HP Pavilion dv7 power adapter cable --- Analog [ Edited ]

[Shirleylox]

Old Tube Guy, Russ, whoever (is involved)

Even though I appear to be Shirleylox I am not :-) - I'm just on her puter. My background has electronics and electro mechanical. Retired TelCo, U.S.Navy ET2.

I  very much appreciate the effort y'all have put into this problem. Getting lazy at my age and not as steady of hand. It all makes sense and your research efforts explain much if not all. My problem here is not likely the connection from the supply to the puter, but a bad AC cube. I think I'm getting noise spikes when I run with the power plugged in. Runs fine on Batt only, but intermittently freezes up when plugged in. Tried streaming a site recently and this is when it mostly happens. WMP also tends to hang it. The only way out is to press & hold the power button.

I'm still under warranty so will contact HP --- But I like to know what's going on.

Now to try to find out how to contact HP.

Thanks again -

It's great to learn

[bbazookajoe]

Thanks to the careful posting here by the guy that did the pin mapping, i figured out my problem. 

It was my adapter.  The barrell (don't remember if inner or outer) had come away from the large glob of solder connecting barrel and wire. 

Try squeezing the end of the barrell to see if this is your problem.

Don't buy a generic AC power adapter.  The one I bought would charge the battery only, it wouldn't run the computer at the same time.  Don't replace your motherboard first as I did.  Thats the more expensive route.

Lead free solder (HP is forced to use) is brittle so it separates easily. Lead was soft and maleable so it didn't break and had a wider temp range.  They really should use a tiny weld to connect the barrell instead of solder.  (rant on lead-free solder moved to the bottom). I cut back the plastic with a dremel and soldered the joint with lead based solder, covered the gap with epoxy, and used heat shrink to cover it from cut to metal.  you can hardly notice it.

Stupid lead free solder is turning all computer products to fragile pieces of _____.  That sucks for the all electronics companies (or does it) because they hear all these complaints and can't help it if they want to sell any products in Europe.  I guess they were to many people opening there laptops, phones and xbox's and sucking on the solder and getting lead poisioning.  AnyFrom

[PearlandTX]

Same problem here. Battery kept going dead. HP power supply kept beeping. Replaced the power supply. Worked for an hour or so, then problems continued. Replaced the battery. Worked for a little while, then problems continued. Now battery keeps dying due to no recharge. Every once in awhile I can get that little white light to activate long enough to recharge the battery, then it inevitably fails.

Now, I had a similar problem with a Dell laptop PC about ten years ago. Dell did everything they could to convince me that it was a rare problem that must have been my fault. After searching various online forums, it turned out that most of their custoemrs had the same problem with the samemodel of PC. It turned out to be a design flaw. Again, that was 10 years ago and I have not purchased so much as a single Dell product since then. HP used to have a decent reputation but it appears that they have gone the way of Dell. 

[PearlandTX]

Dell had a nearly identical problem with one of their laptop models. It now looks as though HP has gone the way of Dell

[PearlandTX]

Agreed. Had the same problem with a Dell and the same "play dumb" reaction from their customer service.

[PearlandTX]

It won't solve the problem, or only solve the problem for a little while. It is a design flaw on the motherboard / plug-in / or wake-up circuit. From the comments on this board it appears that the problem is universal to this specific HP model.

[PearlandTX]

All: After reading through this forum, it appears that the problem is universal to this specific HP model and is a design flaw on the motherboard / plug-in / or wake-up circuit. As HP has taken hundreds of dollars from each of us and has not accepted responsibility for their faulty product, it is time for a less gentle approach.

I have personally spent an additional $200 for a new battery and charger unit, only to have the problem continue.

Dell computer had a similar problem with one of their laptop models about ten years ago and reacted with a "play dumb" approach also. 

[Bongo_19]

I am using a Dell that has been abused and have no problems. My wife is on her 2nd HP with the same problem. The first one we replaced the motherboard on. Then a fan burnt out and we thought it was time for a new one. We should have purchased another brand but were foolish to buy HP again because of wow factor and price at Best Buy. This is the last HP we will own. Both my Dell laptop and Dell Desktop (to give you an idea how old it is) still work fine. The new one will probably be a Dell. Definitely a design flaw. Time to share this on Face Book. May even have to make a YouTube video of our junk HP laptops and place them next to my indestructible Dell.

[oldbrokeguy]

to analog's post that starts "my face is red" I say thank you thankyou!  I was trying to turn 3 questionable chargers for the dv7 into one good charger (HP good charger is an oxymoron btw).  At one point i had 3 conductors (red white and black) wanting to splice into a single center conductor (blue) with an inner and outer braid (shield).  knowing from your post not to worry about the center conductor and that the red and black were inner and outer braids allowed me to splice correctly and charge my PC.  Thanks for sharing - you the man! You beat the Geek squads time by 3 weeks if I had let them fix it. 

[quadcomputers]

Unfortunately the person stated they knew the cable was not right.  Would anyone plug a loose or defective AC power chord into a wall outlet? Then why plug a loose cable into your notebook?  I think the worse situation with the HP is their power chords have a totally outrageous price for what is a simple AC/DC transformer. Plus it is was designed to be proprietary, which forces you to buy only their adapters.  The same for the D.C. power/adapter for use in a car or boat. HP will deny they intended these supplies to be proprietary, therefore why didn't they follow the industry standard?  All the other companies notebooks/laptops can use a wide variety of adapters.   "what you see is what you get"