NP9170 power brick failure (after less than 12 hours)

So I received my Sager NP9170 last night. I first made sure that the power brick parameters matched my electricity outlet (240 volt ..etc) and hooked it up.

Managed to do a few charge cycles and then suddenly the power brick started emitting a very faint high pitched sound similar to an HDD spinning and down, and the computer stopped charging. When hooked now the power icon shows as charging for a split second, before it goes back to just batter for a few seconds, rinse and repeat.

Changed the wall socket, tried to power the system with no battery, nada.

I'm guessing I'm pretty much screwed. I e-mailed my reseller and awaiting response, but I'm not waiting for a few weeks for a new brick (IF that's what's going to happen, and I doubt Sager is paying for shipping from the US to Qatar).

So what to do? I'm thinking I'll take the brick to the Dell dealership or some computer shop to see if they can open it up and fix it?

Worst case scenario, is it possible to cut off the connector (that plugs into the laptop) from the brick and re-connecting it to a similarly powered brick?

 

When plugged in in sleep mode, I can see the yellow "charging" indicator lighting up intermittently. Considering how the AC adapter is brand new, could it be the external connector or the mobo's connectors being loose? I'd love someone else's NP9170 power brick to try and see if it's the power brick or a more internal (and troublesome) issue.

 

Failures like this should be handled by your reseller. They should ship you a new brick shortly after you contact them, and then they will contact Clevo on their own time about getting a replacement for their stockpile.

 

I certainly hope so. Still awaiting response by e-mail. I tried testing the leads with a voltmeter earlier and the current on one of the leads is quite shaky, which explains the intermittent charging.

Can these things realistically get fixed or would an electrician possibly mess up the output slightly risking a fried motherboard?

 

This happened to my step-dad's Macbook pro charger. It ended up being a short within the cable, as it was tearing open a bit. He took the whole thing apart and reconnected the wires inside to get it working again. I don't know what exactly he did, but it worked pretty well. You should be able to get a replacement.

 

It's a new brick, I would gun for a replacement rather than risk having it repaired by some shop/person..

 

Considering how new it is, I would just call it a lemon, bite the bullet and get a replacement.

Best Buy typically has a "30-day any reason" return policy on electronics, maybe you could "rent" a charger from there and limp along with that until you get a new unit?

 

I live where the red arrow is. Had I lived in the U.S I'd be expecting a complimentary power brick courtesy of my reseller within the week. I have a post address in the U.S though that then ships to where I am. Still awaiting on reseller's response.

I left the brick at a well-known electrician largely because it's bricked anyway and would cost me next to nothing, he'll call me after he opens it and asserts if it's fixable. Now the ballsy move would be for me to hook it up to the laptop after (and if) it gets fixed. I'm assuming that a slight variation from the output values can cause serious harm. Would it be sufficient to just test it with a voltmeter and see if it outputs correctly? What % variance am I allowed from theoretical to actual output? The brick says 11.57 Amperes DC output for example, did it actually output EXACTLY that? Or can it be 11-12 Amperes no problem?

I can't believe that something just got fried this soon. Must be some loose coil or busted capacitor. An issue of remove and re-solder I think.

 

I wouldn't risk using the "fixed" brick on my brand new laptop.

 

Yep, and now that you opened it, it won't be covered under warranty. So you just screwed yourself there.

 

Its the voltage and it typically can be +/- 5-10% around the stated value. The machine will then draw as many amps as it needs to run.

 

Oh I see, I assumed you were living in the U.S.

Hopefully it is a simple fix and easily repairable.

 

I haven't opened it yet. Why would anyone open a brick unless it was defective anyway? To OC it?

 

Cool thanks. If I decide to repair it (depending on what my reseller says) it can be easily measured with a voltmeter. In all likelihood it's some capacitor that can be replaced.

 

Yeah, voltage (should) be the fixed value (the highest quality desktop supplies drop about 0.1V between no load and load but expect these to be a bit more).

That way as long as the PSU can supply the right voltage and at least the right amount of current you are good to go.

 

The funny thing is that when I measured it with a voltmeter, the variation was minimal, it kept on going between 17-17.5 to 19.7-20 volts, and that alone was enough to render it useless for charging/operating the computer.

