Help for the laptop wire needed - keep it untechnical.

About as untechnically as I can manage..it sounds as though you have a problem with your first power Lead,Thea! I assume Your "wire" plugs directly from the wall socket plug into the laptop,and there's no transformer block anywhere along it? Probably it got pulled accidentally until the wire inside broke,or if it's not a sealed plug going into the wall socket,you could open it up to check if a wire inside needs reconnected... If that's not the problem, (and the wires inside the plug can't be got at) You could try cutting off the sealed plug and fit a new one,but the problem could be at the computer end of the lead,not the plug,and a replacement lead wouldn't usually cost much more than having to buy a plug,and then find out the plug end wasn't the problem..

Well it sounds like you need to buy a new Wire for the other one as that one could be faulty You should be able to get one and they are not that expensive either

When you take the cable from your laptop (that didn't work) and put it to the other laptop - does it work? 'Cause if it doesn't, then it's broken and you need to get it fixed or replaced. Another thing... Laptops generally have a cable made of two parts: one that goes into the plug, and has a small parallelepiped box on the other end, and another one, that is plugged into the small box and into your laptop. See if you can determine which one is broken, by combining with the ones from your son's laptop. E.g. the first cable of your laptop with the second of his, then the first of his with the second of yours, but be careful to remember which ones are from your laptop and which from his. If you find that the first cable of your laptop is broken (the one with the small box) - it's bad. It will cost more to repair it or replace it, because the box contains some electronics. If it's the second, it will cost you less.

Sounds like a sticky situation. No choice, until you are able to get a new lappie for your son, no other choice. Or best, if you can send the lappie to a computer hardware shop, they can advise on what's wrong and all that, the repair pricing etc.

buy a new laptop? :-)

Theres something you need to know. It's a teeny bit more technical but if you aren't scared and you take your time it's kinda easy. The laptop wires can vary as they aren't just wires, they have that power supply brick thing that does stuff. The electric comes into the box from the wall socket. Here it is about 220volts or so. You can think of volts as being like the temperature on the oven. So 220volts is quite hot and you should be careful not to stick a fork in the wall socket! ;) The brick thing in the wire (power supply) converts the 220 volts into something else. Lets say 19volts. 19volts is colder than 220volts so to speak, so it's harder to get burnt from it. The laptop is like a fine baked cake, it needs just the right temperature. Now heres the freaky bit, different laptops are like different cake recipies or cakes, they require different temperatures to get cooking! So one laptop might like 12 volts and another might like 19volts. They are slowly getting a bit more like each other in this regard but... Unless the laptops are the same, then it can be a bit dodgy to just swap the wires because one laptop might be 12 volts, and another 19volts. The power supply will have this info printed on it. Mine says 18.5vdc 2.7A as output. It means 18.5 volts at 2.7 amps. VDC means Volts DC. Have a look on your two bricks and tell us what it says for output. They should be labelled. It's best to keep the same lead to the same laptop, otherwise it can be like confusing your recipies and ending up with burnt cake! :)

It's overheating. A common problem with laptops. My daughter has a lap top and they alwayus warn her not to get it over heated. Where do you put the laptop when using it? It needs something under it, like a large book. In general, over heating means you need to chasnge the battery in the actual laptop.

Untechnical? Ok. S/Him broken.

sounds like you need a new power cable. if the other cord is working it can't be the output jack.

before going into the power adapter(the black brick)exchange power cords first. if one work and the other dont, you sure get to know what is faulty. try to do the same thing with the power adapter if its not the case. happy mylotting thea09

Must be the wire you had was faulty. For both your and your sons computers to work, you will probably need to buy a new wire.

Another option is that the battery has gone bad. Sometimes when they go they will not allow power to flow through them at all so therefore even if the laptop is plugged in it will act as if the battery is weak.