Same problem here. I'm thinking of fixing it myself with some superglue or solder on the inside. Thoughtfix made a dissection and reassembly video of the n800 some time ago.

The same happened to me.
In my case, I just pushed some foam[*] behind the ground contact (it kinda lost the spring effect that keeps the plug in place) in the socket with a needle. It was not easy and it's not perfect, besides I couldn't straighten the plug completely otherwise it'll break, but so far it's working with the original ac adapter (bent plug) and a fake car charger (straight plug)
[*] actually very little, otherwise the plug wouldn't enter at all.

OK sjgadsby, that makes some sense to me. I'm fine with working on changing that. It does especially make sense for people reading this text using their tablets. So, here's to learning more about writing on the internet.

On to the subject I raised. I find it interesting to see that a lot of you are fine with the small jack for charging. And I see there is some thought that the small jack might actually be more durable than the mini usb jack.

I need to do some research about the details of this idea. But what I was envisioning today was this:

1 remove the small charge jack
2 find or solder positive and negative wires that were attached to that
3 this is the tough part, find and install a mini usb jack
4 dont know about this yet, but the usb modifiers have figured out which pole of the four on the back of the mini usb is positive, so which is negative?
5 assuming the above is figured out and installed, charge with USB

Am I nuts? I would think if charging via the stock mini usb port is possible, why wouldn't this idea work?

I have work to do. I'lll let you know how it goes

Neil

I have taken apart my n800 today. The power jack is a little box shaped piece of plastic that had been clicked into a cavity. Not exactly a solid attachment. It has no wires attached, just two metal bits that touch two metal bits on the pc-board. You can push it out with a sharp pointed knife. I put a bit of glue in the cavity and pushed the jack back in place.


(picture by thoughtfix)

I personally have no issues with the jack breaking, but the actual plug from the charger is crap since the tip is so small. I'm on my 4th one (good thing they're so cheap) because the tip would bend and eventually crack. The first time it happened was because the N800 fell a foot with the charger still attached. Other times it has happened are once just put inside my bag traveling and once it was stepped on.

Completely ridiculous how easy it breaks. I've never had that issue with a charger for any other device ever, so its really annoying.

Well, having had a laptop motherboard broken by a powerplug getting tripped over, I must say I'd rather the charger break first in the event of dropping on the floor or getting stepped on. (Of course, I'd rather neither break, if possible.) They're specified to break at 30-60 N at 10mm moment arm, presumably for that reason.