So suppose instead of 11.57 amps (default value) the maximum current it can supply is 10 amps, it means that if the margins of manufacturing when it comes to max expected load are tight, there's a possibility that the brick would fry/overheat. Correct? Conversely if it can handle say 13 amps then it's no biggie because the laptop will never consume that.

 

Everything is possible, but PSU's are meant to deal with extreme temperatures. This should NOT have happened.. I am still confused whether it is the actual charger that decided to die or something inside went wrong... the voltmeter readings seem legit to me

 

It is definitely the charger. It's a lemon, just my rotten #@$!ing luck. I could literally hear it squeal the second it stopped charging like it should. And by the way, the voltmeter value oscillating like that 2-3 times a second is certainly not legit, and the couple of computer hardware maintenance guys that tested it confirmed that.

My reseller says that I'm responsible for the two way shipping, which would make it cheaper for me to:

A-Just buy a new one from the U.S (or closest seller)
B-Fix the adapter if it is indeed fixable.

 

I think the power source (from your wall) is not stable on the beginning. So you can hear the high pitched sound which mean the AC adapter is damaged.

I recommend you to exchange the AC Adapter with Sager. Explain to the tech person about the high pitched sound and the AC adapter is no longer working.

 

Yes but I live in the Middle East and the only way Sager will send me a new one is if I send them the old one, and shipping the old one costs more time and money than ordering/paying for a new one. That's the risk of ordering internationally.

The technician I gave the brick to should call me today and tell me what is wrong with it, and if it's fixable or not. If it is, I'll fix it and make sure it gives a constant 19 volt current before trying it on the computer. Otherwise I'll just order a new one and get it shipped here in a few weeks, while I look at my new laptop sitting there.

I think that there's a much higher chance of that AC adapter being a lemon with cheap coils and capacitors, than my wall socket that served three laptops for 8 years suddenly deciding to misbehave with this particular AC adapter after less than a day of operation.

 

The electrician called back and said that a MOS-FET of some sort was malfunctioning and that a similar/identical one cannot be found/fixed.

So as much as I'd like to cost Sager some money for this lemon that they didn't test properly, shipping it and waiting for the new one then paying for that shipping as well is cheaper than ordering a new one, which is what I'll do. How annoying, and costly.

 

I found a local dealer here that sells a Toshiba power adapter that has an identical plug to the Sager's and it's 19 volts/ 9.5 Amperes as opposed to Sager's 19 volt / 11.5 Amperes.

I don't have a RAID array and I don't plan on OCing, so will 9.5 Amperes sustain the laptop or does the NP9170 easily exceed the 9.5 amps affecting the voltage causing the system to malfunction/shut down? 2 whole amperes doesn't seem like much, but yet isn't negligible. Assuming I don't try to purposefully stress the system (DVD burning + multiple benchmarks ..etc) would it be safe

Also there's an Alienware dealership here, so I was wondering if I could get a power brick from there, but it seems that their bricks are 19.5 volts, so would be incompatible.

Anyone who can give advice?

 

I personally wouldn't let any power supply touch my laptop that isn't specifically made to be compatible with it. Yeah, it's crappy to have a laptop you can't use because you can't charge it, but it's worse to have a laptop that's fried & not covered by any kind of warranty because you couldn't wait a couple weeks for a new charger, rigged something up, and ruined your motherboard. Suck it up, order a new charger, and wait. In hindsight, it probably would've been prudent to just order a new charger when you first had issues, then deal with warranty exchange or attempting repair on the bad one. It's often a wonderful thing to have a 2nd charger anyway. Though I am a bit disappointed to hear that customer service apparently didn't try to do something to help your situation, since they shipped you a faulty part.

 

Power Notebooks should ship you a new PSU, then be the ones waiting for the replacement.

 

I have to improvise. The warranty means that I have to ship the old one back to them and the new one to me. That will cost as much as a new charger, so pointless.

I also don't believe in coincidences. Unless someone here tells me that they own an NP9170 in a 220 volt@socket country and have been using it flawlessly, I'm led to believe that the circuitry in the supplied charger is just bad for 220 volts causing it to fail in a few hours, and if I go through the trouble, money, and time to get a new charger, then it fails again, I just don't know what I'll do. This has been mega-annoying. The brand new laptop is paperweight and its Li-ion is completely discharged getting slowly ruined as we speak.

