Third time a charm? I believe my power supply is dying?

Not sure. There is very little play between the cord itself and the jack on the side of the mother board, but if I leave the cord straight the screen will flicker and go from "Battery." to "Plugged in." it will flash like this off and on, until either it sticks with "Plugged in." or "Battery." most of the times now it stays on Battery. I have to adjust the cord almost at an extreme angle, wedging it between the edge of the laptop and the screen in order for it to stay on. "Plugged in." is it the connector inside the mother board? Or the Power Supply? I would love to know. If it's the mother board is soldering out of the question? I'm out of warranty. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Also I have been noticing at times when it does this, the end of the cord itself seems quite hot. The metal part surrounding the cord is so hot that I can barely touch the metal end.

-Doc.

 

The power connector is a separate component on the motherboard. Have a look here:

AC DC JACK POWER CHARGE PLUG IN PORT CONECTOR SOCKET Alienware M15X P08G | eBay

Very cheap and if it is your ac dc jack then your problem will be solved. Do this before buying a new power supply.

 

Thank you is it an easy fix?

 

You will need to dissasemble the laptop somewhat but just follow these teardown videos and it won't be so daunting:

Alienware M15x Teardown 1 of 3 **READ SAFETY PRECAUTIONS PRIOR TO REPLACING PARTS** (Official Video) - YouTube
Alienware M15x Teardown 2 of 3 **READ SAFETY PRECAUTIONS PRIOR TO REPLACING PARTS** (Official Video) - YouTube
Alienware M15x Teardown 3 of 3 **READ SAFETY PRECAUTIONS PRIOR TO REPLACING PARTS** (Official Video) - YouTube

Alot cheaper than getting a new PSU which might not fix your problem. If the problem is still there then probably the power supply is at fault. In this case get yourself a Dell 240W one not the stock 150W.

P.S: looking at the auction you might need to do a little soldering. Of this I am unsure however. Worth having a go anyway.

 

Thanks for the help, and the guides! + rep. Would anyone know or have a guide on how to solder this? Do I have to remove the old solder? Any help would be much appreciated.

 

No, you dont have to remove the old solder. You can heat it while removing the connector. Then heat again while inserting the new and maybe add a little solder. If you don't feel comfortable then maybe ask a friend to assist you?

 

Don't know too many people who know how to Solder a circuit board. Anyway, ordered the part. I have to say I'm a bit nervous however. Does anyone know or have experience with this? Or is there a tutorial on this? Any help would be useful and appreciated. I'm not experience with soldering myself and am honestly a bit apprehensive about touching something scorching hot to the motherboard. Dell wants to charge me something like 150 bucks.

 

Any news on this.
Got the same problem.

 

You can also send us an e-mail to [email protected] and we'll give you all the options we have for this.

 

Go carefully, have the right tools (solder sucker, solder, iron and cleaning spunge that you have wetted) and don't use the soldering iron as a pushing/pulling tool, you should remove all the solder so that the thing can move.

 

I ordered the part last week, waiting on it. I went out and got what I needed. Desoldering Pump, and a Soldering iron, but again I'm extremely nervous, because people have told me I can essentially brick the board. I'll let you know how it worked out for me in a couple of days.

Luis, I'm heavily out of warranty. What options are there? I'm poor and in Medical School.

On a side note I can't even power on anymore. So I'm thinking the connection is completely bust. It's made things quite interesting for me this semester.

Thanks Meaker, are there any videos you could recommend? Techniques? Things to purchase? I want to eliminate all probability of motherboard failure beyond the obvious factor, user failure.

 

Dont just leave the soldering iron on there for ages, melt the solder, remove it with the pump (dont worry about getting it real close) and take away the iron while you are emptying the pump.

 

Part arrives on Tuesday. I'll try to do a video tutorial, but no guarantees. If I brick it, there won't be a video. I'm definitely not paying 430 dollars to replace a AC/DC jack. I spent enough on this laptop already.

 

I had the same problem.
Couldn't charge my battery anymore.
Went to see many repairs, wouldn't handle this...too tricky they said.
I thought it was the connector but a specialist told me it was the motherboard.
Made the repair for 150 E.
Now it works perfectly back again but the repair wasn't sure why it happened and speak merely chinese.
Is it too much what could cause this....overheating of GPU CPU cause?