Computer won't charge

[TheDarkKnight]

My girlfriend's laptop has been having issues for over a year. Even with the cord properly in the socket the light won't come on unless you fiddle with it, and even if the light comes on, it still won't charge unless you fiddle with it some more, and then she has to duct tape the cord in place, as a slight movement of the cord in the socket causes the computer to quit charging. This is the THIRD power cord for her 2 year old computer, with the problem getting worse and worse, so it must be an issue with the computer.

She really can't afford a new computer and she has all her school notes on it. The charge has about a 15% on it, not much to get on, put everything important on a flash drive, and get out.

Is there any way to fix this?

[PoleCat]

My girlfriend's laptop has been having issues for over a year. Even with the cord properly in the socket the light won't come on unless you fiddle with it, and even if the light comes on, it still won't charge unless you fiddle with it some more, and then she has to duct tape the cord in place, as a slight movement of the cord in the socket causes the computer to quit charging. This is the THIRD power cord for her 2 year old computer, with the problem getting worse and worse, so it must be an issue with the computer.

She really can't afford a new computer and she has all her school notes on it. The charge has about a 15% on it, not much to get on, put everything important on a flash drive, and get out.

Is there any way to fix this?

Sadly laptop parts are getting shoddier by the year as manufacturers try to cut costs. It sounds to me like the charging port has been made too loose by constantly plugging in the charging cord. As you say she has three charging cords then I say it's likely she has three perfectly good charging cords and will never need another for that laptop - period.

That said, if you lack the skills yourself, you can try taking the laptop to a shop and see if they can swap out the charging port. It's probably something like the port has expanded with time and can't hold the adapter in place. Or maybe there is a pin loose somewhere. This is pretty common unfortunately.

If she doesn't mind a redneck repair try wrapping a single layer of black electrical tape around the plug-in adapter - hopefully this will fill space and make the adapter plug shimmy less. Good luck!

[Bolkonsky]

Is it a standard AC cord with adapter? If so there's some tests you can do. Grab a multimeter and put that up to the cord, plug the cord into the wall, and see what the meter reads. If it's reading the advertised specs, then you know for sure it's the laptop.