It only charges if you hold the cable at an angle, the plug wobbles, or it does not charge at all and the machine lives as long as the battery lasts.
The gap between two very different quotes comes down to one thing: is the port a module on a cable, or soldered to a board?
Free diagnostics: we look at how your machine is built before talking prices.
The good case is documented and common. HP catalogues a «power connector cable (DC-in)» with its own part number. Lenovo lists a «dc-in cable assembly». Dell's XPS 13 9360 manual has its own chapters for removing and replacing the power-adapter port. When the port is built like that, we change the port.
The bad case is equally documented. On the Dell XPS 13 9315 the major components list contains no power port: there is a system board and an I/O daughter-board, and the ports are on them. Same on the HP EliteBook 840 G11, which charges over USB-C. There, the prescribed part is the board.
One distinction worth making before the quote. When the ports sit on an I/O daughter-board, the damage stays on a secondary board rather than the motherboard — a substantial difference in the bill.
The trend is checkable, not arguable. Dell 9360: dedicated port part. Dell 9315: no port part, USB-C only. And an honest note: desoldering and resoldering a connector is not a procedure any consulted service manual prescribes. When it makes sense we say what it is: component-level repair, outside the documented scope.
| How the port is built | cable module, or soldered to the system or I/O board |
|---|---|
| System board or daughter-board | ports on the I/O board keep the damage contained |
| Charging type | barrel jack or USB-C Power Delivery |
| Charger condition | sometimes the charger died, not the laptop |
| Battery involved | an end-of-life battery can look like a charging fault |
| Availability | the DC-in cable has its own part number |
The factors that actually move the cost of this job. They are not our rules: they depend on how the manufacturer supplies the part, and they are checked at the diagnosis stage before anything is ordered.
ElectrONIK Lab is an independent workshop: it is not an authorised service centre and is not affiliated with the manufacturers. The trademarks named here belong to their respective owners and are used only to identify the devices we work on. Your statutory consumer rights towards whoever carries out the repair are unaffected.
Free diagnostics, a clear quote and the part chosen by you.