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.

Well thank you! You are right and yes there was someone else! Your a legend and just goes to show how great the net and you can be. laters

Hi,

Could you tell me the "electrical polarity" of the Acer Aspire 3610/3618 DC adapter? I have the same notebook as you do, and I lost the DC adapter for my notebook, and I need to buy one from the third-party vendor.

The polarity information is very important when you want to buy an after-market DC adapter for your electronic device. If you plug in a DC adapter which has wrong polarity as your electronic device designed for, it could kill your device in a split of a second --- unless the device designer has put some "protect circuit" inside to guard this "wrong-polarity" mistake. But if the producer does not even care to put an explict mark to remind/warn the user about the polarity of the DC power used in the device, how can I count on this same producer will be prudent enough to design the protecting ciucuit?

The Acer notebook product does not offer that information in either the Spec. or next to the DC jacket of the product itself.

I guess that's because Acer is not a Japanese company. My experience is that the Japanese electronic product never miss this information.

Aspire 3610 has all kinds of colorful stickers pasted on its surface, all kind of useless ID codes (why the customer would ever need 2 different terrible-lengthy serial numbers is really beyond anyone's understanding. If 1 serail number of 20 something digits is still not enought keep track of a product, the management system of the company must have very serious problem.) cover the notebook, the most important one for the customer is just left absent.

This remind me of the wrench socket made in the USA several years ago. What a customer/user of the socket cares the most is the socket's size. But the idiotic designer puts all kind of useless information on the very limited laterral surface of the socket, leaves only so tiny area to carve the socket's size information that the user need to use an enlarge-glass to read the its size.

The socket size to the socket is just like the DC voltage-and-polarity to the electronic power input, it is the most important information to the user.

This is absolute common-sense to all the normal human being, it just not common at all to those idiotic designers/engineers.

The replacement AC adapter that I've been using is a BriteOn AC Adapter that says:

Input: 100-240V ~1.5A, 50-60 Hz
Output: 19V (solid line over 3 dashed lines) 4.74A Max. (90W)

The picture below that shows a minus sign connected to a semi-circle on the outside surrounding a solid dot connected to a positive sign on the right (I asumme this is the polarity that you are talking about)

It is model JP-90-OD

I think I may still have the original broken AC adapter somewhere - I can dig that up and try to scan the image from that adapter for you to see.

Not sure how this will work on phpBB3, but here's a scanned image of the original AC adapter. Hope this helps.

Hi MD1,

Thank you very much.

Your response is much quicker and informative than that from the "Customer Support" team of Acer USA. --- You will be surprised to learn how this “professional support team” runs its daily business.

Yes, I can clearly see the picture of the power supply, it does show the polarity information I need. And yes, the symbol you pointed out is exactly the one carrying the information I want --- I believe it has been an international standard symbol to carry that specific information for many years.

Contrasting to your answer (come with picture, how wonderful.), here is the question I asked help from Acer, and the replying message from them:

My question to Acer:

===========================================================
What voltage level and what polarity of the DC power input should be connected to my Aspire 3618-AWLCi notebook? I can not find any description about this in my brief spec. of the 3618 notebook.

My asking of the polarity of the DC input can be more precisely rephrased this way:

Is the DC power supply's plug designed to be (in:+, out:-)? or (in:-, out+)?

Thanks for your help,
Heintz


And here is the replying message from Acer customer support

===========================================================
Response (Gopakumar_GWSIXXX) - XX/XX/2009 XX:XX AM

Dear Heintz,

Thank you for contacting Acer America.

Heintz, As per our records we found that the computer with serial number XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX is out of warranty.

I understand that you are having an issue related to power supply.

Unfortunately, I am unable to offer support for this type of issue as your system is out of warranty. Please understand that Acer technicians have not been trained on every possible software title or hardware component. Acer technicians can assist you with the removal or installation of any hardware or software purchased from Acer. Due to the magnitude of information that would need to be learned, Acer technicians are not trained on all the advanced features of the software or hardware Acer sells.

