6810 Power Issue

[barcrawler]

Ok, I hope someone might be able to shed a little light on a problem I am having. My power connection to my 6810 is not working. I have to put pressure on the connector off to a side (not inward) in order for the connector to supply constant power. In the past I've gone so far as to wedge the connector between the wall and the machine, even put a small book underneath it in order to make it work. Tonight being totally fed up (since other than this problem I love my machine) I tore it apart. I might add that emachines didn't really do anyone a favor with the disassembly. After a half hour I had the machine apart and the mother board out. I checked for visible cracks in the solder points that connect the power port to the main board - there were none. I went so far as to re-solder the 6 points on the underside of the machine and again after reassembling I am still having the exact same problem. If anyone has a clue I'd be greatful - hell, I'll even take the damn thing apart again if someone has a better idea or even where to find a replacement connector that will work with this board and power supply. If not I guess this machine is going into the experiment table and I'll just be forced to get that powerbook I've always wanted but could never really justify.

Thanks.

[Brian]

Well, you went further than I ever would. Have you tried another power supply? You might be looking in the wrong direction.

[Felonius]

I am having this exact same problem. It's a relief to know that I'm not the only one. Other than this, my machine is great. I've not tried to resolder anything as I've not the steadiest of hands.

Has anyone got a solution? Maybe eMachines/Gateway can help? I don't even know if this is covered under warranty.

Please advise.

[barcrawler]

Well, you went further than I ever would. Have you tried another power supply? You might be looking in the wrong direction.

I was just thinking about trying to find another power supply that'll work. However I did probe around the connector on the power supply side and it seems to be in perfect order as well.

[Felonius]

I was just looking about in www.notebookforums.com and found that there are several problems with people not getting power from their AC plugs.

One particularly interesting one mirrors the aforementioned and has been solve by a few people by simply replacing the adapter. Apparently, since 90W AC creates a notibly high load on the brick, it tends to over heat (I've noticed this myself). Some users have ended up completely frying their bricks and having to buy new ones, thus fixing the problem. Others have chosen to replace their adapters with 120W ones and that seems to work as well though I've not seen any definitive make/model yet.

Other instances involve the shielding around the cable coming loose at the end and shorting out the plug itself, not allowing power to circuit through. This would explain why wiggling the end around or oushing it from side to side actually works.

Seems as though our problems share symptoms with these instances and since you've reinforced my belief that the internal connection remains intact, deduction leads me to believe it's the AC Adapter cable or brick.

I'm still looking into it though and will hopefully come about a solution within the next few days. I'll keep updating as to keep you up with solutions.

[barcrawler]

Excellent - I'll still leave a few key screws out of mine just in case I need to get back inside.

[Felonius]

Okay, so I got sick of tryign to diagnose this problem, so I sent my machine back to eMachines for service. (BTW, I sent it on Thursday and had it back on Monday, great turnaround time). They pretty much jsut replaced the adapter as far as I can tell. As many people having this problem solved it by either resoldering the wire contacts on the wire from the birck to the laptop, or just buying a new adapter altogether, I'm pretty confident that this is the problem. Just be delicate with it as wear and tear from travel definitely takes its toll on the hardware.

Another problem has arisen though that has got me scratching my head: I can no longer get a wireless signal from my router. All fo the settings seem to be intact, so I'm wondering if they did anything to the hardware. Broadcom Diagnostics shows nothing anormal. Any insight to this guys?

[Airdog]

This is probably a stupid question but you did press the FN+F2 keys to activate the wireless adapter, right?

[Felonius]

Yeah, that was it. I figured it out two nights ago but didn't reply because I felt like a . haha. Thanks though.