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Compaq Armada M700 Bad Connection

dish-man

Posted 04 September 2006 - 01:00 PM

dish-man

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5 posts

Please, bare with me. I have very limited computer knowledge & no electrical knowledge. I have a Compaq Armada Laptop that appears to have a bad connection. I've been getting a low battery warning, even when my laptop is plugged into an outlet. At first, I thought it may be the battery. Now, I've come to a different conclusion. It appears that my power cord isn't getting a good connection. This is causing the computer to run on the battery & eventually drain it, even though it should be getting electricity. This morning, I figured out that I could jiggle the connection & get the battery charging light to come on. That doesn't seem to work now though. Is there anything I can do to fix the problem? I would appreciate any help you can provide. TIA

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Samm

Posted 04 September 2006 - 06:12 PM

First thing to double check is whether the bad connection is definately with the power adapter or with the jack on the laptop itself (i.e the socket that the power adapter plugs in to).

If you're confident it's the power adapter, then I would recommend you just but a replacement one. Don't know which country you live in but in the UK you can buy a power adapter for the Armada for around £10-15 (new) from Ebay. I suspect the price will be very similar in the US.

If it turns out to just be a loose connection in the power adapter, then it may be repairable with you're good with a soldering iron, but normally they're not worth the trouble

dish-man

Posted 04 September 2006 - 09:09 PM

dish-man

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Thanks for the info. I'll have my DH read your reply & see what he can do. Although, I'm no longer confident it's a bad connection. Recently, it's acting more like it's haunted. The light will go off, then come back on w/o me doing anything. Do you have any idea what could be causing it to do that? Thanks again

Samm

Posted 05 September 2006 - 06:25 PM

dish-man

Posted 05 September 2006 - 08:24 PM

dish-man

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5 posts

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I was referring to the light on the front of the laptop that shows the battery is in the charging process. Without that happening, the computer will only stay powered up for very short time. It's now doing exactly as ChrisWright described. It can be manipulated to come on by lucking upon the location it's happy with & applying pressure. That's getting harder to do though.

Samm

Posted 06 September 2006 - 03:23 PM

OK, definately sounds like a bad connection but as I said before, try to determine whether the loose connection is in the power adapters connector or in the laptop itself.

Without touching the actual connector, just hold the power lead about 1 inch from the connector & wiggle the cable. This should move the cable but not the connector so if the charging light comes on/off when you do this, it may suggest the connector on the end of the power adapter (not the laptop) is at fault.

If you only get a good connection whilst applying pressure to the actual connecter, then this suggests it's probably the laptops power jack that has the loose connection