What to do with my laptop?

Azza

Azza

Azza

Caporegime
Joined
6 Dec 2005
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Birmingham
Right I've currently got a Acer 6920. The main specs are as follows...

Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 2.0Ghz
3GB DDR2
ATI HD 3650
250GB Hard drive
Blu-ray optical drive


Basically I've got two batteries and they have both gone ****. 30 mins max time when they are fully charged, but not it seems there is either something wrong with the charger or the laptop itself where you plug the charger in because it seems very flakey when charging. Charge lights flickering and going off / on.


A new battery from Acer will cost £78 and a new charger adapter will be around £70. So that's £148 and to be honest **** that!

One I don't want to spend that sort of money on something that might not even be the cause of the problem, if it is actually the laptop it self and secondly what's the point might as well buy a whole new laptop for a bit more money.

I know I could buy from eBay for cheaper...but generally you pay for what you get so I'm not sure about getting a battery from eBay.


So.... does anyone have any ideas of what I can do with the core components? Can I buy a laptop barebone from some where? I know OCZ used to do them but are there any others?

Don't really want to get a new laptop when the stuff inside this one is great as it is.


Thanks for any help. :)
 
Grrrr...laptop just went off even though it said it was charging and all the charging lights were on.


battery2.jpg
 
Azza said:
Grrrr...laptop just went off even though it said it was charging and all the charging lights were on.


battery2.jpg
Click to expand...

is the power connection good?

drop the battery out, power the machien up, wiggle the power connector about a bit.. if it dies the power connector in the laptop (or the adapter) is suspect
 
I'm thinking it's the laptop itself and not the wire of the charger. It's not the position of the wire that is changing how it charges, seems to be how I plug it in, how much I push it into the laptop.
 
Azza said:
I'm thinking it's the laptop itself and not the wire of the charger. It's not the position of the wire that is changing how it charges, seems to be how I plug it in, how much I push it into the laptop.
Click to expand...

should be fixable there is a shop near me that do it for £67+vat, so I assume thats the going rate...
 
Hmmm would seem that my battery isn't charging even though it says it is charging. :confused:

I've put in my spare battery which seems to be better than the other one, but it's still plugged in and not charging properly.


Going to get a new charger / adapter from eBay and see what happens.
 
Could be the DC socket thats at fault. In terms of batteries, look for Powersquared batteries and ac adapters. We sell them at work and they are very good. We have barely had any returned so seem fairly reliable and the price should be much better.
 
Yer that's what I was thinking.


Tried to take it apart to check out the soldering to see if anything had happened, but I don't fancy ripping apart from laptop just yet. Have to basically take off all of the shell, you can get to it by just taking off a little cover but it's only the socket itself, not where the wires are connected to the board or anything.


I'll grab a new charger / adapter and see if that does anything, then battery if it still happens, and then see what else I can do.
 
Sounds like either the power brick/connection on the laptop.

Do you know if its ever been knocked/dropped with it plugged in?

My sisters had exactly that issue.
 
Not that I know of while it's been plugged in.

Just about to buy a new adapter, so if that doesn't solve anything then I will take it apart completely.
 
And now it's stopped charging completely really! 100% sure that it's the laptop jack now. :( :(

Bought on 31/01/09...will ring up purple shirt tomorrow to see what they say. No idea of any decent computer shops round here that could do it.

Mehhhhhh
 
Azza, I had a similar problem with a Toshiba laptop, it wouldn't charge the battery sometimes when connected to the mains? . . . we thought maybe the power socket in the laptop had come loose or something like that, had another laptop in for repair and noticed the power adapter was the same so plugged that in and worked perfectly? . . . turns out the power-brick (or mini PSU) was up the duff, picked up a used one cheap and it's been fine since!

Good luck! :cool:
 
I bought another power-brick a couple of weeks ago, same make / model (Liteon) and it did the same. :(

That's why I am thinking it's the laptop itself.
 
Definitely the power jack.

Just taking it a part a little to get the hard drive out to throw everything on my PC, and I was playing with the jack and I don't think it was making contact right.

About the screw it back in...and then...the two black wires come off the jack. :confused:

So it either wasn't making contact and / or those two wires has got so hot they were loose.

Going to have to get a soldering iron and do some very intricate soldering on the wires now. There are a couple of jacks with wires on eBay, but I have zero money at the moment to even buy one of them!


Unless it will charge just from the red ones? Anyone know, or will it melt? I know nothing about electrics. :(
 
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sounds like the "red ones" are your input wires, and the "black ones" are your ground wires.

in other words, probably not ... its like trying to power something using only one end of a battery - aint gonna happen
 
Just ordered a new power jack from eBay for £5.99. Has the wires as well. :)

Saves me having to wait for my Dad to get back from holiday and get a soldering iron from work for me.
 
My power jack just arrived.

Seems to be working fine, I've just unplugged the old one, so it's just trailing under the bottom of my laptop at the moment.


Going to leave it charging to see if it will charge fully and then go about dismantling it to put the new one in properly. Gave the wires a little pull and non can out, so I'm going to guess that it's got really hot and melted. so they haven't been connected fully on the old one.

It's looking good so far though! :)
 
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