Seriously, who wants to shell out $350 for a new motherboard?

April 26, 2006 9:28 AM

Has anyone ever used a "lifesaver cable" for their laptop? I found it on this site, but it sounds like it's too good to be true. Can anyone tell me why this would or wouldn't work?

I am having the same problems as described in this previous post with my Presario R3000 series, and to sum it up my power cord keeps falling out of my laptop. This "lifesaver cable" claims to be able to power my computer and charge my batter through the expansion 1 port, but that seems wrong to me. My officemate is an HP certified tech, and he says he's never heard of such a thing.
Any opinions? Or better yet, anyone use one?
Thanks.

posted by denimflavored to Technology (7 answers total)

I dunno why it seems wrong. I have a Thinkpad with an expansion base/port replicator and the base has a power jack that is routed through the expansion port on the back of the laptop, separately from the built-in power jack. It's the same as the linked web site describes.

I think this is standard for laptops that have expansion ports.
posted by GuyZero at 9:32 AM on April 26, 2006

Best answer: Forum thread about this cable -- includes positive testimonials by others with bad power connectors on their laptops, and a picture of one in use.
posted by zsazsa at 9:48 AM on April 26, 2006

I have a friend who was having the same issue with one of his laptops (it was an HP). If you're at all comfortable with soldering, apparently it was fairly easy to pull off the case and replace the power port so that it stopped doing that. Still going fine to this day he says, and the part cost $5 I think. But otherwise the cable looks like a nice simple way to get around that.
posted by KirTakat at 10:16 AM on April 26, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks zsazsa. I'm really wary of buying unknown electronics, so I wanted to know whether I would be better off throwing my money off a bridge.
I don't want to solder it because if I tried to solder something, I'd probably end up attaching it to my leg by accident or something, lol. And the duct tape suggestion in the other thread just seems like a mess. But thanks for the suggestion. I think I may buy the cable...
posted by denimflavored at 10:27 AM on April 26, 2006

My mother had the bum cable thing on an HP, too. Must be pretty common.
posted by Malor at 12:05 PM on April 26, 2006

It's certainly possible -- many laptops can accept power through an expansion/docking connector (since typically the docking station/port replicator will be what's plugged into the wall). I can't vouch for this cable personally, but I see no reason that it wouldn't work.
posted by j.edwards at 2:17 PM on April 26, 2006

Response by poster: In case anyone uses this thread later-
I bought the cable, and it seems to work pretty well. It's not charging my battery, but I may have a bad battery, so I won't blame the cable. I am now free to move my computer without the threat of an instant shutoff!
posted by denimflavored at 12:21 PM on May 2, 2006