This is not arcane magic, identical voltage with the same plug (no chance of reversed polarity) should work. The only question is whether 9.5 instead of 11.5 amps will be enough for everyday usage, or if the NP9170 typically draws ..say ..10 amps for normal usage, which would make the brick unsuitable. I'm assuming someone who has done the leg work would know the values for NP9170 amp draw.

 

Tell that to Powernotebooks. I still haven't heard a second response from their rep. If they'll ship me a new charger I'll be more than willing to go wire them the shipping cost to the Middle East in a second. They want the old one back, which takes money + time assuming they don't tell me it's been tampered with.

 

As far as I can tell, there are 2 things that may have happened:

- the power supply was bad, and you just plain need a new one

- the power supply isn't compatible with 220, and you fried it. If they claimed it was fine for 220, that's their bad, but if they made no such claim, it's yours. But even if it was their bad, you likely lost any chance of warranty replacement when you had someone open it up & fiddle with it.

So either way you're probably shelling out another ~$100 for a new power supply. The question is whether you can just plug it in, or have to somehow convert over to different current.

 

I don't care whose fault it is at this point quite frankly. I will go nuts if I don't have that laptop up and running ASAP. For the record, after 10 hours of operation, I still can't determine if the 7970M is working at all, I certainly haven't heard the fan run. If I wait for for the chargers to ship back and forth, I'll probably be over the 1 month refund period.

Now back to topic. The original brick had a 19 volt/ 11.5 amp rating, which translates to 220 watts.

The Toshiba charger is 19 volt / 9.5 amp rating, which translates to 180 watts.

Looking at the draw of the mx18 for example, with dual HDDs on Raid 1, and 2x 6990s in CF, 2720, running multiple benchmarks, bigger screen on full brightness ..etc it drew around 230 watts. Can anyone calculate if my laptop config will exceed 180 watts?

 

You should get by on the 180W PSU so long as the plug is identical (check the polarity of the pins).

 

Thank you +rep. I thought so too. It kinda sucks that there isn't some kind of rough wattage calculator for laptops as opposed to desktop PSUs.

Found many threads on amp draw by AW models, but none on Sagers, so I think that one of you Sager fanatics should get a kill-a-watt or equivalent so we'd have some numbers to go by. I'll see if I can find some today.

 

Polarity identical, same voltage, 9.5 amps. Laptop didn't turn on or charge. Same story as the old charger. Seems like the laptop is fried as well.

ARRGGHGHHHHHHHH. What kind of a damn brand is this? How about testing the laptop for international customers? Now an expensive overseas shipment to the U.S. of the whole thing.

 

Wow NeoCzar, you seem to have bought a lemon. You have more negative post about Sager, than anyone else on earth.

 

since it's so new ask for replacement

 

Bad quality control. The new power brick I bought (on my own expense + shipping) Has been working fine since August. Yes I got a computer with a lemon keyboard, a lemon power brick, and lemon speakers. That must either be poor quality control or I'm one in 100000000000000 for three lemons to land in my basket.

EDIT: This is an OLD thread that skumdog necro'd

 

Sorry about that. I just typed in Sager power brick in Google and it pulled this up. I was like gosh this guy has some really bad luck. Mine had a bad motherboard, and Sager replaced it fairly quickly. You have to realize that all companies have issues like these. The more popular Sager gets the more issues will be uncovered. I think Clevo has done Damn good at minimalizing the bad. Clevo vs Aleinware vs Asus reported breakdowns, Clevo stands out ahead as far as quality control goes. Asus should be ashamed at what some people have been saying lately about the quality of their G7,5 series. I don't pay too much attention to Alienware but I have happened upon quite a few negative reports. I choose Clevo over Asus because of those negative reports I was reading about the G75, as Dar as Alienware goes... Well they look like children's computers. I keep looking do the leapfrog or vtech logo on em.lol


Edit: you said that you found another power brick with the same connector? Do you know what type of connector it is? What's it called? Thanks.