Compaq Presario Power Problem

Hi all.. I'm new to this site but was advised you might be able to help me out..

i've had my compaq presario r3228ea for about 18 months now (so its out of warrenty) and i didn't take out any extra cover. anyways for some reason it won't charge the battery while its switched on. if i plug in the power lead while its off, everythings fine but then as soon as the laptop is booting up, off it goes.. i can sometime get it back on by pulling tight on the cable and feeding it under my laptop but really don't think this is going to last long..

i don't want to pay for anyone to check it out just yet as i've been quoted £50 checking fee and then if its what they think it is (faulty power connector within the laptop) i've been quoted at least £100.. but if this is true, why would it work while the laptop is off ?

any ideas or anything at all would be great right about now as i haven't got the cash to buy a new one just yet..

thanks..

 

Try updating your BIOS if possible...though it might not help (but worth a try).

It sounds like the power lead on the motherboard might be going out alright. It was a common problem on HP laptops about one-two years back. You might be able to solder the connection back together, but I don't know the best way to do that.

Read this about another forum member that has a similar problem...it might help you.

 

thanks for that

 

Well up-dated the bios and still no good.. looks like i'll have to keep looking..

 

Why would it charge battery with it powered OFF? and not when it's turned on?.... Well it could be that there is barely a connection... and when the unit is turned ON the extra current draw /load kills the connection.

Seeing how you're saying you're having to play with the connnection it's either the connection on the motherboard itself (most likely)... OR it could be the power brick itself.



What I'd try to do is to find out if maybe a current models power brick would "work", and then find a local shop with that power supply and ask them if you could plug it up..


You can go to HP Partsurfer, type in the model number of your unit, get the part number for the A/C brick.... then type that number into the search box to find "other" models it may fit....

HP Partsurfer

http://www.partsurfer.hp.com/cgi-bin/spi/main

Another option is Ebay...


PS: You can also charge some units thru the accessory /docking station port.


Here's a (dead) link to that, Look at the url, Play around with the search engine and you shoud find what I'm talking about:


http://www.techexcess.net/zd7000-zv...combo-motherboard-replacement-workaround.aspx

 

PS: It could also be the charging circuit dying.... and there could be something strange going on with the battery, since it's 18 months old....

But if I was a betting man I'd say it was the issues noted in the above post.
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