Is it my charger, battery, or else that needs replacing?

rawrrrz

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Jun 9, 2009
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I got an old HP Pavilon dv4 from a friend, and I had it working for a bit. Now it doesn't seem to get any power.

On the side of the power input is a blue-white LED. Whenever I plug my A/C charger in and wiggle the cord, it will usually flash momentarily, and then won't flash again until I unplug it and plug it back in. I can consistently make it flash once each time I plug the cord in, and no more.

However, if I take the presumably dead or nearly dead battery out of the laptop, and then plug it in, I can't ever get that light to show.

I'm not sure if that's a charging light or an indicator that it's receiving some sort of power from the A/C charger, or if it means nothing at all. The light on the front with the lightning bolt indicating a charge I've noticed flash once so far. It's difficult to watch both lights simultaneously to see if they both flash together or not.

Anyways, is there any way for me to tell what's broken based on the information provided? I don't have an extra charger or battery to test, or a laptop that this charger will fit, and I could probably buy just as crappy of a laptop for as much as I'd spend buying both lol..

Edit: by 'or else' I mean that could something else on the inside be messed up, a power supply? or idk what laptops have, since it won't turn on without the battery - or because of that fact then can I just assume it's the charger that I need to replace, at the very least? because wiggling the charger and making the lights blink only with the battery inside is the only reaction I can get out of it, so I have no idea what this means. Also the little black box on the A/C cord gets warm, so I at least know that the cord has power up until that point.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!
 
Solution
if the battery was dead, the charger would still power the laptop and just charge the battery. since the charger does not power the laptop, it's either the charger or the jack. since you have to wiggle it, I would think the jack is loose and would test the adapter with a multimeter and either say it's the charger or hte jack but I doubt the battery. Now the battery may be dead too, but it's not the cause.

rdc85

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Even if the batteries is dead/near dead, it supposed to able to power up using only the charger connected to the lappy...

If u already connected but it still cannot power up then it could be the cable/charger/mobo died...

edit : to check that u will need another charger.. some service center/computer shop allowed to try before purchase... if there is one near you u could try go there bring the laptop and get it check/try with their universal charger..
 

rawrrrz

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Yeah, that was my first thought as well. A bit late at the moment, but I figured I could call around and see who offered a service like that in my area. I appreciate the suggestion :)
 
if the battery was dead, the charger would still power the laptop and just charge the battery. since the charger does not power the laptop, it's either the charger or the jack. since you have to wiggle it, I would think the jack is loose and would test the adapter with a multimeter and either say it's the charger or hte jack but I doubt the battery. Now the battery may be dead too, but it's not the cause.
 
Solution

rawrrrz

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Thank you for rationalizing that for me! It was a mess of a puzzle in my mind :)