Hi Hi :D

On Dec7 2007, my parents bought me a HP Pavillion 9657em Laptop[ for Xmas].
Its running Vista Home Premium 32, 2GB RAM, 320GB HDD, Nvidia 8400 GS, 2.2ghz X64 Dual Core (or something like that).

In January, it was on charge,plugged into the wall, then suddenly the screen went dimmer,like how it goes when you unplug the charger.
I felt the power brick, burnt my hand,it was that hot!! So i left it to cool and thought nothig of it, it was just overheated.

it was running fine and dandy till friday/saturday [29Feb/1March]. Friday night, I plugged it in, to charge, while I slept.
I went on it in the morning, it hadnt even charged! Battery was on 1% !! @_@
I plugged it in downstairs and the LED light did nothing...So I left it plugged inn while we went to town.
When I got back, it was charging [YAY!!!]. It showed in the task bar it had 20% battery, then it lept upto 99%. X_X?
Then over the next few hours, the battery declined, and the charger stopped charging.
Then at 6pm Saturday, it fully "died"...It wont charge, nor switch on.

I have took out the battery, hooked it up to the charger, held down power for 20 seconds.Then again for 30. then again for 45, following articles on the net.

My mum rang PC World today [UK, where we bought it from], and they suggested holding power down for 20seconds...No hope, it didnt work.

So now, [they DIDNT EVEN ASK ME], they are coming on wednesday to take it away and "try repair it"....

Just now I have tried to Re-Seat the RAM, [incredibly easy for a n00b like me] and that did nothing.
I tried it again and i think I may have borked the RAM stickholder, since the RAM DID pop up, now it dont

And they said its likely Ill lose my data, of which,none of it is backed up!
Is there any suggestions out there? Before 8am Wednesday UK time,please?

I just want to try back up my data if possible, and try get rid of my saved passwords and such, [MTS2,InSim,DOA,PayPal]...

And suggestions will be appreciated,,,,
Thanks

Oh there is no reason for you to lose your data for crying out loud.. the problem is not likely to be your hard drive.. hate companies like that. The problem may be the adapter itself, or the port where the power actually connects may have some sort of short/lose connection. That would be the first thing I’d try.. but if you don’t have a spare adapter around.. hard to test that..

If you want to back up your data then burn it on a dVD or CD?

I know, it sucks The only thing I can think of ,for them to say that would be :
New MB? Then they'll have to reformat the HDDs to "match/sync" the new MB huh? :S

No, I dont have a spare, my dad suggested use his laptop's charger, but his is Toshiba, and mines HP, so they wont fit :[

Yea, I just was hoping to possibly "browse" the HDDs if I can, and just pick out selected data to save, like my TS2 Downloads, and my music, which my previous back up DVD of that is now broken...

If it is the motherboard then that would be unfortunate.. it is possible.. but it would not be the first thing I attempted to replace if it were me.

Your DVDrw is broken? Uh.. you can purchase an external hard drive and back it up that way.. or you could just buy an enclosure/adapter to usb, pull the hard drive out of the computer hook it to another one and back it up that way..

No, my DVD-rw isnt broken, my old DVD with my previous back-ups is.

I was wondering if there is any way of hooking up a laptop hardrive to a desktop/other laptop, so I can back up my info that way..? Like, browse the HDD[from the laptop], on another computer. Save what I need, then burn it to DVD...?

yah buy one of those s/ata to usb adapters. one end hooks into your hard drive the other hooks into the usb port on another computer. My dad bought one at micro center for like $10 one time.

And one of them will work on a laptops HDD?
Do I have to remove the HDD from the laptop if I want to do that?

Yeah you just have to make sure you have the right kind for the kind of hard drive in your particular laptop. If you have doubts then the store sales people should know what they're doing well enough to help you.

Yeah you'll have to take it out.

Oh great, I have to remove it =/ ?
I tried lifting it out earlier,but didnt wanna break it

Yeah unless you can get your computer to turn on you have to take the hard drive out to access it.

Have you tried to replace the battery with a new one?

The problem is not the battery if the computer will not turn on no battery and connected with ac adapter.

However swapping a battery could tell you if it's your motherboard.. if you have another charged battery you know is working then you know the problem is somehow related to the ac adapter/power port.. but since you didn't have another adapter I doubt you have another battery..

I'm hoping it IS the adaptor....
Im in town tomorrow, so, maybe the computer guy in town will let me borrow a adaptor with a deposit...Hopefully...
And I dont have any other batteries
Maybe a dock station will work? :S

I had that with my old acer laptop..turns out it had like callistra said a loose connection wher the adapter plugs in. I now have a hp 6200 laptop and it is a perculiar little thing...when the battery dies windows has to recover itself...wierd

TingTong,you havent managed to sort it out then ?

Oh, I also have to add, don't know wether it has any significance, but oh well:
If one part of the charger is plugged into the wall, when I go to connect the other lead[that goes into the laptop] to the brick, I hear a LOT of cackling and crackling and buzzing.
I don't think that helps though, huh

Thats only happened twice...its becuase its been put on sleep mode and then the battery runs low so all the data saved on the memory when put into sleep mode goes...so windows doesnt know what to do with itself....

Also that doesnt sound healthy...

Oh I see...thats what happened with this, 1% when I woke up...hmmm.
Ill update tomorrow,if I manage to borrow an adaptor,lol!
Hopefully someone knows a fix (T-T)

The same thing happened to me when my pc died just last year but it was my motherboard! I did manage to retrieve my HDD but when I went and purchase a Enclosure for it, somehow I couldn't get it to fit so I will have to have a little help next time I go out and purchase another one....


Good Luck Callum91....


LaTasha

Hii =]

I went to the computer guy, and he "don't deal with laptops" ...
I was referred to the electricity shop and the man there was just as unhelpful, "Yeeeh....This charger has electrical output.Its probably yer bat-ri"
So basically, it HAS to go back, which I'd rather it didn't..

Good luck...I had problems for over a year with my just about identical model, stats, etc., as yours. They replaced the motherboard, adapter, connectors, etc., etc., etc., had it fixed at a local HP "contractor" twice, took it back to the factory 3 times and finally gave me a brand new computer after a year of constant problems. The new one wouldn't play Sims and I had to go back to an old tower which plays it fine. HP laptops/Vista and HP service suck.

edejan--Oooh that's a bit sucky eh..

on a brighter note, I just plugged the charger into the laptop without battery, and its working for some reason?!!
Maybe since the battery was out of the machine, it sort of drained any static/left over charge...?
Also, I didn't put the RAM in properly, after reseating :doh: So I shall be back and report any more weird occurences soon.

edit-
I managed to reseat the RAM properly.
And just now--18.47pm, the charger has gone down, I think, AGAIN! >:[
It's gonna have to go back