Power bricks and sudden death syndrome

re: Sudden death thread

I recall seeing some implications that the power brick for the zv5000z and similar HP/Compaq laptops could cause motherboard problems. Anyone have references to this? Is there any way to test the power brick for possible problems?

I'd hate to get the motherboard fixed (if it's that) only to have the same thing happen agaoin, but then again I'd hate to spend nearly $100 for a new and possibly no better power brick. Does anyone make better power bricks?

 

If I remember correctly, you are probably thinking about when the AC jacks on the notebooks themselves had connectivity issues and the connections would sometimes break (and not power the laptop).

That wasn't cause by the power bricks, but rather the solder and the inexperience with that solder. Around the same time the were switching to lead-free solder, which isn't as easy to work with.

 

I don't know about HP, but my Dell's power supply started dying after a couple years. I would be using the notebook normally, then if I tried to restart or shutdown and turn it on again, it wouldn't even let me boot. It was still under warranty, so they sent me a replacement and that fixed the problem.

There was no other way to test for a bad power supply except by replacing it.

 

But would that lead to a total sudden shutdown, no warnings (as when the power lead gets bumped and the battery runs low), no noise, no LEDs, total darkness (maybe Lucas built this one for HP), even though the battery is in place and presumably charged up?

Well, I'll find out in a week or so - it's off to HP in Milpitas at a cost of $321.

 

if you can find a cable, which powers up hte notebook from the extension port, you'll be fine. yet, zv5000 is an old model and it'll be hard to find one

P.S.
no, no sudden death, just no power.