Symptoms of a broken DC power jack: - The laptop only operates when you hold the DC power cord in a certain direction. - The laptop only runs on battery power. - The laptop gets no power at all. - The laptop will not charge the battery. - The laptop switches from AC power to battery power intermittently. - The laptop suddenly shuts off. - The DC jack may feel loose. - Sparks come out of the back of the laptop.

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How some repair centers handle DC jack repair:
Most service centers don't want to deal with this problem by attempting to repair the DC jack.  Many, including the large nationwide stores
and the laptop's manufacturer, will either tell you the machine is not repairable or that they will need to replace the motherboard. These
quotes usually run from $300 to as much as $800. They choose to ignore the fact that a broken DC power jack can be repaired without
a motherboard replacement because they are not equipped with the tools or training to do DC power jack replacement on your laptop.

How a DC jack breaks:
- The DC power jack on most models of laptops do not have enough reinforcement within the structure of the casing and motherboard
to handle the stress caused by movement of the power plug.
- Some DC jacks simply fail under normal operation of your computer. After a year or two of usage, parts just come loose on certain models.
- Sometimes the laptop gets dropped and the plug jerks the DC jack loose.
- People, pets and vacuum cleaners trip over laptop power cords and break the DC power jack.
- The laptop is moved around a lot. After the DC jack is moved back and forth enough times, it comes loose.
- In some cases the DC jack was not soldered onto the motherboard well by the manufacturer.

Getting a new DC power jack installed by us:
This is a repair we do on a daily basis on ALL brands of laptops for individual customers and other computer repair shops all over the US.
We have every DC jack for every laptop in stock. A flat rate of $199 $159 covers the cost of the DC power jack and all labor involved. Unlike
most laptop repair centers, our technicians have years of electronics training and experience.  We also have invested in premium soldering
equipment to safely remove the old DC jack from the laptop and replace it with a new DC power jack without damaging the motherboard.

- We offer free pickup in the northbay. (We can travel outside our service area to pickup and drop off for a small fee)
- Drop off your laptop at our home office in Santa Rosa, CA.
- Ship us your laptop.

If you use your own packaging, shipping a laptop here via ground service is often only about $15. If you have any questions about shipping
your laptop for DC jack repair, just give us a call or email.  One of our friendly staff will be happy to assist you.

NOTE: Insurance on your packaged laptop is your responsibility both ways; it costs only a few dollars. All laptops should have adequate
packaging to survive the trip.  Package your laptop in some bubble wrap, foam or peanuts in a box large enough to protect your laptop.
After the DC jack replacement, we return your laptop in the package in which it came to us.

Laptop DC power jack repair FAQ:
Q. Are you a local repair shop or a national repair center?
A. Actually we're both.  We started out as a very small hometown business.  Over time we've grown into a large repair center who services
computers for customers all over the US.  We have become most famous for our laptop DC power jack repair service, however folks in our
community still know us as their local hometown computer shop.

Q. What geographical areas do you serve?
A. Our laptop repair service covers everywhere in the United States. Through the ease of shipping via UPS, USPS, FedEx and DHL, we
have replaced the DC jack in laptops for customers in every state in the US!. Customers tell us they feel the price, speed and quality of
our laptop DC jack repair along with our friendly customer service make their decision to ship their laptop to us worthwhile.

Q. Will DC jack repair work on my brand of laptop?
A. Yes, we repair the DC jack on all brands of PC laptops. More accurately, we replace the DC jack in laptops.  Some of the most
common laptops needing DC jack repair we see are HP (Pavilion and Omnibook especially), Compaq (Armada and Presario series),
Dell (Inspiron and Latitude), Acer (Travelmate and Aspire especially), Toshiba (we see a lot of the Satellite series for DC jack repair),
Sony (Vaio), Averatec, IBM (Thinkpad), Gateway, Emachines, Samsung, Asus and Panasonic.

Q. Why would I choose Northbay Computer for DC jack repair on my laptop?
A. We have state-of-the-art soldering equipment and talented, skilled technicians who will replace the DC jack on your laptop the right
way without doing any damage to your laptop.  Having good equipment means we can remove the old jack quickly and safely without
applying too much heat too long to the motherboard during desoldering.  Our techs get lots of practice replacing DC power jacks before
they ever touch a customer's laptop!  Plus, we believe in providing friendly personal service to our customers.

Q. Do you do anything else besides DC jack repair?
A. Yes!  When your laptop is here for DC jack repair, we will thoroughly check your laptop for any other problems and give you a report. 
Not only do we do DC jack replacement, but we replace LCDs, inverters, memory upgrades, hard drives, keyboards, fans and take care
of software problems.  We clean out the dust and debris from inside the laptop free of charge when we do any internal repair such as DC
power jack repair!

Q. How much does it cost to have my DC power jack replaced?  Are there any hidden charges?
A. Laptop DC power jack replacement costs you $199 $159.  That's it.  There are no hidden or surprise charges. 
The only thing outside of the DC jack repair for which you pay is your return shipping.

Q. How do I pay you for my DC jack repair?
A. The easiest way (and the way most of our customers simply prefer to pay) is via any major credit or debit card over the phone.  We
can also email you an invoice via Paypal if that's more convenient for you. You may pay by personal check, but we must wait for the funds
to clear before we can ship your laptop. Obviously we must receive payment before we can ship your laptop back to you after it is repaired.

Q. What if my DC jack can't be fixed?
A. On very rare occasions, part of the motherboard is broken that the DC jack attaches to. This usually only happens if the cord was
yanked out very hard. When the unit is opened and we note this, we do not do the repair and do not charge you for the jack repair. We will
give you some options, including sending the laptop back or a quote on a replacement motherboard.  If you choose not to have the laptop
repaired, we will only charge our standard diagnostic fee (as of July 27, 2009 it is $50 but subject to change).

Q. How long does your DC jack repair service take?
A. We repair laptops in the order received. Turnaround time on our DC power jack repair is typically 1 to 3 business days. Other repair
centers advertise same day service on DC jack repair, but state otherwise on their web sites.  We advertise 1-3 day DC jack repair service
and always do our best to turn around every DC jack repair within that time frame. Sending your laptop to the manufacturer for repair
(actually motherboard replacement) could take 8 - 12 weeks!

Q. Will my DC jack ever break again? 
A. We do many DC jack repairs daily and the laptop technicians performing the repair are very good, however we can not change the
engineering of your laptop. Some DC jacks mount in to your laptop's motherboard by as few as three small pins. Most laptops never return
for service a second time, but note that on many models one good jerk will break the DC jack free again.

If you have any other questions regarding our laptop DC jack repair service please feel free to contact us.

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