Alienware 14 Charging Problem

[HypdUp]

Hey guys, I bought an Alienware 14 back in 2013 and it worked like a charm up until 6-7 months ago, it started to say Plugged in, not charging but I wiggled my charger around and it worked... until my chargers wires ripped from wiggling. So Im like oh ok Ill just buy a new charger and use that, thinking that the wiggle method would work I bought one and I wiggled it around as much as I could and it just did not work! Also one thing that happens when it says plugged in not charging is ALL my games lag horribly! I cant even play the simplest games without it freezing every 2 seconds, but when I used to wiggle it and it started charging all my games would work fine and they wouldnt lag at all. I would go from 150 frames on a game to 20 or lower frames! I took it to get fixed at a local computer repair store and they said that its a motherboard issue and its going to cost 200+ dollars to fix Im hesitant in doing that, are they just trying to make money or is it really a motherboard issue? what do you guys think? and is it worth paying the 200+ for a new motherboard/fixing it?

 

[Solandri]

It sounds like you need a new power jack on the laptop. Generally this is not a motherboard issue. The jack is a separate item which plugs into the motherboard, or is soldered on. From the video it looks like yours is soldered on, but anyone skilled with soldering should be able to replace it without replacing the motherboard. The folks who posted the video say they can fix it for $69, though shipping will probably be extra.

https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1Lap-X51C0

 

[HypdUp]

It sounds like you need a new power jack on the laptop. Generally this is not a motherboard issue. The jack is a separate item which plugs into the motherboard, or is soldered on. From the video it looks like yours is soldered on, but anyone skilled with soldering should be able to replace it without replacing the motherboard. The folks who posted the video say they can fix it for $69, though shipping will probably be extra.

https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1Lap-X51C0

Yes, I was thinking the same but the thing that worries me is, does the power jack have anything to do with games lagging? I was thinking its the motherboard because of the lag, because I would understand if it was just not charging? what do you think? or is it truly the power jack issue?

 

[Solandri]

Yes, I was thinking the same but the thing that worries me is, does the power jack have anything to do with games lagging? I was thinking its the motherboard because of the lag, because I would understand if it was just not charging? what do you think? or is it truly the power jack issue?

Yes the power jack issue is probably responsible for the lag. The laptop cannot pull as much power from the battery as it can from the wall. Your laptop comes with a 150 Watt power adapter. If the laptop tried to pull 150 Watts from your battery, it would last about 20 minutes and probably destroy the battery.

So when the laptop senses it's being powered by the battery, it immediately throttles the CPU and GPU to keep power consumption within the battery's specs. You see this as a drop in framerate in your games. The faulty power jack is probably making the laptop switch between AC and battery power, causing the changes in framerate.