Solved Odd laptop charger behavior, culminating in sparking last night

This pertains to my daughter's ASUS laptop, so I'm a bit more sketchy on details than I usually am, but here goes.

About three months ago, the laptop was refusing to take a charge. So we bought a universal charger for it and that fixed the problem. We thought.

Then a week ago, whenever she'd disconnect the charger from the laptop, boom, it would shut down immediately. The battery monitor showed a full battery but "not charging" so it was getting electricity from the charger, but clearly the battery somehow wasn't powering the laptop.

Brought it into the shop, and for whatever reason they updated the BIOS and several of the drivers, and the computer returned to normal behavior and all was right. For two days.

When the computer reverted to "disconnect the charger and it stops immediately," she brought it back to the shop, and they spent about 45 minutes with her (usually they insist, understandably, on having it to look at in private). They removed the battery, cleaned the contacts, and gave her a different charger, and again, all well and good.

But again, only for two days. Last night, while she was using it, there was sparking at the point the charger plugged into the computer. She didn't see the spark, but she heard it and even upstairs from where she was using it, you could smell the "electrical fire" smell.

Obviously she disconnected the charger immediately. The computer kept running satisfactorily, but I told her to power down to save the battery in case she had something she needed to tackle today. Although she'll be bringing it to the shop after school.

So we have charging irregularities going back three months, and now three different chargers have caused problems, and the most recent was a spark at the point of it being plugged in.

It's all in the hands of the shop fixing it, but any speculation or suggestions on what the problem might be?

Well 450 mate you have a serious problem on your hands either the adaptor and / or the battery are very faulty as that sparking suggests to me that the volts are not right in either or both.

I would for your daughters safety check out the battery label and / or get a genuine replacement and the adaptor sounds very suspect to me, and the same remedy goes for it. Gonna cost but how much do you value her safety??

Having said that it cold also be due to some internal damage with the machine - has it been dropped recently or had liquids spilt on it if so then it needs athorough checking out by someone who knows what they are doing as a lot of the so called tech shops employ some folks who should not be left alone with a flash light let alone a computer.

As well as what ICit2lol said, it should be noted that most laptops, where the cord plugs into the laptop is actually part of the laptop motherboard. If that is damaged it will require another motherboard. A new laptop would probably be cheaper.

essenbe said:

As well as what ICit2lol said, it should be noted that most laptops, where the cord plugs into the laptop is actually part of the laptop motherboard. If that is damaged it will require another motherboard. A new laptop would probably be cheaper.

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Not surprisingly, it's the MB. $160 to repair, which I'm comfortable with, especially since the shop stands behind its work.

But I am wondering if the motherboard, who knows how long it was on its way out, could have been responsible for http://www.sevenforums.com/network-...rinter-its-network-error-code-0x80070035.html from about a year ago.

I have never figured out why one day that laptop could print to a printer connected to my desktop computer, and the next day the laptop couldn't even "find" my computer on the network, and I wonder if the MB might have been the reason.

Asking here, but I'll find out in a day or two when the laptop is back from the shop!

essenbe said:

As well as what ICit2lol said, it should be noted that most laptops, where the cord plugs into the laptop is actually part of the laptop motherboard. If that is damaged it will require another motherboard. A new laptop would probably be cheaper.

Click to expand...

Yes mate I had one recently and when I took the thing apart it was obvious that whole machine (Toshiba) was ready to drop it's bundle

So rather than spending that money on the mobo as essenbe says probably as cheap in he long run to replace the machine altogether - you can always copy across the data you need. Look out for some of the Intel gen 3 machines they are just something else _ I like the HP Pavilion G6-2113TU Notebook personally and the RAM can be upped to 8GB I think it is. Again personally I would steer clear of Toshiba after having three and no end of problems (used to be top quality) never again some Asus machines are good but the HP is the pick after seeing one run.

Just wrapping this one up, I hope.

The "root cause culprit" here turned out to be the connector that the charger plugs into, but of course it took the MB with it.

The shop got a new MB, put it in, and when they connected it to the charger, the same resistor on the board blew, as had blown on the first board.

The repair place I use is great. They charged me $160 for the board, comped the labor, comped the power connector, and we've had the laptop all week, running without incident. It's been 5-6 weeks since we had a similarly lengthy error-free run with it.

450125 said:

Just wrapping this one up, I hope.

The "root cause culprit" here turned out to be the connector that the charger plugs into, but of course it took the MB with it.

The shop got a new MB, put it in, and when they connected it to the charger, the same resistor on the board blew, as had blown on the first board.

The repair place I use is great. They charged me $160 for the board, comped the labor, comped the power connector, and we've had the laptop all week, running without incident. It's been 5-6 weeks since we had a similarly lengthy error-free run with it.

Click to expand...

Good news 450125 must have been something pretty wicked to blow a resistor though depending on size of course they can take some punishment but for it to blow humm

As essenbe says though I would be looking at getting the funds together for a new machine mate as they are a bit like cars in a way first the transmission goes then the suspension , tyres etc etc because you could probably put money on the thermal compound being a tad dry now etc etc