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Sentia 3450 Power Issue

post #1 of 20
9/13/06 at 3:14pm
Thread Starter 
So I got my new Sentia about a week ago (ordered it right after the new chips were announced) and the thing is freaking awesome. I boughht it primarily for work, so I moved all my files, emails etc over to it. Everything went wonderfully smooth. I move around the house a lot so plug in and out all over the place and run off battery quite a lot as well.

Out of no where the laptop decides to not pick up the fact that yes it's plugged in. Now my battery is drained to 6% which makes it kind of hard to work =) I've tried about 10 different outlets at this point, still no dice. Alienware support was great, thanks Oscar and George! I'm getting a replacement AC adapter ASAP, but I was wondering if it could be something else more serious? It works fine off battery, is there a setting I could possibly be missing? We cleared the charge on support and tried booting up w/o the battery and just the cord and no dice there. I NEED TO WORK gah lol.
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post #2 of 20
9/13/06 at 5:04pm
The connection of the AC-IN could be shorted or disconnected. If you know howto and are careful, you should open the case up and make sure that the connection to the plug and motherboard are secure and "full". This could cause issues with the connection.

Also, do you have any other appliances that could use that power adapter? If so, try it out and see if it works or not.
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post #3 of 20
9/14/06 at 12:29am
Thread Starter 

...

Thanks, I actually went to Best Buy and bought a Targus AC adapter while I wait for the replacement one to come. My Sentia works again now, so it's definitely the AC Adapter...don't they test these things =p

Anyway, I still LOVE my Sentia the thing is perfect besides that small issue. Also, the targus adapter is freaking cool, it has attachments for about 10 different types of adapters which could be handy. However, I will be returning it still within the next few days =)
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post #4 of 20
9/14/06 at 12:38am
Glad to hear everything is fine
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post #5 of 20
10/11/06 at 12:36pm
Thread Starter 

..

Well...the new cord was working fine...for a while...This time it's different though. Somehow the dock for the external powercord input heated up so much that it melted the rubber inside the input. Where you plug the cord into the laptop reaks of burned rubber and most of the rubber inside the actual input is gone? WTF? lol I don't even know what to do with this, I'm on with support now so we'll see.
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post #6 of 20
10/11/06 at 12:48pm
Sounds like you have way too much voltage being input into your adapter. Adapters heat up and it's important to keep them in a well ventilated area same as your laptop. If you went through yet another power adapter I'd look elsewhere for the problem.
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post #7 of 20
11/6/06 at 2:14am
Thread Starter 
Well, I got most of the rubber out. I tried out the new adapter that was sent to me and still no dice. However if I push on it up a bit the power responds. Obvioulsy, I'm not going to do that or press hard on that, but I'm going to guess that something is loose inside and needs to be resoddered or maybe even a new motherboard is needed? Either way, I guess I am going to have to send this in.
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post #8 of 20
11/6/06 at 6:50am
If pressing it in makes it work, sounds like its just a lose connection that needs some new soldier, and nothing more then that. The connection could be broken enough to need to replace the AC-In plugin as well. But from the sound of it, a new MB shouldnt be needed.

You can probably call AW and see if you can take it to a shop around your house to have it done without killing the warrenty so you dont need to send it in, but it would be best if you did send it in though.
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post #9 of 20
11/17/06 at 10:47pm
I'm now getting the same thing. My sentia won't read that it is plugged in.
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post #10 of 20
12/9/06 at 6:52pm
Thread Starter 
Well, Alienware has it now and it's stated as a motherboard issue. I need to call them to make sure they are fixing it and not just holding on to it for a few months. If they tell me it's not covered under warranty I will go ballistic as I actually USED the computer for less then a month before this happened. Sigh.
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post #11 of 20
12/10/06 at 11:02am
When this happened to me they told me it was "normal wear and tear" and not covered by the warranty, but they would take my laptop and repair it, but only if I agreed to pay for S&H, 2 hours labor and the price of parts they would quote me once they received the laptop and figured out the issue.

All my problem was the AC adapter wans't being detected by the Sentia and wasn't charging. Loose connection is all, quick fix without a new motherboard (unless it's something worse), but they wouldn't even do that.
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post #12 of 20
8/7/07 at 8:02pm
I am having the same problem, have you found a solution?
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post #13 of 20
8/7/07 at 10:35pm
It's a "Clevo" issue.....I personally don't like clevo's because of numerous "MB" issues...anyway, I hope you get it sorted...
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post #14 of 20
8/7/07 at 10:53pm
Im not familiar with "Clevo" or "MB".
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post #15 of 20
8/8/07 at 6:33pm
Resellers such as Alienware, Sager, Xotic PC's and many more companies buy the "Base System" from Clevo Computers, a computer manufacturing company in Taiwan. And then they re-name/re-brand the pc's under their own name.

MB=Motherboard.
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post #16 of 20
8/8/07 at 7:02pm
ok. Would you be able to recommend a laptop that would be good for a college student who would do a little video editing as well as AutoCAD work? As a future purchase.
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post #17 of 20
8/8/07 at 10:19pm
Anything with a video card, a dual core, and at least 1GB of RAM will do fine for video editing and AutoCAD. If you're still looking at Alienware, the M5550 would do fine.
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post #18 of 20
8/8/07 at 11:24pm
If you're looking at AW then I would definitely recommend the m5550.

If looking elswhere, I would recommend the Sager 2090. It has Santa Rosa and a dedicated 8600GT 512mb graphics card at an unbeatable price...VERY NICE!
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post #19 of 20
8/10/07 at 3:08pm
Oh ya, off topic, but a helpful tip:
If you're going to use Adobe Premiere for video editing, and you're purchasing it new, try to get the newer version optimized for dual core. That'll help you squeeze the most out of your laptop for editing and rendering. If you use x64 bit dual-core Adobe Premiere (you need x64 windows though), even better.

Same goes for any editing software.
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post #20 of 20
9/13/08 at 6:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pilforgod View Post
So I got my new Sentia about a week ago (ordered it right after the new chips were announced) and the thing is freaking awesome. I boughht it primarily for work, so I moved all my files, emails etc over to it. Everything went wonderfully smooth. I move around the house a lot so plug in and out all over the place and run off battery quite a lot as well.

Out of no where the laptop decides to not pick up the fact that yes it's plugged in. Now my battery is drained to 6% which makes it kind of hard to work =) I've tried about 10 different outlets at this point, still no dice. Alienware support was great, thanks Oscar and George! I'm getting a replacement AC adapter ASAP, but I was wondering if it could be something else more serious? It works fine off battery, is there a setting I could possibly be missing? We cleared the charge on support and tried booting up w/o the battery and just the cord and no dice there. I NEED TO WORK gah lol.
Hi I was wondering if there was another way to gain power to my sentia m3450 my ac adapter doesn't work, it does work off of the battery, I hate to have keep changing the battery , any suggestions?
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