I hope you can help before my battery dies.

I am using a Lenovo 3000 C200 laptop (Celeron M, Vista Basic). A while ago I noticed my screen intermittantly dimming (and switching to battery power). When I wiggled the mains cable, it reconnected the power and switched back to mains power.

I ended up thinking the power cable was worn out and replaced it. This worked for about a month. A few minutes ago, it happened again with the new cable, except no amount of wiggling will get the mains supply working again. (The cable jackplug itself was very hot when I felt it after the screen dimmed.)

Does this sound like a problem with the mains socket on the back of the computer (that I plug the power cable into)? Or could it be that the battery itself needs replacing and so refuses to charge? Or maybe I need to get a new internal PSU for the laptop. (Can these PSUs be bought separately?)

The laptop is about three years old, and I have never replaced the original battery to date.

Thanks for any help you can offer.Well, luckily I didn't THROW out the old power cable. If I use that and wiggle it, I get power back. But the mains cable needs to be HELD in just the right position and held very firmly, PUSHING towards the socket.

Maybe there is some kind of design fault with the cables themselves, or they are just shoddily made. I'm not really sure what to do now, as the PSU is obviously fine, but I don't really want to spend $30 per month on new power leads. (As I TYPE I can no longer find the right angle to push the cable to get it working! Ridiculous.)Quote from: ArtSiren on October 30, 2009, 12:50:39 PM

...Does this sound like a problem with the mains socket on the back of the computer (that I plug the power cable into)?...