So yeah, long story short, my 6 year old (so no warranty, obviously) ASUS G71Gx laptop's power jack finally shorted or some shit, and it fried my adapter. I got a new adapter and a new fan (it was time), and put it in, but when I plugged the adapter into the laptop, smoke happened. Lots of smoke.

My last idea is to, duh, replace the power jack. I'm gonna order the replacement online for like $5, but I'm not sure how difficult of a solder job it is, and whether it would be easier/safer to just take it to a PC repair place.

My question is this: has anyone replaced a power jack before, and is the soldering super tiny and challenging, or should i just take the laptop, replacement jack, and $50 to some laptop repair store?

 

Heh. I have this exact problem myself, minus the smoke. There's been lots of wire wigging in recent weeks to try to get contact and get the laptop to charge -- about 4 days ago I managed to find a good position and I haven't moved the laptop since, lol.

I really should get it fixed so I can move it around again, but I'm lazy as hell and it's going to cost $100 just to get them to replace the power jack.

 

I went and replaced my power jack just 2 days ago, cost about $12 with shipping. If you have a soldering iron I'd say try that to save a bit otherwise its really simple to just plug it in and set it.

Edit: Obviously not every laptop is the same... and I just watched a quick video of your laptop (way more annoying than mine since my jack is like a plug an play model ie. easily replaced) if you're not very sure of your skills I'd just take it to a shop.