Laptop Power cord problems

Joolander

I'll make this short. I went to go plug in my computer when I got home, and realized that it wasn't charging. I examined the plug and the socket in the laptop that it goes in, and it looks like the little pin in the middle broke off

So my question is, what is this likely going to end up costing me?

admanb

What kind of computer, who did you buy it from, when did you buy it?

Ego

Joolander wrote:

I'll make this short. I went to go plug in my computer when I got home, and realized that it wasn't charging. I examined the plug and the socket in the laptop that it goes in, and it looks like the little pin in the middle broke off

So my question is, what is this likely going to end up costing me?

You can usually buy replacement AC adapters for your notebook on ebay and they tend to be pretty cheap ($20-50 most of the time.)

You can also buy universal AC adapters in plenty of brick and mortar stores, but in my experience they're overpriced and low quality.

skeldare

It probably depends on your model, since I'm not 100% sure if power cables are universal between laptops. But according to Amazon, the average price seems to be about $3 - $5 before shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=laptop+power+cable

Joolander

ASUS g53sx, bought it in September from EXCaliberPC.com

And no, I don't think it's under warranty, because I dropped it and had to send it in to get the screen replaced

There's a computer repair shop just down the road from me and I thought I'd bring it there tomorrow. I just really dont want to get hosed

Joolander

Ego wrote:

Joolander wrote:

I'll make this short. I went to go plug in my computer when I got home, and realized that it wasn't charging. I examined the plug and the socket in the laptop that it goes in, and it looks like the little pin in the middle broke off

So my question is, what is this likely going to end up costing me?

You can usually buy replacement AC adapters for your notebook on ebay and they tend to be pretty cheap ($20-50 most of the time.)

You can also buy universal AC adapters in plenty of brick and mortar stores, but in my experience they're overpriced and low quality.

I should be more clear I think: the pin that broke off was inside the laptop. It's the pin that is inside the hole that the AC adapter plugs into

Ego

Ahhh, ok. Haven't run into that before.

Foomy

oh well than you basically have 3 options.

1: find a replacement part for the power connection, open the laptop up, de-solder the connecter, solder in the new one. or have someone you know more skilled in electronics do this. be like $5 max for the repair.

2: take it to some repair shop and they'll either do the above, or more likely just order a new motherboard and replace that. no idea what they would charge, but i'd guess something like $100 minimum + parts

3: see if your warranty is still in effect, and than send it off where they will do option 2 for you, but at least it wont cost anything but time without the laptop.

Essee

If it's the pin in the laptop that broke off, your problem isn't really with the "laptop power cord," now is it? May want to change the title. That's a slightly stickier situation than something being wrong with the cord. What @Foomy said sounds about right in terms of options, really, though I'm not the most experienced with this stuff. You'll either have to replace the power connection part (cheapish, I think) or the whole motherboard (expensive and probably not really worth it over a new laptop for the price really, at least from what I've seen in the past). Obviously the connector replacement is probably the better option if you can do it.

Joolander

well, I checked and apparently it IS under warranty still, so yeah, I'll send it in

and the reason I titled it the way I did was theres no good, short way to describe the problem

New Question: if they end up having to replace the motherboard, will I loose all my data?

Essee

Laptops, like any other computer, have a hard drive inside them... so no, there's technically no reason for them to lose your data. On the other hand, I believe they typically make a note somewhere that they aren't technically responsible for preserving your data (as in, if something happened, they're not responsible for the loss). I mean, if you happen to have an external hard drive enclosure that will accept a laptop drive (these are actually fairly cheap and should come in handy over the years) or something, you could back up your data... I don't think it's likely to be a problem, though, since barring some sort of weird problem in transit they're not gonna touch your drive.

Joolander

I figured as much. Gonna back up my data on my external HDD then send it off

Consider this issue solved

Now I hope I don't go crazy from 2 weeks of Skyrim deprivation...