Payments for the DC jack replacements?  We prefer it if you enclose a check made out to Applicasoft with your laptop.  Alternatively you can pay by Paypal or Credit card through google checkout, we will call you once your laptop is fixed and ask you to submit a payment.   We do not charge extra fees for payments submitted the credit card but we do charge $5 extra for payments submitted by paypal to cover the fees that paypal charges. 

What are the most common laptops that have this issue?  In descending order the most common models that have this issue are 1) HP (ZD, ZE and ZV series), 2) Compaq since HP and Compaq is the same company they use the same components and designs.   3) Acer (Aspire and Travelmate).  4) Gateways all models have common jack issue.  5) Dells use 2 proprietary jacks and these have their faults too. 6) Toshiba A70 and A75 series. 7)  Asus and Sony are common to work on  8) Fujitsu and Panasonic are really rare but some use Sony boards. 

How long you have been in business of repairing DC jacks? We are in business of replacing power jacks for the computer shops in the Midwest, East Coast and South U.S. regions for the last  2 years.  We started to work with end consumers in 2007.  We charge the same price to computer shops and consumers.  Since we receive the most work on Monday and Tuesdays we give a higher priority to computer shops than individuals, on other days turnaround time is the same for computer shops as well as individuals. 

What happens if the laptop still does not power up after the dc jack repair? If we receive your laptop with obviously broken or damaged jack and if after replacing that jack it won't work then we are not going to charge you anything, not even a shipping back.  You will get your laptop back without being charged a cent. That policy has been around forever since most of our clients are computer shops that only charge clients if they fix the problem.  If we receive your laptop and you just "THINK" it is a DC jack but the DC jack looks perfectly normal, without any wobbling or any signs of damage then we will still replace your jack as you would have requested but we will charge you the full amount.  We will not ask you for more money to make it work (i.e. replacing the board) simply because we don't do that.  Computer shops please do not send us laptops for evaluation, you have to make sure the fault is with the DC jack rather than with the motherboard before sending it to us.  We receive many laptops from computer shops that ask us to "check" if it a dc jack or not, we do not do that.  Once we receive your laptop it immediately goes for a DC jack replacement without any evaluation. 

What is the success rate? If you jack appears to be broken, loose, damaged then success rate is about 90% that your laptop will work fine after the jack replacement.  9/10 laptops are working fine after the DC jack replacement.  If you just think it is a jack, but the jack looks totally normal without any wobbling then the success rate is 2/3 basically about 66%.  If your laptop came in poorly package then a success rate goes down to zero.  We keep getting laptops in paper envelops that fail to work after being shipped twice all over the U.S. due to damages happened on the way here or back.

Are there any side effects? Yes there are.  Sometimes when you drop your laptop not only the DC jack that gets broken but also a backlight bulb on the LCD monitor breaks resulting in extremely dim image on the monitor.  We will fix the DC jack, and charge you but not the monitor since we guarantee our price and monitors are no longer serviced in any of our locations.  You would still be able to use the external monitor.  System not powering up at all is the most common side effect.  When we receive a laptop it is usually pretty dead, battery is empty and there is no way to check if it will power up or not.  If after replacing a DC Jack it still won't power up then we won't charge you anything (see above).  We try to test speakers, keyboard and touchpad to work correctly before shipping the laptop back however some laptops arrive without hard drives, with bad hard drives or with the passwords on the user accounts thus we are unable to test keyboard, touchpad and sound.  If you pack your laptop badly then broken keyboard keys, bad hard drives, broken casing and screens happens all the time.  We had at least two client who sent laptops to us in just a paper envelope, we did replace the dc jack it but complains happened that the screen was not working as well as it was working before and another system was crashing all the time.   We use the same packaging as the one we receive your laptop in.  If we receive a badly packaged laptop we won't offer any refunds for any reasons to anyone because it was poorly packaged on your end.  Please package your laptop extremely well, number one reason why laptops don't work well after the DC jack replacement is that they get damaged during the shipping, please note none of the insurances will pay you for shipping a broken laptop for the repair, so don't bother paying for the shipping insurance.

Are there any delays? Yes a delay of up to 1 day usually occur if you decide to pay by pay pal or credit card.  If you send a check there is usually no delays.    Delays of up to one day could happen on Mondays and Tuesdays due to the highest quantity of laptops received on these days.  There haven't been a delay of more than 1 day for quite some time.  If we can't fix it in one day we usually try to make it work the next day and after that we just pack it up and send it back to you fixed or not.  If we need to replace a power plug on your AC adapter (there is no charge for it) then a delay of up to one day could happen.

