[bluegang6]

If I put the ac adapter into the AC adapter jack of the laptop, nothing happens :S

I have to push it up, or to the side. And even with that, the power light goes " 1 green, 4 amber", and continues blinking.

Even my powersave settings change the dimming of the backlight every 1 second :S

I was having problems with this laptop like no tomorrow (ofcourse, its almost 6-7 years old...), but I thought, so what... An extra laptop to have around would be great.


Do I have to call Dell, or dissassemble the laptop and try re-connecting the wires? (I have a stick, messed up screw that won't unscrew due to the plus head becoming a circle head


Any suggestions!?

[SpywareDr]

Need to install a new power jack on the motherboard.

Requires complete disassembly, soldering, reassembly.

[Digerati]

Agreed. And that is something best left up to a qualified technician. This is a common repair job so most shops should be able to give a decent estimate of cost up front. The shop should be able to give it a professional cleaning too - to rid the interior of 6-7 years of heat trapping dust, dirt, hair, dander, microscopic critters that eat dander like candy, plus all the microscopic critter stuff they leave behind.

[bluegang6]

Bahh, got rid of the dust (disassembled half, and woosh)

Yea, ill probably check out the new price for a new jack installation , or ill buy one and install it myself (semi-qualified)

[bluegang6]

Bahh, got rid of the dust (disassembled half, and woosh)

Yea, ill probably check out the new price for a new jack installation , or ill buy one and install it myself (semi-qualified)

[Digerati]

Sounds like a plan. In the meantime, you might want to pull the HD and install it as a secondary drive in another computer, or in an enclosure attached to another computer. Then backup your data, just to make sure you have a backup of your data.

[bluegang6]

There isn't any data on the drive to begin with. It's 7 years I don't trust a hard drive to live for that long. So I pulled the data out a year ago, using more reliable laptops to processes work

However, I wanna keep this as a spare, seeing as it holds well with time

[Digerati]

bluegang6, on 14 March 2011 - 07:28 PM, said:

There isn't any data on the drive to begin with. It's 7 years I don't trust a hard drive to live for that long. So I pulled the data out a year ago, using more reliable laptops to processes work

However, I wanna keep this as a spare, seeing as it holds well with time

It probably would not hurt to run the drive maker's diagnostics on it, just to make sure it is doing fine. 7 years is good - but it is getting near its mechanical end. A motor bearing or some other moving part will likely fail just to normal wear, since the electronics are doing so well.