Working theory: power cord is dead. Either way, dead laptop

[maharetr]

The story so far: on Friday night I noticed my laptop power/battery lights were doing something New, namely flashing shades of orange. When I wiggle the power cord, they settle down into standard colours and all is well.

e_dan confirms my suspicions it's power cord related, although we can't see any frayed wires, or anything obvious. I've had this Acer Aspire laptop for...okay, the warranty receipt says since October last year, but time wise, that just isn't working in my head. Whatever.

Laptop's ability to charge at all gradually fails over the next few days until I have 15mins of battery left, and no way to charge it. (Thanks in no small part to prk we are unbelievably technology-rich, and I've switched over the projector laptop).

I call Officeworks today from work, and they say "sure, we can handle it, but it'll be quicker to go through Acer direct." Acer turns out to be public transport inaccessible and to have one of the most blatant 'fuck off, we don't want to take your call' tech helpline I have ever come across*. To the point where I started methodically pushing buttons through the voice over, and it hung up on me.

black_samvara has suggested it's probably the receptor for the power cord, rather than the power cord itself, which complicates things in a 'oh, man, I'm so not handing over my laptop to random people' sort of way. If anyone's made it this far, got any suggestions?

*Thinking about it, that award goes to Belkin, which had the recorded message: "all our operators are busy due to unforeseen demand, please call back later" and hung up for you.

Comments

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

I had an Acer provided to me by the Education Department. It was such a pain in the arse I ended up buying a Toshiba to use at home.

When my Acer was stolen out of my office, after the violation of someone breaking into my only true safe space at school, there was the 'they were so desperate they had to steal an Acer???'

[e-dan.livejournal.com]

Nah, it's not the receptor, it's the power cord itself - assuming that 'receptor' means the bit the charger plugs in to on the 'pootie? I wonder what eBay has to say about Acer chargers...

[maharetr.livejournal.com]

I am reassured that it's not the receptor/thing inside the computer *grins*. It still appears to be solidly under warranty, so I'm going to demand that Officeworks/Acer type people give me replacement things for free.

[prk.livejournal.com]

If it's just the power supply, and not the computer itself, you may be able to buy a replacement, either another Acer power supply, or a standard power brick with adapter that fits, and gives you the right ampage & voltage.

If that's viable, then when you've got that working, give the faulty one back to office works to take their time to fix / replace. At the end of the day, you'll have two power supplies, which could be useful (one permanently plugged in your room, one for roaming).

If it's not just the supply / cord, then it gets much more difficult :/

How long's the warranty valid for?

prk.

[maharetr.livejournal.com]

I got an extended warranty, which after squinting at the fine print, seems to add up to three years. I'm planning on turning up to Officeworks tomorrow with my laptop and power cord saying 'hi! where is the problem, and how soon can you fix it, and for free, yes?" *grins*

[prk.livejournal.com]

Make sure you back up _anything_ you want off your laptop before you give it to Office Works.

Also, you may want to remove anything you wouldn't want a stranger looking at - eg personal writing / docs / etc.

prk.

[japester.livejournal.com]

If it's just hte power supply, and at that point, just the cable, it's a 15 minute fix with a soldering iron and some heat shrink tubing. (been there, done that already).
if it's the connector inside the laptop, then much more painful, but not impossible.
If I can get to see you inside the next week (so little free time!) I can confirm/deny which bit it is.
(monday night/tuesday night is probably the earliest at hte moment :( ... )

oh! warranty. yep. definitely send it back in. free fixes :)

hey! can you post a photo of the end of the power lead, and the socket on the laptop, and the voltage requirements?
there /may/ be a spare power supply which will fit and work while you get yours replaced.

[maharetr.livejournal.com]

*loves your skillz* Thank you muchly for the offer, but I've currently 'stolen' the laptop from the projector room, so while it's a hassle not to have all my bookmarks and music, I can bear it while I get Officeworks to do all the work :)