Pismo won't charge battery

1. fishfry - 24 July 2008

   It's a longshot, but does anyone know about this repair? I dropped my Pismo (I know, dumb). It works fine but now it won't charge battery. I tried different power cords but no dice.

   I'm thinking that I must have jiggled the power connector and possibly broken some internal connection. Does anyone happen to know anything about this repair?

2. Richard Maine - 24 July 2008

   Ouch. No guarantees, but my first guess would be the DC-IN board (and particularly the possibility that the power cord pin is broken off and stuck in the socket). That's common with those connectors. Look and see if there is something in there (and if the power cord is missing the top of its center pin). Unfortunately, it is darn near impossible to get out if that happens. I never could. I had to replace the darn DC-IN board instead.

   Also unfortunately, that tends to be a big PITA to replace. It isn't the board itself that is so hard, but getting to it. Your Pismo might be different, but I replaced the CD-IN board on my daughter's 12" Powerbook. That was pretty much the most painful computer repair I've ever done, and I've done quite a lot. I pretty much had to take every part out of the thing to get to where the DC-IN board was. I wouldn't have thought there was room for that many screws in that small a case. I was pleasantly surprised that the computer actually still worked when I reassembled it. :-(

   Ifixit.com is a good source of instructions on how to disassemble Apple laptops.

   But recall that my suggestion of it being the DC-IN board is just a guess. I'd hate for you to go to all that work and find that wasn't the problem. Or maybe if it is, you can manage to remove the borken off pin.

   Richard Maine | Good judgement comes from experience; email: last name at domain . net | experience comes from bad judgement. domain: summertriangle | -- Mark Twain