On Jul 2, 6:59 pm, Bernard Peek wrote:
On 02/07/12 12:39, Jim K wrote:

Mate's Dell Laptop (oldish) has flat batt and won;t boot.

Plug in to mains charger - won;t charge - batt light on lappy "winks"
once per insertion of the jack, then nought.

A possible cause is a broken connection between the laptop's power
socket and the motherboard. Try jiggling the connector about and see
whether the power light winks at you.

yeah we tried all manner of jiggly approaches and could only get one
"wink" per insertion of the jack plug...

Another possible fault is a short-circuit causing the power supply to
shut down as soon as you plug it in.

pretty sure the green led on the tranny part of the adaptor was lit
throughout - I read elsewhere that it should? go out if theres a short
presented to it?


Power input sockets are a weak-point in laptop construction. A component
costing pennies can stop the whole machine from working. And when
someone trips over the power cable the tug is transmitted to the socket.

joy ;))

Jim K