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What’s wrong with my HP Laptop?

| January 23, 2011 | 1 comment

Question by whispertotherain: What’s wrong with my HP Laptop?
I have an HP dv6000 laptop and I am having trouble charging it. For some odd reason, the ONLY way it’ll charge is if i have the charger plugged in AND a USB connected to a powered on PRINTER.

I got a new charger half a year ago, and it did charge my computer without the weird USB combination, but after 2 months the new charger didn’t work at all.

So now I’m back to my old charger and USB combination to charge, except that every now and then it stops charging, and I have to jiggle the chords around to get it to keep charging! What’s wrong with my computer?? Is it the charging “area” part of the laptop damaged? Would a dead battery also cause this? [Battery life was 45 min when I first bought it new and now it's about ...5 minutes.]

I’d really like to fix this ASAP and I know taking it to Best Buy or wherever will take FOREVER and a lot of money. I’m a college student, so I sort of NEED my computer always, and it’d be nice if I could take this laptop with me to classes, since that’s the whole point of a PORTABLE computer…

Best answer:

Answer by nevie82
i can see 2 issues.

1. a battery has to have a life of at least 2 hours if it’s new. did you buy the laptop new or used? if it was already used this would be the explanation for this short battery life time and now that it’s only 5 min the battery is useless.
this battery is worn out, either it’s older than 2 years or it’s a lemon. you have to replace it.

2. the DC jack on the laptop seems to be damaged or lose as you have to jiggle the cords around to get it to keep charging. it could be that the soldering of the jack to the mainboard is broken.

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Category: How To Fix A Laptop

About the Author: I'm a computer wizard (But without the hat!) I have qualifications from Microsoft, CompTIA and NVQ and ADITP in computers. I run various computer help websites dedicated to helping beginners find solutions to there computer problems.

Comments (1)

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  1. Niklaus Pfirsig says:
    January 23, 2011 at 7:48 pm

    The charging system needs 3 to 5 volts to power the I2C signal line that communicate with the embedded chip in the battery. I2C allows the smart charging system to the charge level and power management data from the battery.
    When you plug in the powered up usb printer, the printer actually provides the 5 volts so the laptop charging controller can power the I2C bus. This seems to indicate a loose connection to the power regulator, A weak clock battery, or corrosion in the battery contacts.