My wife has a Fujitsu Amilo Pro laptop. Nowt fancy but great for internet etc. It wont start up. Press the on button and a small red LED just flashes a few times, it has a battery symbol next to it.
Plug the charger in and nothing lights up (i seem to remember it used to light an orange LED when charging). Checked fuse, OK. Put multimeter on end and reads 19V (Charger has 19V rating, strange as battery seems to be 10V or so).

What is most likely cause of problem - knackered battery or something else. If battery anyone know a good cheap source.

I suspect battery as laptop is normally used plugged in which ive been told before is not always good. Laptop is 18 months old.


Cheers,
Darren.

[Edited on 31/10/06 by DarrenW]

sounds like a duff battery, but even so it should work when run off the adapter. Have you tried removing the battery and leaving the adapter connected?

Even if the battery was knackered should still run, when powered off the mains. Every laptop I've come across will run perfectly well on mains power with the battery removed.

However, it may be worth removing the battery and then trying it on mains power.

No, it doesnt work from the plug. It just wont fire up at all. I havent tried it with plug in and battery out though.

i have been told that laptops wont work from the plug with battery removed.

The battery has some leds on it and none of them are lit.

I did notice the plug doesnt feel secure in the side of the laptop but not sure if this is normal or not. My concern is i dont want to buy a new battery if its something else at fault.


Isnt it sods law. Reason it was plugged in all the time was that we didnt have wireless router so it was just convenient to leave it plugged in all the time. Ive just got a wireless router, started to use the laptop wire free and it dies!

Any cheap battery suppliers about. Ive checked ebay and they seem to be around 50 / 60 quid. Can batteries be checked?

Sounds like the power socket on the laptop. its very comman. they just need resolidering. normally a full strip down job. but not as bad as it sounds.

hate to be the bringer of bad news, but it sounds like the connection inside the laptop for the power supply may be broken hence nothing happening when u plug it in.

We have done this to two toshiba laptops or more corectly my sister has, putting pressure on the plug seems to be the cause.

try carefully flexxing the plug to see if it will light up, if it does and works when u bend it this is the prob. but it sounds like the laptop will need opening up to be fixed, this wasn't ecnomical for our laptops.

Tell me more please jamiebenger.

I had a look inside the socket, i expected to see a centre pin but none visible. Will take a better look tonight.

Is there anything to be scared with in terms of the strip down? I have an antistatic band and basic knowledge of taking things apart but not specific laptop knowledge (sony P800 mobile phone was tricky but i managed).

I cant help thinking the plug had a more definite fit before, a bit like a soft click into position. It just seems loose ish now. It is highly possible it has been knocked off a chair arm by one of the kids before.

Thanks trogodor. no need to apologise, im just grateful for the possible reasons.

I had thought that the charge light should work even if the battery is knackered but nowt lights up apart from the small red led which flashes approx 4 times.

Ihave no problem opening it up if that is a likely cause. Ive tried wiggling the plug but nothing happens (apart from it moves around approx 2 mm or so).

It varys on different laptops, id done about 20 - 30 of them now, if the socket is on the top side of the mainboard then it can be quiet simple, on the bottom side a little more tricky. most things have to be removed, like screen all drives cpu fan and you end up with a desk full of screws. there should be a center pin and a small piece on the bottom. Its normally just a dry joint. but sometimes have to replace the socket.

First try mains power without the battery. My current work HP sometimes refuses to start in exactly the same way, seems to recover when started with the battery out and then plugged in when up and running.

Second would be the connector not making a good contact.

Always just left the battery in while running from the mains as does everyone here (500+ people with laptops in the company) and I've not heard of widespread battery failures. Wouldn't try that if they were still NiCd those really didn't like that kind of treatment.

Try this, remove the battery and power cord and then press and hold down the power on buttonb for 5 secs to clear any residual power, stick in the battery and power main cable an switch on as normal.

Hope it works

Rich

Yep, sounds like the power socket has broken off the board. I had to repair this same problem on my wife's Hi-grade notino laptop a little while back. It wasn't for the faint-hearted and took quite a while even though I am an electronic engineer but as long as you are methodical and keep careful note of where all the screws go and be very gentle when undoing all the little plastic snap-together clips then you should be fine.

You are quite likely to need a new connector in which case you will need good soldering skills to remove and refit the connector from the board. Remember these are multilayer boards so you need to be gentle and use minimal heat. You will also need to locate a suitable connector which can be tricky sometimes. Best bet might be to strip the board out of the notebook and then take it to a professional laptop repair company to replace the connector.

Good luck!
Craig.

How old is it mate, I thought those came with 3 years onsite, maybe wrong though but worth checking.

Rich