Advent 4211

Wayfair · 28-09-2009, 22:03

Just a quickie..

My daughters Advent 4211 mains charger has just packed in, it has been proved it is that as I plugged in another charger of equal voltage / amps, and I tested the old one with a multimeter and get all kinds of odd readings.

Question is, it is a PCworld purchase, 'I know I know' 07/10/08, will this still be under warranty and should I expect just a straight swop for a working one, or shall I take pack-up and a commode and get ready for a long drawn out one.

Halcyon · 28-09-2009, 22:09

Unless it is stated that the power supply is not covered by the warranty, then head down there as soon as you can and demand a replacement.

alferret · 29-09-2009, 04:55

TBH the hoops you might have to jump through, time, effort and the cost of transporting your commode to you local store you might as well pick up a generic power supply for £20'ish. As its over 6 months old they may well say leave it with us, we'll test it and get back to you. You'll then have to wait 1-2 weeks for a diagnosis as to whether or not its terminal. In the mean time your daughter is without her laptop.

Wayfair · 29-09-2009, 08:16

You might be right alf, so I had a quick look and found THIS, looks the jobby to me, I will still pop down to the shop and see what they say, but I don't think my ears would take 2 weeks of no laptop..

haydnwalker · 29-09-2009, 09:46

They should just replace the power supply as its within the year warranty. Never hurts to buy a spare though.

Make sure you take your receipt with you - but don't take your laptop as they will want to test that too... Which means possibly a week without laptop AND charger.

Wayfair · 29-09-2009, 10:40

Just got back, they want to pick up the laptop, battery and charger tomorrow between 8-5 !! as they don't check / repair them in-store..

They said it will be with them for 2 weeks and to back up all my stuff!!

Lord Nikon · 29-09-2009, 14:51

Sheesh, I would just buy the new power adapter. The standard policy with repairs like this are as follows.

1) Replace hard drive in machine on arrival.
2) Does the machine power up? if not, then try a new PSU
3) When you have the machine powered up, restore the machine to factory defaults, removing all software / documents / pictures etc.
4) Test the machine for functionality.

1,3 and 4 are redundant in this case and it's far more hassle to reinstall your apps, remove the garbage preinstalled etc, just grab a new PSU and no waiting for 2 weeks, no tedious reinstalling and reconfiguring when you get the machine back.

jrhnewark · 29-09-2009, 16:58

I only got my 4211 because it was on a good deal contract with Vodafone. All still working well, battery replaced for an ~8000mAh one.

I do hope my power adaptor doesn't fail anytime soon - PC World don't sound like the best... although I suppose I already knew that to some extent...

Rockabilly Spike · 29-09-2009, 20:57

they don't keep spare PSU's at the stores.
and as its now a discontinued model, they wouldnt even have a boxed one they could swop one from.

if you think of the amount of laptops /netbooks that PC world sell and that the range changed every 13 weeks, if spares were to be kept for each of those (inc batteries and PSUs), add in spare remoted for every single TV, spare batteries, USB cables etc for every phone, camera and camcorder, thered not be much room for any other stock.

its sad that even the tech guys instore can't do a proper test on it tho, however the process set out by DSGi wants it to go away for examination to make sure that nothing inside the netbook has been damaged by the likes of a power surge, or physical damage such as pulling the power cord out of the socket so that it wrenches the socket off the mainboard.
a VERY common repair job on laptops and netbooks.

Lord Nikon · 30-09-2009, 00:44

As per post 1 it's just the power supply, so therefore I would simply pick up a universal laptop power supply from wherever and use that. Just make sure it's a snug fit in the socket really.

jrhnewark · 01-10-2009, 01:02

On the subject of the Tech Guys, they're about as non-tech as they could be in my experience.

I bought a networked media player from PC World last year and offered to prove how rubbish it was it even stream low bitrate stuff like internet radio stations. I was told by a particularly grumpy 'Tech Guy' that their corporate network won't let them add on new machines and they don't have an ADSL line...

Errrr...