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9860 problem

post #1 of 5
11/9/08 at 4:51pm
Thread Starter 
My 9860 died on me yesterday. It was plugged in, the battery was about 80%, and I unplugged it to move it, and the computer turned off. It will not power back on. The audio DJ does not turn on, but the power lights, both A/C and battery light up. Another oddity is that at first both lights turned on orange, but when I leave the computer plugged in for a bit, the battery light will turn green, but if I unplug it, and plug it back in, the light come on orange.

I contacted sager and they say it is probably a motherboard issue, but I found it odd, that the computer was working fine until I unplugged it. I have gotten pretty good life out of this system, I bought it in Jan of 05, the battery is dated Dec 04. I have had 3 other issues with this system in the past. Close to 2 years after I bought it, the graphics card failed, which was replaced by sager under warranty. Then a year later the motherboard failed, which I paid to have replaced. Then a little while later one of the HDs failed, which was fixed under warranty by western digital. Now another possible motherboard issue.

I would like to know from the other forum members if you agree that it is in fact another motherboard failure.

After the graphics card issue, I have been cleaning the fans every 3 months, also when I do this I discharge the battery completely. I do not leave the computer plugged in when the battery is at 100% charge.
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post #2 of 5
11/9/08 at 6:11pm
It's possible you're doing something consistently that is exposing your notebook to an usual stress of some kind like static shock. You have had an usually large amount of problems. It's also possible that the power supply was out of spec in the first place and causing damage.

The procedure described by Sager calls for plugging the power supply into the computer before plugging it into the AC wall outlet and when unplugging remove the plug from the wall outlet prior to unplugging from the computer. This helps protect the internal components from surges and shock. Also be certain you are properly grounded through the AC power line you are using. If you hear a quiet hum or feel a slight vibration on your notebook's lid when it's plugged in you probably have a grounding issue and this can damage the notebook.

Also, it's not good to drain your battery to zero ever. The battery has electronics to prevent you deliberately draining it to zero but they sometimes get out of sync. Lithium batteries don't have a "memory" like ni-cads and they don't like to be cycled. The more you use and stress the battery the faster it will die so it's not bad to leave it plugged in when using it. Lithium batteries last the longest if you can leave them in a perpetual mid charge level but this isn't possible in a notebook so it's best to just leave it plugged in when possible and turn off your notebook or recharge when the battery low level alarm comes on at ten percent.

The first time you had your motherboard replaced were the symptoms the same as this or was it a completely different problem?

Can you test the power supply with a multimeter to be sure it's working? Of course if you are certain the battery had a charge prior to unplugging it you probably don't have a bad power supply.

If you feel your are technically proficient you can try obtaining parts from eBay and working on it yourself. You would save some money this way but often it's trial and error. I had a motherboard go bad on my Powerbook and I thought it was the power system but fortunately I was able to get the parts from a vendor that would accept trade backs if I got the wrong part.
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post #3 of 5
11/12/08 at 9:36pm
Thread Starter 
looks like i am going to part this one out.
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post #4 of 5
11/19/08 at 3:56am
Thread Starter 
is there much interest on these forums for 9860 parts?
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post #5 of 5
11/27/08 at 3:32pm
I've seen a bunch of people selling Sager parts or broken machines on eBay for way too much money.....IMO :-)

I'd give that a shot.

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BTW what are the specs on the machine?
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