Melting plastic around DC-in jack in laptop
- by Ove
I recently noticed that the plastic around the DC-in jack of my laptop was warped (melted) a little bit. Since I noticed, I have done some experiments, and saw that the metal tip of the charger heats up very much when I am gaming, or performing CPU-intensive work (it's so hot that i can't hold it between my fingers). When I am using Windows normally (web browsing, music, video), the tip is not hot. I tried using another charger from a compatible laptop, but its metal tip overheated as well, so the problem is not caused by the charger.
I have been using this laptop for gaming for 1.5 years and I never had this problem. When gaming I always use a laptop cooler. Dust is not the problem (i cleaned out the dust), and the CPU and GPU temperatures are not higher than when I got the laptop. The only thing that is excessively hot is the charger tip.
Because I bought my laptop from the USA, sending it to warranty and back would cost more than the laptop's value, so I need to fix it myself. I have googled around, and I saw that the problem might be the DC-in jack that is located on the motherboard of the laptop. I plan to take the laptop apart and see if it has become loose, and soldering it in place if it has.
My questions for you are:
Did anyone deal with this problem in the past? Did anyone manage to fix it?
Is the DC-in jack the culprit in this case? Or is it possible for the problem to be caused by another part on the motherboard?
Is there any way I can check the DC-in jack with a multimeter? What should I measure (resistance, etc)?
EDIT: My laptop is a Sager NP5135 (aka Clevo B5130M).
I also posted on NBR, including some pictures: link