Power Problem I have 2 hp laptops and it seems after a few years the you place the AC powercord into the laptop and after a few minutes the power charging light goes off and the laptop can not get power. I need to play around with the cord and the light goes back on but will go off again after a few minutes. Why and what can be done about it?

Power buttons internal hardware has probably been damaged due to unuse. Take it to a repair shop. It is easily repairable.

Remove the battery and AC power from of your laptop and also remove all the devices connected to your laptop and then press the power button for full one minute without connecting AC power or battery.

Also check your power settings in control panel and make few changes according to your requirement, if this does not work then it is time to replace your laptop battery.

1. Take the battery out of the laptop & try to turn on the laptop using power adapter only. If the computer turns on, then the battery is defective & needs to be replaced.
2. Make sure the power adapter is not defective. Test the output voltage of the power adapter using a voltmeter. Compare the voltmeter reading to the nominal value written on the adapter or the laptop.
3. Make sure the DC jack is not loose or broken. A loose DC jack will need to be re-soldered. A broken one will need to be replaced.
4. If you have another processor which is compatible with your laptop's model, try swapping processors & test to see if the laptop will work.
5. The power button could be bad.
6. The motherboard could be defective & needs to be replaced.

have you tried this with the battery removed from the laptop?

Sandytoo,

Sometimes the AC port on the motherboard can become loose or disconnected and will cause the powercord to not charge to the batteries or run power to the motherboard. If you changed out the Power adapter and that didn't help, then this would be my best assumption. The AC connection on the motherboard can be replaced pretty easy by someone knowledgable in motherboard repair with sodering. Most of the time with this issue, a motherboard replacement is not required, Even though its alot easier to just replace the board. Most Repair places will probably talk you into replacing the board, even though its really not necessary, with this issue.

Sounds like your power supply is starting to fail also. I know it is not a response you want to hear but there ya have it.

How is your power supply? does it seem like you have to wiggle your cord that connects to computer to make it recieve power?...Many laptops power supply become loose over time form moving the cord around..when it does, the battery has a hard time getting electric power to recharge. Also, you my have other problems with your lithium internal battery that powers your cmos.

Check to see if your power supply is loose and go from there. the power supply is the little hole where you connect the cord to the laptop.

let me know what the status is

Your power jack may have become unsoldered from the main board after four years of plugging in and unplugging the AC adapter (and thus wiggling the jack). If the AC adapter seems to wobble a lot at the jack, this is most likely the problem. Online places advertise about $100 to fix it. If you could get a service manual, and are handy with a soldering iron (low power), you could do it yourself. You have to take the main board completely out. And if you DO fix it, lay a bead of epoxy around the sides and back of the jack, and let it set, so it doesn't happen again. Bounce these options against the price of another notebook.

have you even try to remove the battery in your laptop?
if not try to remove it in a miniute then put it back again.
maybe it is in standby mode.

There are a few possibilities.

If it's been plugged in continuously, the adapter may have simply overheated. Allowing it a few minutes to cool down without being plugged in could possibly fix it. Try unplugging the power cable from both the wall and the laptop for 30 minutes and give it another shot. This might work.

The other, less happy, possibility is that your adapter overheated to a critical point or was struck by an electrical surge and is damaged beyond repair. You can order a new one from a site like eBay or directly from Toshiba. Looks like you could get one from eBay for around 25$US incl. shipping but be careful and make sure you order the right thing.

Some eBay results: http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=ac+adapter+portege