as not being the
>>> issue.
>>
>>> Someone once referred me to a service manual for my Pavilion 5415 which
>>> had
>>> a similar problem but I cant now find the reference to it (and replacing
>>> the
>>> power supply for the 5415 involved a completely uneconomical taking apart
>>> of
>>> the whole computer down virtually to the last screw!). These internal
>>> power
>>> supplies do occasionally come up on ebay and sell for a few bucks.
>>> possibly
>>> for this reason?
>>
>>> Hopefully the situation wont be the same for the 3880? Though an
>>> alarming
>>> number of them seem to come up very cheaply at places like Frys, -
>>> reconditioned .
>>
>>> (Incidentally it refers to itself on its screen panel as a ZT3000, on its
>>> underside as a ZT3300 and on it serial number plate as a ZT3380US)
>>
>> It may just be a contacrt problem. These are best tackled with contact
>> spary and bending the contact so that is presses firmer on the plug.
> The reason why I included such an amount of detail in what could be a
> contact problem is because MOST OF these symptoms dont seem to point to a
> contact problem. Such as: Why cant it switch from ac to (a fully charged)
> main battery like all other computers when you simply take out the plug? Why
> does it shut down completely when you arent actually doing anything on the
> computer if it is a contact problem? Unless the contacts inside the socket
> are completely burned out, carbonised and pitted, why doesnt it charge the
> battery on re-plug in if it is just a contact problem?

> If it IS just a contact problem, surely just spraying it with WD40 will make
> the problem completely go away for at least a while until the metal under
> the oil starts encountering the carbon again? And for fear of repeating
> myself, why am I getting all these mysterious problems with the calibration
> utility if the problem is with the contacts?

Hmm. Agreed. Sounds more like an issue with the entire power unit
in the laptop. Maybe a swithcing transistor that has a problem or
the like. Very hard to diagnise without shematics and the right
equipment.

Arno

On Sep 3, 1:27 pm, news.rcn.com wrote:

> If it IS just a contact problem, surely just spraying it with WD40 will make
> the problem completely go away for at least a while until the metal under
> the oil starts encountering the carbon again? And for fear of repeating
> myself, why am I getting all these mysterious problems with the calibration
> utility if the problem is with the contacts?

Contacts are self cleaning. That applies both to connectors and to
contacts on battery.

You are speculating what is a problem; then trying to fix based only
on speculation. In but minutes with a meter you (or those who can
provide better information) would know rather than just speculate.
Everything posted is just speculation. Anyone with sufficient
technical knowledge to provide a useful answer will post nothing -
because no useful facts have been provided.

For example, what is that battery voltage? Now we can say if the
battery is charged. What is battery voltage when connected in system
or voltage on connector to that battery; measured when AC power is
applied and is disconnected.

Why are you getting weird calibration problems? Nobody who could
answer that question will even post because you dont provide numbers
necessary to answer that question. First essential numbers are in the
previous paragraph.

Meanwhile, WD-40 is a worst solution possible. Contacts are self
cleaning. Those with sufficient knowledge to answer your questions
would have also noted why contact contamination does not exist.

Is power supply a separate board? That would be unusual.

Meanwhile, money spend on the power brick also would not be wasted
had you used the meter and one minute to make those measurements.
Just another exmaple of why fixing things only based in speculation is
money wasted.

w tom wrote in message
news:1188859066.206349.40200@d55g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
Actually I am not the one who spent the money but the reason I posted was
obvious: to find out (from someone who knows the way around the HP web
site) where the service manual is. This will tell me how to establish
whether the power supply is separate and/or how to get it out to replace it.

Again, obviously, once inside I may well be able to figure out whether the
contacts can be rendered more secure and the problem completely solved. Look
at my carefully worded header.

Without taking any voltage calibrations.

(At the moment I dont even know how to crack open the case. And my
suggestions as to what might be wrong with some carbon build-up on the
connection was not designed to be taken seriously, else I would be able to
see at least some pitting at least somewhere)

w tom writes:


Have you ever actually worked on a laptop computer? Its no where
as simple as you make it out to be. :)

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On Mon, 3 Sep 2007 23:33:43 UTC, Sam Goldwasser
wrote:


You havent come across w tom before, then? Just dont mention
lightning...
--
Bob Eager
begin 123 a new life...take up Extreme Ironing!