AC Power Adapter Turns Off When Plugged Into The Laptop

AC power adapter turns off when plugged into the laptop, under this circumstance the laptop is working fine. The LED indicator of the AC power adapter turns on when connected to power supply, showing that there is voltage supply to it, but as soon as the AC power adapter is plugged into the laptop, the LED indicator turns off which means that there is no way the laptop battery can be charged.

When you can not charge your battery or power your laptop using the power adapter, then it means that you can not use the laptop all. So many thoughts run through your mind on what could have caused the problem, you can not come up with any tangible solution. Possibly there is a short circuit somewhere causing the problem, troubleshooting the problem will help us solve this riddle.

Possible Faults

• Faulty AC power adapter
• Power setting
• Motherboard failure

Solutions

• Try using another AC power adapter to power the laptop, if it works (powers the laptop and charges the battery perfectly well) then the former adapter is faulty and is probably responsible for the short circuiting but if the problem still continues, then the fault is not from the power adapter, with this now the power adapter has been taken out of the equation, lets move to the next level of troubleshooting.

• Check the power setting, It could be set to turn off when power cord plugged in. To check the setting right click the desktop anywhere that it's blank and choose properties from the menu that comes up. In the window, click the Screen Saver tab. Near the bottom, click the Power button. Look to see what it is set to do when plugged into AC power.
• If you have tried the above steps and the laptop is still having the same problem, then it means that the motherboard is bad.You have the option of replacing the motherboard in order to rectify the problem or you can decide to continue using the laptop with the fault. This means that you can only charge the laptop only when it is turned off and you can only use the laptop when it is running on batteries.

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Video Display Fault: Laptop LCD Screen Video Display Is Distorted

Laptop LCD screen display is distorted, switching on your laptop, it boots normally, looking at the screen you can clearly see that the backlight is on but the picture or video displayed on the Laptop LCD screen is highly distorted. You try rebooting the laptop again to see if you will get a better result this time around but things are still the same, nothing much has changed, you try to figure out what could be the problem, could it be the VGA card, because definitely it can’t be the backlight tube since the lighting of the laptop is OK.

Also it can not be the video cable since the Laptop is actually displaying some picture or video but the only problem is that, the picture or video is distorted. If the problem is from the video cable, video signal to the laptop LCD screen would be cut off completely, so that one is more or less ruled out of the equation, so our options for troubleshooting is narrowed to the VGA card and the laptop LCD screen.

Possible Faults

·       Faulty or damaged VGA card

·       Bad laptop LCD screen

Solutions

• The first step is to check the laptop with an external monitor, to do this connect the laptop to an external monitor, press the Fn key on the laptop keyboard together with any of the F1 – F12 keys (the F key has the image or picture of a screen on it) combination depending on the configuration of your laptop to switch the laptop video output display to external mode, in some situation you need to reboot the laptop to switch it to external mode.

• After you have succeeded in switching the display to external mode, if you get a clear picture displayed on the external monitor, that means the VGA card is OK, but if you get a distorted picture or video display similar to the one on the laptop on the external monitor, then it means that the VGA card is bad and needs to be replaced and in most cases the VGA card is permanently attached to the motherboard, and that means the entire motherboard has to be replaced.

• If you have followed the procedure above and came to a conclusion that the VGA card is OK, then the cause of the problem is the Laptop LCD screen, it is possibly faulty and needs to be replaces, replacing a laptop screen is a bit delicate but that doesn’t mean it is a task that you can not perform, all it requires from you is a bit more care when fixing the new screen and also ensure that you buy exactly the same type as the old screen.

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How To Repair A Laptop That Has No Sound

How to repair a laptop that has no sound, when a laptop that has been working perfectly well before suddenly goes mute, that is no sound can be heard from the laptop’s speaker. At first you try some simple troubleshooting procedure like checking if the volume is muted, checking if the sound driver is installed and any other thought that might come to your mind at that point in time. 

Laptop without sound is not a common fault but when it arises, it must be taken care of. Troubleshooting this problem is quite straight forward and looking critically at it, the fault can conveniently be narrowed down to the following.

