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Solved
Surface Pro 7 won't charge...have tried 3 power adapters.
I bought this SP7 about 6 months ago 2nd hand after I started having problems with my SP3. About a month back it stopped charging. And the light stopped coming on when the power adapter was plugged ...
- Well I've solved my problem...but perhaps not as intended 😕
I'll mention what happened here...in case anyone else might be tempted to be as dumb as I've been.
I sprayed contact cleaner into the charging port and cleaned it with a cloth and sharp plastic tool.
It had some effect, as with some jiggling I was able to get the dock power adapter charging again...as it had been...although not yet the the other 2 power adapters from the SP7 and an SP3.
There was probably some dirt...but the port also feels very sloppy...much more so than with the much older SP3 device...so replacing the charging port looks like it would have been the solution...although I still don't know why USB C charging doesn't seem to work.
The battery was still over 50% charged so that doesn't look like the problem.
And the battery capacity is still 75% of it's original total.
However when it booted I noticed the screen was beginning to bubble...like a screen does when they start to delaminate...looks like the old windows screen saver...and about 50 dead pixels have appeared. A couple of hours later and it was getting worse. I then noticed all this seems to be emanating from behind the charging port where I sprayed the contact cleaner...ooops.
Well...I didn't really have the time to be learning how to repair tablets right now anyway 😕
I have made no progress on the SP7 since I posted a couple of days ago.
Just to recap, when I press the power button, I get the windows logo, then a battery icon with 1 bar, then it turns off.
So it appears the battery is flat.
No matter which of the 3 SP power adapters I plug in, their light does not come on.
I have also tried plugging in a USB C cable into the SP power adapter and charging that way. But nothing changes. Although I never tried USB C charging before. So am not sure if it ever worked with the cable from my phone charger I am using. This setup does look to charge my phone though.
Something I missed in my original post is that this problem did seem to get worse over time. At first if the original power adapter connector was jiggled in the SP7 port the light would come on. Eventually that didn't work. But then it was found the charger as part of the dock still worked. But now that has stopped working too.
As I write this I am coming to the conclusion that the charging port in the SP7 is faulty. Which I should be able to replace. And that the USB C charging with my phone cable plugged into the SP power adapter was never working.
Just to recap, when I press the power button, I get the windows logo, then a battery icon with 1 bar, then it turns off.
So it appears the battery is flat.
No matter which of the 3 SP power adapters I plug in, their light does not come on.
I have also tried plugging in a USB C cable into the SP power adapter and charging that way. But nothing changes. Although I never tried USB C charging before. So am not sure if it ever worked with the cable from my phone charger I am using. This setup does look to charge my phone though.
Something I missed in my original post is that this problem did seem to get worse over time. At first if the original power adapter connector was jiggled in the SP7 port the light would come on. Eventually that didn't work. But then it was found the charger as part of the dock still worked. But now that has stopped working too.
As I write this I am coming to the conclusion that the charging port in the SP7 is faulty. Which I should be able to replace. And that the USB C charging with my phone cable plugged into the SP power adapter was never working.
- Well I've solved my problem...but perhaps not as intended 😕
I'll mention what happened here...in case anyone else might be tempted to be as dumb as I've been.
I sprayed contact cleaner into the charging port and cleaned it with a cloth and sharp plastic tool.
It had some effect, as with some jiggling I was able to get the dock power adapter charging again...as it had been...although not yet the the other 2 power adapters from the SP7 and an SP3.
There was probably some dirt...but the port also feels very sloppy...much more so than with the much older SP3 device...so replacing the charging port looks like it would have been the solution...although I still don't know why USB C charging doesn't seem to work.
The battery was still over 50% charged so that doesn't look like the problem.
And the battery capacity is still 75% of it's original total.
However when it booted I noticed the screen was beginning to bubble...like a screen does when they start to delaminate...looks like the old windows screen saver...and about 50 dead pixels have appeared. A couple of hours later and it was getting worse. I then noticed all this seems to be emanating from behind the charging port where I sprayed the contact cleaner...ooops.
Well...I didn't really have the time to be learning how to repair tablets right now anyway 😕- These Surface Pro's are doing my head.
With this SP7 I had started to wonder if the contact cleaner could also lead to battery damage, and possibly a fire.
So I started it again to consider what I might do.
Would you believe that nearly ALL the bubbling is gone...with just a small amount left in the middle of the screen...when yesterday it was over half the screen...perhaps in another couple of days it will all be gone?
And ALL those extra dead pixels are gone...about 100 at it's worst...leaving just the 1 big dead pixel it had since I got it 2nd hand.