R2 power connector

I've noticed this since I got my R2. The round DC power plug seems really loose and wobbly when fitting into the DC jack on the back of the laptop. I know the DC jack is not loose, I've checked its solder connection to the motherboard and its solid, and the motherboard's been replaced twice since I've had the system. The power brick was replaced once when it completely died. It just seems like the connector is ill-fitting with the jack. Is this just a design flaw and is there anything like a third party DC jack that can be solder in place that fits the connector better?

radugb out

 

I remember my power cord easily falling out on the old r2...maybe it is a design flaw??

Powercord really seems to snap into place on my new r4. Does the cord fall out without any real effort? Or does it need atleast a little tug?

 

Needs at least a little tug. Not much thought. If I pull my laptop forward hard enough, the cord will sometimes pop loose.

 

This issue can arise when the cord is usually left hanging from the plug.
Try to avoid putting effort on the plug by aligning the cord parallel to the back of the laptop on the table.

I bought one of these for all my laptops to avoid bending the cable too:

 

DC Power Jack CONNECTOR PLUG FOR ALIENWARE M17X R1 M17X R2 | eBay

That should work.

 

I'm gonna get a new DC power jack first and see if that helps. Otherwise I'll buy the 90 degree adapter.

 

Hope you know the jacks are soldered on, so tread carefully if you don't want to void your warranty. I've had my AC adapter hang since I've bought it in late 2011, haven't had an issue yet.

Catalin's suggestion is a good one, and I'm going to assume such adapter is really cheap.

 

Yes it is cheap and it has the perfect measurements.
I bought them mostly to lessen the stress on the cable having it parallel to the back of the laptop and avoid braking the ID wire which will lead to the famous 'plugged in not charging' error.

 

I know its soldered. I'm just gonna have to get a new tip for my soldering gun. I let my warranty run out in December. I don't want to renew unless I can get a parts-only warranty service. I refuse to allow Worldwide Tech Svcs break my laptop when they're supposed to fix it. I'm just skeptical about 90 degree adapters. I bought a 90 degree adapter for HDMI. It fits in poorly but the cable connection is great. Then I got a 90 degree TOSLink adapter. It fit in very snugly on both ends but it ruined the optical signal to the point there was no sound coming in at all.

 

Quick Question - could an ill fitting power plug be the reason my little Alien-Head power button sometimes flashes/changes colours between it's AC colour and battery colour? (even though battery remains @100% in taskbar)

>>> it just started doing it now as I started typing

 

Possibly. Mine does the same thing.

 

I have the same issue. Sadly it's so far off now that in order to maintain power supply to the board I have to wedge something about 3/4 inch thick under the back of the screen when it's open to push the adapter down.

I did send it to a repair place due to my warranty being run out since about 4 months ago. This was after a machine I bought died and they jerked me around for 6 months before getting a replacement machine without resetting the warranty. The repair place replaced the harness and jack and charged me about $300 for the pleasure of getting put over the barrel. It lasted about 3 months and it's doing the same thing again now.

It's only a matter of time before manipulating the adapter pin will stop working and I have to bite the bullet and either get it fixed again or just buy a new (read: different brand) laptop.

I'm thinking new. After the hassle I had with Alienware's customer service team, I'd like to try someone new.

Anyway, my 10 cents: Be careful soldering that jack yourself! Doesn't take much to naff the board and then you're out anywhere from 600-1000 bucks for a replacement mobo.

 

Ouch, all the vaseline in the world wouldn't make that bendover hurt any less. In any route, I'm not going to do anything until it goes from annoying to unusable/unchargeable.

 

How does one of those work exactly Katalin?

EDIT:- nvm, worked it out, duh - it's just plug and play - I thought some sorta soldering was required

>>> I have my lappy on top of a coolermaster U3... would something like this help? That lil Alien head keeps flashing to the battery colour loads now that I'm paying attention!

 

Glad you figured it out, WP, as for the bolded part, can you check the battery status in system tray if it changes to "Plugged in not charging" when the alien head changes color to battery?
Your issue might be related to the famous Dell adapters problem (ID wire/chip etc.).
Also check if the blue ring around the plug turns off when the color changes.

 

Battery status in system tray reads "Fully Charged 100%" and the blue ring is lit up.

The Alien Head is just quietly changing back and forth between the battery colour and the AC plugged in colour... not a care in the world.

 

Mine does this periodically as well. Changing back and forth between charging and AC colour. Anybody else with this issue?