Is there any way of bypassing the power adapter traces on the motherboard and re-wiring directly to the first components? I have a working motherboard that is fine on battery but the previous owner has filed and melted away the original holes and the DC socket cannot be soldered without shorting the board.

Thanks for any help.

Folly45, January 2010

For the repair you envisage it's best if the mangled charger socket is removed. Then you can solder your + and- leads to their respective input fuses. The 2 fuses are in one unit (2 ins and 2 outs) surface mounted behind the charger socket (about 3-5mm away!). Input side is closest to the edge of the pcb. I suggest you arrange a strain relief device otherwise one pull on your wires and the mainboard could be history. There's another (7A) fuse under some sticky cloth about an inch or two from the power on switch sw1. I cannot verify, but I'm pretty certain that's also connected to the 20 volt (+) rail, input side is closest to the edge of the pcb. (if that fuse blows the laptop works only on battery). Hope this helps (I just brought back an Li1705 from the dead so I know a bit about it).

Helpful Harry, February 2011

If you know where the internal connections are and are able to attach suitable wires you might consider a bodge job (I would being a bodger).

Using the orignal fixed DC socket but external to the machine (or a replacement if you need to), firstly just soldered and taped up for proof of concept - if it works then mount the socket in a tiny enclosure for protection and run wires from the enclosure into the hole in the back of the machine.

For enhanced elegance a small in-line connector between computer and external enclosure.

The original connections may well have been plated-through holes providing connectivity to both sides of the board - some complex boards are multi-layer and can sometimes have a power-layer; like filling(s) in a sandwich, to distribute Positive and or Negative - this may be a show-stopper - I hope not. I am not familiar enough with modern mother-board construction to offer any more.

Good luck...

Peccavi, January 2010