Med-Psych.com

I spent WAAAAY too much time researching the problem with my laptop. I bought an Acer 3618awlci in August 2006 when they were on sale for around $450. I am addicted to buying laptops. Other than my first laptop, I have never spent more than $500 per laptop. My first laptop was an Acer Travelmate that was super light and portable. I got it when I had 1 or 2 years left of residency - so probably around 1999 or 2000. I remember following the Hot Deals forums on Anandtech.com and at the time there was a company called Value America that was trying to be a super internet startup. In order to get traffic, they were offering ridiculous promotions. When you signed up for an account, you'd get like a $100 credit to use on anything in their store of equal value. So basically you could buy a $200 item for $100. There was some way where you could accumulate multiple credits - I don't recall if it was from referrals or some other way, but basically I was able to buy that first laptop for a lot cheaper than anywhere else. Back at that time, I think that laptop was still over $1000. I think it was a Pentium 3 processor with Windows 98se.

Anyway - back to my issue at hand. So, my new Acer laptop that I got in 2006. The body actually says Aspire 3610, but it is a 3618. A few months back, the AC adapter plug broke. The Acer has a plug that is at a right angle, so the when the cord would move around, it puts pressure on the right angle bend of the plug. The plug eventually completely broke. At the time, I bought a Targus universal AC adapter. I then found out that it is universal for all laptops EXCEPT this Acer. Not only that, but the tip which could be bought from Targus for around $10 + shipping was only designed for the 70 Watt adapter, and I had bought the 90 Watt adapter. Well - there was one tip that sort of worked, but it was a bit loose. I used it anyway, which in the end was a mistake. Over time, the loose adapter caused the pin to come loose on the laptop itself. I'd have to keep wiggling and moving the plug around in order to charge the laptop and keep it running off AC power instead of the battery. I was hoping that it was just the fact that the plug was not the right size, so I went on E-bay and found a place selling AC adapters that are designed for my laptop, and they were only around $22 shipping. Find the correct adapter was not easy. There were some ebay sellers in Hong Kong selling adapters that they said were for the Aspire 3610, but then they would have a comment saying to make sure you have the proper internal diameter for your particular laptop. Some AC adapters had an internal diameter of 2.5mm and some 1.5mm, and some said that the Acer was 1.7mm. I didn't want to waste time and money buying an adapter that wouldn't work. After waaaaay too much time reading up on the stuff, I decided to just go with a place based in the US that advertised it as being appropriate for the Acer 3610. The adapter came, and while the plug fit perfectly, it turns out that the problem was not the plug, but the DC jack on the back of the laptop.

There's a lot of great information on the internet about DC jacks. I found out that I could buy a DC jack for my laptop for under $10. The problem is installing it. Actually, based on my reading, the problem is not with installing it, but in removing the old DC jack. Given that I have never really soldered anything important, I was not about to risk my laptop when I could have a professional fix it for $120. I hate the thought of spending $120 to fix a laptop that is over a year old and that I only paid $400 in the first place. However, I like this laptop, it still runs quickly for what I need, and it already has all of the programs and data on it that I use. So, I was happy to see that a place that claims to do a lot of these repairs is based very close to my hometown. I gave them a call, and the guy said I could bring it right over and he'd have it fixed in 2 hours. He'd also fix my original AC adapter by putting a new tip on it. The laptop is back to working order - and I'm even using the repaired original AC adapter that came with my computer. Interestingly, he said that the Acer laptops are some of the most common ones he sees needing a new DC jack put it. He said the reason is that they do use a small (approx 1.7mm pin) inside the DC jack. Most other laptops use a 2.5mm pin which is less likely to bend or crack.

So - some people may be asking why in the world would I be posting this information? Good question. I'm guessing I'm posting it by the off chance that eventually this post will show up on the search engines and people will be able to find the information they need for getting this ACER laptop fixed.

And if someone happens to have questions on the topic, I feel that I probably know enough to point people in the right direction.