Note: Items from the Acer Accessory Store are fully supported by the manufacturer of the hardware or publisher of the software that you purchased.

There are a number of options below that you can use for assistance with your request. Below you will find two options that should be able to assist you with your question or issue:

1 Answers by Acer. Our representatives have advance industry knowledge of all major brands and their merchandise so they are able to provide you with expertise when answering questions about those products.

You may call 1. 866-621-2237 at a rate of $2.95 per minute (billed to a credit card). However, Calling cards are available for 30 minutes ($59.99 ), 90 minutes ( $129.99 ), or 15 issues ( $199.99 ) and the validity will be 1 year.

2. Or you could contact a local technician for this issue

I sincerely hope one of the options above provides the information you need.

For further clarifications please feel free to visit our web site http://Acerpanam.com/

Have a nice day!
Respectfully,
Acer America
Online Technical Support
========================================================
End of the craps from Acer.

It is a mark (the one you pointed out to me in your message) that Acer was negligent to mold in the plastic case of their Notebook to carry the information I was asking for (neither did Acer put this important information in their manual, or Web page), and this “supporting” team said that “Unfortunately, I am unable to offer support for this type of issue as your system is out of warranty.” and suggested me asking help from another “$2.95 per minute” team. From where the service cost could go all the way up to like $199.99. They think they are digging a gold mine or what? A brand new power supply cost merely $20.

Can you believe this, the replying message is more than 1 page long, and it carries absolute no information. These people should be working as the federal government officers in Washington to fully wield the power of their rare talents; they have chosen the wrong career.

Totally gave up any hope to get help from those guys, I Googled internet for the pins layout of VGA female connector and the pin layout of the USB machine-side connector to spot the GROUND pins of these connectors.

I need to find out the GROUND pins, any GROUND pins, because GROUND pins are all tied together within a machine. Be it GROUND pin(s) of VGA connector, USB connector or the Power Supply’s jack. And my Notebook has both VGA and USB connectors.

With this knowledge and a digital multi-meter, I can easily confirm that the Acer DC connector has the polarity of (In +, Out -).

To further make sure that the 20 V is the correct voltage for the Acer Notebook, I visited my local computer store with my multi-meter to ask the chance metering the DC power supply’s output voltage of several models of Acer Notebook. The result is confirmative: They all use 20 VDC power source, and polarity is also consistent: In +, Out -.

This later confirmation work looks redundant; it is just my superstitious: When a chore runs rough in the beginning, worse scenario follows immediately.

I thought I could get a quick answer for my simple question from Acer, it turned out that I still needed to roll up my sleeves to get it done by my self.

Some time in the past month I started to have problems again with the AC adapter and DC plug not working. I'd have to turn the plug in the back until it made a connection and it would frequently disconnect. While it is now a fairly old computer (but technology standards at least), it still works fairly well for most tasks. I had already replaced the keyboard which continues to work well, and obviously if the computer will continue to work, it makes a nice extra computer.

I checked out the website of the company who originally replaced my DC plug and it turns out they offer a lifetime warranty of their work. You can have them replace the jack once if their replacement fails (as long as you aren't using a universal adapater, which voids the warranty). I brought my laptop over with my original plug (which they had modified the tip when they replaced my dc plug). The guy took a quick look at the laptop and my plug and commented on how it was an old plug they put on my AC adapter as they now use much better ones. He used one of his adapater in his shop, and it worked fine on my laptop. I thought that seemed strange, but he explained that what happens over time is that there is a spring mechanism in the DC jack which becomes loose with time, especially if the plug wiggles inside the jack. He said that you can use a slightly fatter AC adapter plug and it will make contact in the DC jack, even if the spring is stretched a little bit.

What he did was replace the plug on the tip of my AC adapter to a slightly fatter plug and it now works fine again. He said that the DC jack is getting loose, but that this solution should work for around another year. He said that when it fails, he will replace the DC jack at that time. As I don't use the laptop that often, the jack may last long enough that I'll no longer want to keep the laptop.