Although I have never had any problems from my personal tx750p I did have one that was brought in for repair after the owners pet had jerked on the power cord which damaged the DC in jack inside the laptop.
To start with these computers are extremely easy to work on compared to other laptops which is another plus. Full disassemble takes no time at all. Just remove the battery, remove all screws from the bottom, flip it over, remove the keyboard and ribbon cable and take out the screw holding the plastic bezel to the bottom frame. Then gently remove the ribbon cables and the very small wire running to the antenna on the bottom side. Gently pull the bezel/top plastic off making sure you didn't leave anything plugged in. This will give you access to the top of the motherboard and several other components including the optical drive. Any further dissasembly is straight forward. If you need any help what so ever leave a comment and I will help you out the best I can.
When you take the top plastic cover off that contains the touch pad and keyboard bezel look to the upper left corner (where the plug comes in from the outside) and you will see that the actual power jack IS NOT soldered directly to the motherboard which is a huge plus. Simply unplug it from the motherboard and gently pull up on it from the rear of the plug until is slides up and out. Once it is out you can replace it with a new unit or you can most likely re solder the wires back together.
On the customers computer I soldered two new thicker wires in that attached to all of the wires of the corresponding colors (black and red), heat shrink and then installed the plug back in. I did use a dab of hot glue to make sure the plug could not longer freely move. DO NOT use epoxy or super glue because the you never know when it may have to be repaired/replaced again.
On a final note jack issue did cause the battery to go bad so it also had to be replaced. Just remember these sony batteries are very sensitive to EMP and ESD which will fry their internal power processor rendering them useless even if the cells are still good.
That's it on this laptop everyone. If you have any questions about this laptop or want to leave a note about your experience with the same model please leave a comment and I will help you the best that I can! Also make sure you subscribe to look out for the many new reviews on older and brand new laptops. So no matter if you are looking for a brand new unit or an older used one, please look here first for reviews and potential problems with certain models before you purchase one. Jesse T
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Compaq Presario C300 C400 Common problems and how to fix them yourself.
One of the very frustrating things that comes with this computer is when you have to reformat the machine and install a fresh copy of windows. Here are couple things that I found fixed the very common but almost unsolved problem with these laptops. These fixes are also for the C400 and other similar compaq and HP models.
*Compaq Presario C300 Sound Card Issue and Fix - Most everyone has this issue when installing a fresh copy of windows on their C300. I was frustrated with it myself until I done a little trial and error until it was fixed. Basically its pretty easy. When you install a fresh OS install your video driver along with all of your other drivers for the laptop. When it comes to the sound driver for the 3D Sound Blaster Pro you will need to MAKE SURE you have windows service pack 3 installed on your computer if you are running XP. Once this is installed you will want to go to www.compaq.com and download the softpack driver called the "Microsoft Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) Bus Driver for High Definition Audio" which is soft pack sp32646. Once installed restart and your sound card should be recognized and working!
*Compaq Presario C300 HDD not found issue- Again this happens sometimes when doing a fresh install on windows after the HDD has been partitioned and reformatted. It is another simple fix and all you have to do is go into Bios, for to the System Configuration tab, scroll down to "SATA Native Support" and disable it. Safe your new setting and restart the computer. As long as your hard drive is not throwing the error because of a hardware issue this should solve the problem.
*Compaq Presario C300 no display, power button flashing- This another common problem with these computers that's all over the internet without a solution posted that I can find. After inspecting the motherboard and giving it the OK I looked the computer over and figured as a last shot I would pull the button cell battery from the motherboard and reset the bios/cmos. Upon doing this I assembled the laptop and it came on the very first time and worked great for the customer ever since. If this doesn't work for you remember that the battery may also be dead. Before trashing the computer or ordering expensive parts go out and buy a CMOS battery and see if that does the trick.
*Compaq Presario C300 Sound Card Issue and Fix - Most everyone has this issue when installing a fresh copy of windows on their C300. I was frustrated with it myself until I done a little trial and error until it was fixed. Basically its pretty easy. When you install a fresh OS install your video driver along with all of your other drivers for the laptop. When it comes to the sound driver for the 3D Sound Blaster Pro you will need to MAKE SURE you have windows service pack 3 installed on your computer if you are running XP. Once this is installed you will want to go to www.compaq.com and download the softpack driver called the "Microsoft Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) Bus Driver for High Definition Audio" which is soft pack sp32646. Once installed restart and your sound card should be recognized and working!
*Compaq Presario C300 HDD not found issue- Again this happens sometimes when doing a fresh install on windows after the HDD has been partitioned and reformatted. It is another simple fix and all you have to do is go into Bios, for to the System Configuration tab, scroll down to "SATA Native Support" and disable it. Safe your new setting and restart the computer. As long as your hard drive is not throwing the error because of a hardware issue this should solve the problem.
*Compaq Presario C300 no display, power button flashing- This another common problem with these computers that's all over the internet without a solution posted that I can find. After inspecting the motherboard and giving it the OK I looked the computer over and figured as a last shot I would pull the button cell battery from the motherboard and reset the bios/cmos. Upon doing this I assembled the laptop and it came on the very first time and worked great for the customer ever since. If this doesn't work for you remember that the battery may also be dead. Before trashing the computer or ordering expensive parts go out and buy a CMOS battery and see if that does the trick.
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