Laptop power troubles.

[Achán hiNidráne]

New difficulties with my laptop... No, this time it doesn't involve a can of orange soda.

For the last month, I've been having power troubles with my laptop. In order to power my laptop, I have to hold onto the AC/DC adapter plug press it to one side. Otherwise, it draws power from just the battery. Of course, the direction and amount of pressure is never a constant. One day I'll just have to press it slightly to one side, another day I'll have to wrench it in the opposite direction. I figure it has to be with the power input on the computer and not the cord, since I tried it with a spare cord and it requires the same pressure.

The battery is pretty much wasted to begin, so if I let go of the plug, it's only a few minutes--or even seconds--before the computer shuts down. (I'm going to be ordering a new one as soon as I can get the money together. $200 for a battery???) However, I'm tired having to bend, twist, and wiggle the plug to get power into it. I've asked one local repair shop if there was anything they could do for it and they said that they won't touch it since it's a Dell. (?)

I've thought of going in myself and seeing if there was anything that I could bend or squeeze into to shape, but since last year's computer adventure, I dare not open that thing up again.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Beanbag]

My guess is the plastic frame for the power jack is cracked. Happens when the plug gets bumped or hit.

If it was my computer, I'd open the case to survey the damage. Assuming it was just a crack or split, I'd carefully flow a little thin superglue into the damage, and hold it shut until the glue set.

Beanbag

 

[Mongrel]

It could also be that as the plug is has been bent and twisted over it's lifetime of normal use that it's stretched and pulled the wires away from the jack itself.
I believe this can be fixed quickly by a competent electrician and a soldering iron as it should just be a case of cuting off the end and fitting a new piece.

I've asked one local repair shop if there was anything they could do for it and they said that they won't touch it since it's a Dell. (?)

Most PC techs hate Dell because they use proprietary components when every other manufacturer uses the industry standard stuff.

 

[Soapy Sam]

I had this problem with an Advent laptop.
I opened it up and fixed it.


Now I have an Averatec.

I wanted a new one, really.

 

[moopet]

If you feel up to it, strip the machine down and replace the socket. Make sure first that the socket hasn't torn the tracks off the mainboard or you're in for a rough time. Remove the old socket and solder wires to points farther away on the board which connect to the 2 to 4 pins there might be on the original socket. Solder a socket to the connectors. If it won't fit where the old one did any more, find somewhere else on the chassis you can drill a hole and bolt it to the chassis itself. When you get good at this you can do it in under two hours

All Dell laptops have service manuals available to download as PDFs or view online as HTML from their website, which include step-by-step instructions for the removal of most parts and exploded diagrams of the important bits. But it's prety much common sense, if you're happy to take your machine apart then you're probably clever enough to fix it on your own

Most PC techs hate Dell because they use proprietary components when every other manufacturer uses the industry standard stuff.

Dell laptops (whichever manufacturer they use at the time) use almost exclusively industry-standard components. I repair them all the time and they, along with possibly Clevo, are my favourite brand to work on, because they DO use standard parts. Not met anyone yet who dislikes them on the service front. Technical support and warranty service sucks though.

 

[Mongrel]

Dell laptops (whichever manufacturer they use at the time) use almost exclusively industry-standard components. I repair them all the time and they, along with possibly Clevo, are my favourite brand to work on, because they DO use standard parts. Not met anyone yet who dislikes them on the service front. Technical support and warranty service sucks though.

Whoops Never had much chance to take apart laptops, especially Dell. Was basing that on desktop and tower units experience. Thanks for the correction

 

[Globert]

What moopet said.

It's a little daunting at first but I've re soldered mine twice now (!@## kids).
I've replaced more parts on my laptop than I have on my desktop.(gets more use too!)

-Globe

 

[Achán hiNidráne]

One problem solved... but...

First of all, it seems that I have solved the problem by 1) getting a new battery, 2) using a spare AC adapter. The machine seems to be running and charging fine now without having to hold the old adapter in. So that's one problem solved.

However...

This has just cropped up in the last day. For no appearent reason what so ever, my laptop will suddenly slow to a crawl, freeze up all together, then hit me with a blue screen of death. When I restart it, it tells me that it had suffered a critical error and needs to send a report. The report comes back telling me the trouble is somehow connected to hard drive. I ran a disk scan on the drive and found no errors.

It will even do this in Safe Mode, so I'm really worried. Does this sound like any viruses anyone has heard of? Any suggestions before I toss the damn thing in the lake and be done with it?

 

[moopet]

For no appearent reason what so ever, my laptop will suddenly slow to a crawl, freeze up all together, then hit me with a blue screen of death. When I restart it, it tells me that it had suffered a critical error and needs to send a report. The report comes back telling me the trouble is somehow connected to hard drive. I ran a disk scan on the drive and found no errors.

I'd look at the HD last in this case - if it starts to go slow, pop up a task manager (ctrl-shift-esc) and see what processes are using 100% CPU. If one is, then that's at fault, and if it's an app you installed, uninstall it. If no processes are using that much CPU, it's probably hardware.

Open up the event log (control panel/admin tools/event viewer) and look in the "system" log for any red icons (and possibly yellow warning icons) and see if any say anything like "ATAPI". That would mean your hard drive's gubbed.

If you've got more than one memory DIMM then take one out (with the power off, obviously) at a time and see if that solves the problem, because then you've got a duff DIMM or DIMM slot. They're usually under a flap on the back of the laptop but some models have one on the back and one under the keyboard.

If that doesn't work, try taking out the CD drive. It uses the same controller as the hard disk, and in some rare cases I've seen dodgy drives taking out the whole shebang.

Oh, and try some other things too. Like whatever the next person suggests

 

[Fungrim]

When it has frozen, can you restart it immediately without problems? If you can't, like having to wait a few minutes before it is bootable, you may have a heat problem. Misaligned fans or some such.

 

[Zep]

Check for an invasion of adware - Lavasoft AdAware is a good start. Slow(ing) HDs and sucky internet are typical symptoms of such nasties.

BLAST THE BASTARDS!

 

[Globert]

First of all, it seems that I have solved the problem by 1) getting a new battery, 2) using a spare AC adapter. The machine seems to be running and charging fine now without having to hold the old adapter in. So that's one problem solved.

However...

This has just cropped up in the last day. For no appearent reason what so ever, my laptop will suddenly slow to a crawl, freeze up all together, then hit me with a blue screen of death. When I restart it, it tells me that it had suffered a critical error and needs to send a report. The report comes back telling me the trouble is somehow connected to hard drive. I ran a disk scan on the drive and found no errors.

It will even do this in Safe Mode, so I'm really worried. Does this sound like any viruses anyone has heard of? Any suggestions before I toss the damn thing in the lake and be done with it?

recently update to SP2? I have never been able to. laptop gets the buggers and I end up re imaging my HD. Something in the northbridge/southbridge thing and it's the screen of death every time. but I have a decent firewall/virus scan package and sweep for spyware x3 (s&d-adaware-microsnot beta) every fortnight or so.