At 05:06 PM 11/02/2008, DHSinclair wrote:
Thane,
Please re-define the laptops power interface!
Your contiguous continuity checks seem OK so far, there is a
"ground" bus in play.
What scale on your multimeter is dropping from 100 to 70?
What comes into the laptop depends on its' 'power' cord. If it
brings in low AC, then 2-wire; heck, even with normal AC, I'd expect
2-wire. If this is true, then the internal AC/DC conversion is
leaking/bad. I would think the laptop frame and/or common ground
bus is a zero.
But, maybe you have a 3-wire interface (hot-new-ground). That's a new problem.
I just do not know at this point. For sure, something is odd ATM.
The laptop has a power adapter converting the wall power to 18.5V,
3.5A. It has a cord with a three prong plug. The jack on the laptop
is a circular plug with a single pin in the middle. When I check
from the outside edge of this jack (it has a metal collar around the
outside) to the front grill, the multimeter reads 0 (full continuity)
and when I go from the middle pin to the front grill, it reads 70. I
would think that would mean that if something in the machine shorted,
the grill would carry power, which would be at the very least,
surprising to the user. Perhaps it is normal, however.
T
