Ravings on CS, OSs, PLs, SF, and other things geeky...

A mate of mine gave me his old laptop, which having a broken power connector was pretty much dead. While I was assured that the actual power connector inside was at fault, the cable too had been ripped open so I wasn’t sure if it was just the power connector or the cable as well. After getting my hands on a multimeter I managed to assure myself that the cable was fine. So in order to get at the power connector disassembly was required. A couple of hours later, things looked like this:

The connector was indeed loose, fiddling with the multimeter seemed to indicate the middle conductor was loose and the outer one broken. However, I am now having the sneaking suspicion that something else is broken, since moments of connectivity seemed to elicit a strange ticking sound from the motherboard. I guess I’ll try and solder the power connector back on. Even then it’s still a question if I will be able to stick this thing back together again much less if it will work again. Hmm… anyone need spare parts for a Hewlett Packard Pavilion zx5000?