T61 loose/ poorly connecting a/c adapter?

I am having a problem with charging up my battery. It's a new battery, new a/c adapter, as well. (both only several months old). The laptop is 2 years old. My problem is that when I plug in the computer to charge it up, sometimes I have no problem at all, but more often than not, the plug requires a lot of wiggling and twisting to make a connection. Has anyone else experienced this? What is the likely culprit?

THank you for any input.

Amanda

 

Likely neither the battery nor the AC adapter is at fault - the physical connection is the issue.

If you have another AC adapter for your T61, try using that one and see if the connection is better. If so, then your new AC adapter's connector likely has issues - get it replaced by Lenovo. If not, then your laptop's power port is likely worn or damaged. If your T61 is out of warranty, it'll cost you to get it fixed. If not, you can give Lenovo support a call.

 

Thank you for the quick response! I purchased this new a/c adapter to try to find a cheap fix to the issue, but I believe you are correct in guessing that the adapter and battery are not at fault.
If it is indeed the connection, do you have any guesses where the issue might be? I hate being female and going into a computer repair shop uneducated about the possible problem... I sometimes get the runaround and would love to go in with an idea of what the problem might actually be.

Thank you!

p.s. yes, out of warranty, of course. sigh.

 

During those 2 years of operation, was the machine abused just where the AC adapter goes into the DC Jack? If often someone was tripping over the power cable and knocking the laptop in the process then the DC Jack may have damaged and will require replacement.

I've seen several power jacks replacement over the net which require desoldering the damaged one (dissasembling the whole machine to get to the planar or motherboard which is a tedious process), but have not found any Lenovo DC power jacks.

I don't know if the power jack on new Thinkpads is replaceable, but not in every shop they do a job like this.
The costs of repair could round the 50 dollars to the 200 dollars whether you choose to replace the jack or replace the whole motherboard.

Just from experience, I diagnosed a fault dc power jack on a Dell D600 that wouldn't power up with the ac adapter but boot fine with the battery charged. replaced the jack and still the machine wouldn't boot.

Good luck.

 

although i don't think the cord got tripped over, i do think there were times that i had the laptop plugged in and on my lap, where there was some strain being put on the dc plug. that may be enough of a strain, i suppose!

thanks for the further info - i feel more informed to be able to go to a repair shop and ask more intelligent questions. i appreciate it!

Amanda