We just bought a used laptop and it won't power up. the adapter appears to be working because it has a green light on the back of the cord and the laptop also has a green light, but I can't get the power to come on or stay on. Do we perhaps need a new battery?

There are three possible reasons why it's acting like that.

1. Defective AC Adapter or Power cord
2. Defective Motherboard
3. Defective Battery

First off, you need to isolate the part which causing the issue. Please follow the following steps:

1. Remove the battery and use the power cord alone in powering up your computer. If it goes well, then you need to replace the battery. If no go, then try using a different known good outlet.

2. Check the acer power adapter (the box) if there's a light lit. If it's green, then it's should be working fine. If it's amber or nothing at all, then there's a problem with it. You might need to replace that.

3. If the AC adapter looks good, then try to wiggle the cord so that you can check if the cord is properly connected to the computer. Usually, cords get loose and it causes problems. If it has this kind of problem, then you need to get a technician to check that for you because you might need to buy a new motherboard for that.

Please do the above simple steps, and let me know if anything happens. I hope this can solve the issue.

It appears as if your power supply is dead. The power supply is inline with your power cord and has a light on it, if I am correct. Since the green light was dim, then went out all together on your power supply, that would indicate that it would not take a charge any longer, and the dim light, down to none, was the rest of your battery draining. Assuming you tried multiple power outlets, my suggestion would to borrow a power source from a friend and check it, or go to best buy/Apple store and have them use one of theirs to see if it comes on.

If you can jiggle the the power cord right at where it plugs into the computer and sometimes the green light comes on, that means your DC Power Jack is bad. There was probably nothing wrong with your other power cord. When the DC Power Jack is bad the laptop will not power on if the battery is drained of all of it's power because the Power Cord can't charge the battery.

Take an ink pen and push the tip inside the jack and see if the little pin wiggles, if so the jack is bad. You'll have to take the laptop apart to fix it. Most times it is soldered onto the motherboard, so you will have to desolder the old and solder a new one.

Have you followed the Guided Troubleshooting steps provided on the HP Support web site?

These will take you through a series of checks and decisions to try to isolate the cause of the problem along the following lines:

1. Are you sure you are plugged in to a good power outlet - can you plug a lamp in and does it work?

2. Are you sure that you are using the right power adapter for this laptop, is it the original HP block supplied with the laptop or is it a replacement - if the latter, then does it supply the correct output voltage and watts required by the laptop.

3. Are you sure the problem is not just the laptop display being dead, i.e. have you tried attaching an external display, do you get any leds light on the laptop for power, disk activity etc?

4. Have you tried removing the battery from the laptop and connecting the power adapter with it removed to prove that the battery is not preventing the laptop from powering on?

5. Have you disconnected all external devices from the laptop, in particular docking station, printers, USB devices etc to ensure that no external device is preventing it from powering on?

6. Do you have another power adapter that you can try using - are there any lights on the power adapter to show that it is working?

Because the camera is what is technically known as 'Portable'and is designed to work purely from the internal battery. the Power Adapter merely charges the internal battery

It sounds like the Power adapter is:

1. Not plugged into the computer
2. Not functioning
3. Has a broken connector (or the laptop has a broken power connector)

Unplug the adapter, remove the battery, hold the power button on the laptop for 30 seconds. Plug in the power adapter connector to the laptop - if the power indicator illuminates, remove the power cord, insert the battery ant then plug in the power cord. Press the power button (hopefully you're back in business).

If that does not help, p borrow an adapter from a friend and try it with your laptop, if it works, then go buy a new adapter!

There is only one way to find out if it is an issue with the printer or the Power cord or Power Adapter.

Normally every HP printer has 2 parts. One cord connects the Printer to an Adapter. the Adapter cord then connects to the Wall outlet.

Now that you have connected the printer to working outlet, Check after 10-15 mins if the Adapter ( black box ) is warm or cold. If the Adapter is warm and the green LED light on adapter is glowing, then it could an issue with the Cord or the Printer.

Try with another Adapter or power cord to diagnose.

For Other brand printers, there should be a power adapter ( black box ) and it should be warm when connected to wall outlet, if it is not warm then it is defective power adapter that you need to replaced. Else it is a problem with printer mechanism.


Regards,
Shawn

There could be a problem with the battery. A fast check to determine whether you have a problem with the power adapter, power cord or the laptop's battery is to turn off the laptop, remove the battery, connect the power adapter, turn on the laptop & see if it works.
If the laptop works directly from the power adapter with the battery removed, then the power adapter is good. In this case we can suspect that the battery is defective & needs to be replaced.

If this did not work, try also disassembling the laptop & make sure that all main components are seated properly. Also make sure that all ribbon cables interconnecting the various components of the laptop are tightly connected.

There could be a number of resons for this. Some thoughts:
1) Was your laptop working fine before you bought this new adapter? Eg. did it work with the previous one.
2) Are you positive that it is compatible? You should check all the power ratings against the old adapter (voltage output, current output).
3) Make sure the connector that plugs into the back of the laptop is a perfect fit. Connectors have a + and -. The outside metal ring may fit, but the inside 'pin' may be too small and not making contact with the receving part of the laptop.
4) Make sure that the connector inside the laptop has not broken. Easy way is to get a pencil with eraser and stick it in there and wiggle it around. If it moves sustantially, you may have some connector pins that have become unsoldered. If so, you need to get this fixed.

You could have a faulty adapter. Get it checked out and or borrow one to test your laptop to determine whether the laptop or adapter is at fault.