Laptop AC Adapter Power Failed
My wife's laptop doesn't react to having an laptop AC adapter plugged in, but it can still run off of battery. (I charge her battery in my laptop and all is well, but that gets old quick). I popped it open and didn't notice anything popped or burnt, all the traces seem in tact and the capacitors are happily sitting there without so much as a bead of capci-juice running down the side.I'm hoping to be told "oh, that problem, just shake it this way, spray some air here, and off you go", but so far HP has just been telling me it is a $400 job and I have to wait a month to get it back.
After two and a half years, my laptop's AC adapter went bad. There are stress points at various points on an adapter. Go to a local retailer w/ a decent return policy and buy a universal power adapter. They usually come with a transformer, an AC plug, and another cable that goes to the computer. It should come with a variety of plugs for various laptop brands.Buy one (I use a Targus adapter) which is capable of putting out an equal or greater power output as the one your wife has. It should say it on the adapter itself. I don't remember how I determined my laptop's power requirements. I think I took it from the battery's voltage and amperage stats.Anyways, if this doesn't work, then you can rule out the AC adapter and figure out what to do next. But changes are that your AC adapter will fail sooner than the laptop's motherboard power plug header.
My Gateway laptop doesn't receive any power from Adapter anymore. It was acting up where it would switch from power suply to battery intermittently and non-stop. It was really annoying. I soldered in a new power jack thinking that was the problem. However, that didn't fix the problem. I continued working with it with this annoying condition until it finally gave up charging the laptop altogether. Now my battery is completed discharged so I can't even start the laptop. I know if I put a charged battery it will boot because I tried it with my friends, who has the exact same laptop. I am not ready to change the motherboard, but I really wish I could fix the problem if it's within the motherboard.
As long as the voltage/amperage/polarity are the same, I don't see any reason to stick with the manufacturer. (then again, I refill my own ink).Just a quick update, I still haven't gotten this fixed, and after spending a good two hours I could not remove the motherboard from the laptop case. The step by step instructions from a PDF manual I found on HP's website was worthless. They give instructions like "use a flathead screwdriver to remove the faceplate". After 30 minutes of struggling with a flathead screwdriver I was nowhere further and had only succeeded in scratching up my wife's laptop.(coming from a guy who has taken apart and re-assembled a laserjet printer and various other small devices such as cell phones, calculators, and PDA's, this should have been much easier)So I'm just going to save up and ship it off to HP and let them send me a working laptop, whether that is the original one or a refurb, as long as it works, I'll be happy.