What guarantees are you offering? Every month, we replace more DC jacks than anybody else in the World (partially due to being located in Chicago land area of 8 million people and next to O'Hare where most of the laptops fly in and fly out through).   There are no extra fees or charges except $125 flat rate fee, if you laptop is not going to work after we replace a jack we won't charge you a cent (see above).  $125 flat rate fee includes brand new parts, all labor and free shipping back to you via UPS. We guarantee that once we receive your laptop in the mail it will be fixed the same day and mailed back to you no later than the midnight of that day via UPS (if the packaging box isn't too big).  We have multiple quantities of more than 50 different types of jacks in stock at all times, combined they cover 95% of all dc jacks that ever been put into laptop computers.  If your laptop is a brand name laptop i.e. Toshiba, Gateway, Sony, Compaq, HP, Acer, Asus etc.. we should have a dc power jack for it in stock. Rather than fixing your old DC jack, we replace your DC jack.   If you bring your laptop over it will be fixed within 3-4 hours, make sure to call to schedule an appointment.  We prefer if you drop it off and pick it up the next day rather than making an appointment for the laptop to be fixed within 3-4 hours. 

Warranty. We provide a lifetime warranty on all DC jacks that we replace. If you will ever break your jack again, we will replace it at no charge. We will only replace it once. You are covered by warranty for as long as you are using a factory AC power adapter, if you use any universal power adapters the warranty is void. That is the reason we ask everyone to send a factory power adapter with your laptop so that we could fix the plug on it if it is faulty, there is no charge for it. As of June 10th, 2007 we are the only business that offers a lifetime warranty on all DC jack replacements that we do

Why DC jacks break? Number one reason is if you use a universal power adapter.  Universal power adapters are not made specifically for your dc jack.  They sit extremely tight on your dc jack pin and thus any movement up down left right usually breaks the pin off.  Number two reason is faulty power plug on your AC Adapter, when a power plug goes bad it usually backfires on your DC jack due to constant twisting and turning of the DC plug, we replace these at no extra charge. Third reason is due to a bad DC jack design.  Many HP, Compaq, Gateway, Acer, Toshiba and Asus models have bad jack designs that don't have a securing bracket that holds the jack down to the motherboard that would prevent any reasonable movement sideways or up and down.   

How much is the shipping usually? We are centrally located near O'Hare International Airport at Chicago, IL It is usually $6.50-$15 to send a laptop to us via UPS.   If you ship your laptop to us we will ship the laptop back to you for using UPS carrier.  If you need a laptop ASAP you can prepay the overnight shipping back to you add $30.  

How long does it take? Average DC replacement job lasts about 3-4 hours.  All work is done the same day since we have all of dc jacks in stock. Our guarantee is that your laptop will be on it's way back to you the same day as we receive it, unless the box is too big. 

What time are you open? You can bring you laptop over at any reasonable time seven days a week (make sure to call in advance to schedule an appointment).  We work day and nights literally.  Mondays and Tuesdays is never a good day to bring your laptop over. 

Do you repair or you replace the power jack? We only replace power jacks, it is a more time consuming process than repairing but in a long run we don't have to deal with lots of warranty work.  We repair jacks on the laptops that don't have aftermarket dc jacks for sale. 

I live in Chicago land can I drop my laptop off? Yes you can drop your laptop off at the above address 7 days a week. Please call in advance to make sure somebody is going to be there to meet you.  Generally you would be able to pick it up the next day, or if you make an appointment then you would be able to pick it up within 3 hours. 

I live in Chicago land can you pick up my laptop and drop it off? In extremely rare cases we can do that for an addition fee of $30 we can pick it up and drop it off, this fee is payable no matter what the outcome of the repair will be.  

Do you need the password to get into my system? No, we do not need any of your passwords.

Do I need to send an AC adapter? Yes, to test out your system we would prefer to have your AC DC power adapter, however if you are missing an AC DC adapter we still can work on it and test out your computer using our adapters.  In addition if your Power plug on your AC adapter is damaged or broken or shortens we can repair it at no extra charge. 

Are you liable for anything that will happen with my laptop? About 15% of all laptops that we receive have a motherboard issue rather than a DC jack problem, so even if we replace the jack the computer might not work.  So we are not liable for your computer except of course if it will get stolen or something like that

Why does it take 3-4 hours to replace the jack?  Calls like that come in all the time.  The hardest part and the most time consuming is not taking your laptop apart, nor it is putting it back together, neither it is soldering the new jack to the motherboard.  The most time consuming part is de-soldering (removing) your old DC jack without damaging the motherboard it usually takes more than an hour to properly / safely remove the DC jack from the board.  Since we only charge if the laptop will work after we are done with your laptop we are doing the best we can not to mess up your laptop.

A note about bad checks.  Please be advised that writing out a bad check, or a check with NSF in the bank account, or using a closed account to write out a check is just a misdemeanor if you write it in your own state and usually handled by civil courts of your county.  As soon as a bad check crosses your state border it becomes a felony since it is a federal offense to send a bad check across the state lines. It will be investigated by FBI and pursued in the federal criminal court of Cook county state of Illinois, you will have to fly all the way over here to appear in court.  Since most of the laptops we receive are by USPS mail, sending a bad check along with the laptop using United States Postal Service becomes a mail fraud in addition to check fraud, so there are two federal felony counts rather than just one.  If you think you won't have sufficient funds in your checking account to pay for our service please submit a payment via paypal, or by credit card through google. 

Payments.  We prefer if you pay by check however if there is no other way then you can pay by credit card via google checkout link, or paypal.