I replaced the AC Adapter for my laptop and I am still having problems?

Question

My cord was bad, so i replaced it
now when i plug the cord it, it remains in battery mode
and my power on light blinks repeativly and so does 2 lights on my front panel... it only does that with this cord, my old cord it never blinked like that....
what is the issue here?
my light on my ac adapter box is green but it takes many times before it will come on via hook up mode instead of battery mode.
Its like when its pluged up its not plugged up, those lights are just blinky blinky blinky.. can someone please explain?

Answer 1

Sounds like a problem with the laptop. What kind of laptop is it? Please tell me the make and model number if you know them.

UPDATE:

I found you computer on HP's website. The first link below is to a way to test your AC adapter. and a couple possible fixes. The second link is to the index for all power/battery related issues relating to your machine. I hope this helps. Feel free to let me know if you need more help.

Answer 2

First, you might have the wrong cord, and it's just not getting a good connection.

But here's what's happened to me (can you tell I'm VERY BITTER?):

It's likely not your cord, but the power jack. Oh how I HATE this problem. I have 6 computers in the house (work, kids, spouse, etc.). All of the notebook computers end up having the power jack working loose over time, requiring repair. This is a design flaw by the manufacturer.

You push the power cord plug into the power jack, and the connection is made. However, the housing around the plug and jack is of poor quality. Just the slightest moves back and forth over time cause the jack and the housing to become less and less effective, until finally the integrity of the support is lost almost compeltely. If you've even slightly bumpted your power cord, this accellerates this degredation.

(Nobody ever admits bumping their power jack up against anything -- although it's a NOTEBOOK computer!!! how can you avoid it!).

As the housing that holds the plug securely gets a bit looser over tiem, the connection made becomes less effective. This causes the plug in the jack to arc ever so slightly, causing heat. This can get to a point where there's so much arching going on that the plug gets extremealy hot and it even melts the plastic housing of the noteobook casing that is meant for keeping the plug secure around the jack. Once melted, the "hole" gets larger, allowing the plug to work its way back and forth with only the slightest pull on the cord.

Anyway, eventually the jack itself inside the computer starts working loose. Usually the jack is connected directly to the mother board. While it's on the virge of breaking off (or while there's arcing going on between your plug and power jack), you'll see the blinking lights on your laptop (got AC power, nope, don't have AC Power, yep it's back, nope, gone agaain...etc. you get the picture. Sometimes you can sorta pull the plug in one direction or another to cause a better connection. But this is only temporary, it keeps getting worse, and that actually in itself hastens the evenual "permanent' problem!

Finally, either the plug will heat up and melt with so much carbon build-up from the arching that it quits working, OR, the housing of your computer will melt, allowing the plug to move more freely, and finally the jack inside your computer will break loose and you'll lose the ability to supply AC power altogether.

What's next? We'll if you are a Compaq or HP user, you'll have to send it in. They'll fix it under the standard warranty a time or two. They have to replace the mother board. But I've NEVER had an extended warranty cover itit. They'll say you dropped your computer. OR, they'll tell you the housing is bad (you know, because your plug heated up and made the hole bigger, thus losing the integrity of holding the plug securely, thus breaking off the jack from the mother board). And they say "our warranty doesn't cover the housing". And you say "yeah, but the housing problem was caused by the problem with the plug and the jack" and they say 'no, it was caused by the bad housing" .... bla bla and you finally give up and go buy a new computer.

It is a nightmare -- I've spend hundreds of $$$ repairing broken power jacks.

However I've found a solution that has solved this. It's called the Lapinator! (really! www.lapinator.com ) It's a little desk/tray that you set on your lap on you set your laptop on it. They rant abotu the benefit of keeping your lap cooler. WHO CARES about that -- more importantly it has a velcro thingy that you can wrap around your cord so that the gentle pulling that occurs is absorbed by the velcro wrap (instead of the plug and the jack). this virtually eliminates this problem i've described above.).

Hope this helps you. Hope your computer is still under the original warranty.

Answer 3

If you are using an Inspiron 5150 they have a law settlement against them that allows you to get another motherboard and they will fix it. You can see more details here: http://lundellsettlement.com/


If you don't have an Inspiron 5150..your motherboard has prolly shifted, or your power jack has went out on the back. Best thing to do is take it to a repair place and have them look at it IF its not under warranty still.