Possible Faults

• Outdated sound drivers
• Faulty or damaged speakers
• Laptop sound volume is on mute

Solutions

• Check if the sound driver is outdated, to do this, right click on my computer, click on properties, click on hardware and then click on device manager. When you are on device manager, scroll to sound card and check if there is a yellow exclamation mark on it. If there is none, then it means that the sound driver is installed and functioning well. But if there is an exclamation mark on it, then you have to update the driver and this you can easily do by right clicking on the sound driver and then click on update driver and follow the hardware update wizard.
• If you have an installation CD for the sound driver, slot it in and install the driver, but if you don’t have the installation CD, search for the driver online, and to do this your laptop needs to be connected to the internet, before you do the search go back to device manager and copy the name of the sound driver, then search for the driver online and install.
• Check the speakers, to do this use an external headphone, if you connect the headphone and it works properly then it means that the laptop speaker is damaged and needs to be replaced.
• If after connecting the headphone and you still did not hear any sound, open the laptop and check if the sound cable have been unplugged from the motherboard, if you can not open the laptop please take it to an engineer nearby and ask him to open it for you, plug back the sound cable to the motherboard and assemble the laptop back.
• Check the volume and mute settings. If any of the mute check boxes have been marked or checked, simply unmark or uncheck them. If all these do not work, you may have to perform a system restore. To do this click on the start button, click on all programs, then click on accessories, system tools and then system restore.

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How To Repair A Laptop That Is Overheating

How to repair a laptop that is overheating, overheating is often times associated with aging or old laptops and it can also be caused by the accumulation of dust particles on the motherboard. It can cause quite a lot of problem, if it is not well managed or controlled.

It can lead to burning of the motherboard, apart from this so many other faults can crop up as a result of overheating hence the need to take care of it urgently in order to avoid complications.The problem is that most people tend to ignore or over look it, thinking it is a minor fault since the laptop is still functioning well, but before they realize what is happening it leads to complication and a major fault develops.

Possible Faults

• Accumulation of dust in the vents and fans
• Faulty or bad battery
• Accumulation of dust on the motherboard

Solutions

• When a laptop is used over a long period of time, dust particles will definitely accumulate in the vents and fans, these are the main cooling channels of the laptop. The accumulation of dust in these channels will lead to the clogging of the fans and then overheating of the laptop. To take care of this problem, you have to open up the laptop in order to access their fans. If you do not know how to open the laptop please look for the user manual of the laptop in question and follow the instruction in it.
• After you have opened up the laptop and gained access to the fan, unscrew the processor, then look for a brush and clean up the fan, also use the brush to clean the motherboard and all other components like the RAM and Hard disk that are attached to the motherboard. After doing this it is most likely that your laptop will work efficiently and at normal temperature. Ensuring that the cooling channels like the air vents and fans are dust free, it will help the laptop to dissipate heat more efficiently and keeping the temperature of the laptop normal and at the same time make the laptop function at optimum capacity. If thermal paste on the processor has dried out, you should replace it with fresh thermal paste before replacing back the fan.
• But if it turns out that the laptop is still overheating after the clean up, then you have to take a closer look at the laptop battery. If you have been using the battery for a long time and the temperature gets excessively hot when it is working. It simply means that the battery is no longer healthy and needs to be replaced. To make your battery last longer, don’t leave your charger plugged into your laptop, when the battery is fully charged (up to 100%) because it will reduce the life span of the battery and do not always use your battery until it is at 0%. This will also reduce the lifespan of the battery.

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Battery Problem: Laptop Battery Is Not Charging

Laptop battery is not charging, when you plug your laptop AC power adapter and discovers that the laptop battery is not charging, at that point you become worried checking all the connections, power adapter, power cable and anything else you can lay your hands on. Panic sets in when you try everything you know and there seem to be no solution in sight, at that particular moment you don’t know what to do, you are frustrated and almost giving up hope that you can rectify the problem.

 But the truth of the matter is that the problem might not be as difficult as it appears on the surface. All you may need might just be a simple direction or instruction outlining what to do and before you say Jack! The problem is solved.

Possible Faults

• Laptop AC power adapter is not properly plugged in
• Faulty or bad AC power adapter
• DC jack is loose or separated from the motherboard
• Laptop battery not properly or firmly seated in the battery compartment
• Faulty or completely dead laptop battery
• Motherboard related failure

Solutions

• Ensure that the laptop AC power adapter is properly plugged in. When you plug in your laptop adapter to power supply, check the LED indicator or charging light to confirm if it is on or off. If the LED is off, then it means that the adapter might be burnt or faulty and probably needs to be replaced provided the voltage from the power supply socket is normal.
• Check if the DC jack is separated from the motherboard (or DC jack broken) and the laptop doesn’t get any power from the AC adapter. In this case the DC jack has to be replaced.
• Ensure that the battery is properly seated in its compartment, proper alignment of the battery is essential for charging of the battery, also the laptop battery contact point should be checked to see if it is oxidized, because this can prevent proper contact between the battery and the laptop, hence the laptop can not charge the battery. If this is the case use a brush to clean the battery.
• When the laptop AC power adapter is plugged in, check the laptop charging LED or charging light, if it is blinking continuously then the laptop battery is completely dead and needs to be replaced.
• After all the steps above have been taken and the laptop battery is still not charging, then this is a motherboard related failure. Apparently the battery charging circuit has failed. In this case the whole motherboard has to be replaced (or repaired on component level).

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