DIY Laptop Repair Question - Hardware Related

Factual Questions
1

My wife has a Dell Inspiron 1545. It is out of warranty.

Touching the power button will not power it on. I opened the case up and discovered that there are several ribbons held in place with tension bars. After wiggling the ribbon that travels from the power circuit board to the motherboard I was able to get the computer to power on. However, the arrangement is finicky, and a slight movement of the laptop is enough to dislodge the connection and make it impossible to power on again.

My question is, can I solder the ribbon in place? I am hesitant to begin because my soldering skills are ass, and I worry I’ll just melt the ribbon.

Any other solutions? Anyone know of a site where I can directly buy replacement circuit boards?

Edit: Dell won’t talk to me unless I pay them first. That isn’t going to happen - and I would like to take this edit moment to remind you to remind your loved ones to never buy Dell computers.

2

There’s no way to solder the conductors on a ribbon cable, without a microscope and a miniature soldering iron. Don’t even think about it. I would try to seat the ribbon cable in it’s connector, and then use a little hot glue to hold it in place. Also, are you sure that the cable is good? Maybe it has a crack in it, in which case you need to get a replacement cable.

3

if things weren’t designed to be soldered (crimped , friction) then it may not be easy to solder; the location might not accept solder.

to work in devices like that takes the right soldering equipment and years of experience.

reseat the cable and anchor with hot glue is good attempt.

if that doesn’t work then a mom and pop computer store may be willing to give it a nonguarenteed try.