<p>My youngest has a HP laptop that is about 3 yrs old. She is having a problem with the power cord. She has gone through 2 already. What is happening is the box on the power cord overheats. We just ordered a new one but in the meantime she used a power cord off another HP computer of the same wattage. Within 5 minutes of being connected to her laptop the box was burning hot. Put it back on the other laptop and it doesn’t heat up at all. Strangely the battery on the laptop itself does not overheat.
any suggestions</p>
<p>As you likely know, the typical thing is for the computer to overheat, not the power supply. The first guess is the power brick thing is defective, has a frayed wire, etc. But if this is now the 3rd to overheat, then it seems to be the computer. Could be a hardware or a software failure. There’s a bunch of stuff related to power controlling, some of it hardware and some software controlling the hardware. </p>
<p>I suggest checking HP support forums with the specific model # of the computer, but I have no magic answer.</p>
<p>HP is having a recall of their laptop batteries, even though it doesn’t seem hot- you might want to check#
[HP</a> Notebook PC Battery Pack Replacement Program](<a href=“http://bpr.hpordercenter.com/hbpr/]HP”>http://bpr.hpordercenter.com/hbpr/)</p>
<p>As a test, remove the battery from the laptop. Plug in the power brick to the laptop and turn the laptop on. Monitor the power brick’s temperature. I’m guessing the laptop’s battery is pulling too much current from the power brick and may need to be replaced. Since you have a second laptop power brick of the same amperage and laptop connector, are the batteries the same size and the voltage and amperage a match? If so, swap out the battery and see if the power brick now remains cool. If the power brick does not overheat, then it’s a problem with the battery. If the swapped battery makes the power brick overheat, I suspect the charging circuit is bad. The charging circuit is built into the motherboard. Few shops do circuit board repair. Time for a new laptop…?</p>
<p>To summarize:</p>
<p>Power brick heats up with the laptop battery installed.
With the battery removed and the laptop turned on, the power brick should stay cool…the battery is at fault.
If you have a spare battery or if your second laptop has a matching battery, swap out the battery and see if the power brick heats up.
If the power brick heats up with the swapped battery installed, it may be a problem with the laptop’s charging circuit. New laptop time…</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I agree with michuncle’s approach but just wanted to say it’s normal for some of the power adapters to be warm and even quite warm. It does, however, sound like there’s too much of a current draw on that laptop that’s causing the power adapter to fail (although with a decent design of the power system in the laptop, this shouldn’t be able to happen) and that the battery is the most suspect. If that battery’s 3 years old then it’s almost certainly in need of replacement anyway since laptop batteries usually don’t last that long without losing a lot of capacity.</p>
<p>Thank you all. Emeraldkity- thanks for the tip. While her laptop is on the recall list when I put in the serial number and the battery number it comes up as not one that is being recalled.
Ucsd- the brick is abnormally hot.
I will have her try pulling the battery out tonight and see what happens.</p>
<p>^^ Abnormally hot isn’t good. It’s likely as michuncle stated - the battery or the power circuitry with the likely culprit being the battery. Let us know how it turns out.</p>
<p>Thanks for the ideas. We took the battery out. Plugged the power supply back in. (the one my D said no longer was working). It was now working. I am guessing it shut itself off due to the overheating. She was able to use the laptop plugged in without the battery all evening. The brick did not heat up.
We could not try the battery switch since the other laptop belonged to a friend and is no longer at our house. She can use the laptop plugged in so for now that makes her happy.</p>
<p>Good news (of sorts) that the problem was the battery and not the laptop itself. As to the battery recall, you should consider e-mailing HP with your laptop’s model/serial number and the model /serial number of the battery (I take it that the battery is the original one that came with the laptop). In the e-mail, describe how the power brick gets abnormally hot with the battery installed. With the battery removed, the power brick stays cool. </p>
<p>Often times, recalls are rolling affairs. That is additional defective parts are added as they are discovered. With luck, your battery model may be added at a later date and could qualify you for a free replacement. Keep the defective battery and check back periodically to see if it was added.</p>