AOD150 - Battery No Charge + Touchpad broken

For quite some time, the ADO150 would make a whining noise when it charges the battery. Now it doesn't make the sound anymore and the battery doesn't charge but the netbook turns on. So in an attempt to see what is wrong, I tried to dismantle the thing and touchpad no longer works. The cable was stuck and when I pulled it out some of the metal contacts got scraped.

So is there any way to fix the battery charging problem and fix the touchpad. Alternative fixes is to just keep the thing plugged in all the time and use an usb mouse but then it's no longer portable. I loved being being able to carry this around.

Would I be able to get a new netbook and just swap the HDD since I installed win7 Pro on it and set up an ubuntu partition and all that I don't want to redo again. This is the first time the HDD didn't fail on me - it already did 3 times that I don't want to start from scratch again.

 

For the battery, there's plenty of options for purchasing a new one online, especially on eBay. You might want to test it with someone elses charger first, yours may be cranking out enough power to run the machine, but not enough to run it AND charge the battery. It sounds suss, but it's happened before.

As for the mouse, I'd say disassemble and double check the connection of the ribbon cable. Provided all it's contacts are still there, and are able to make contact, the mouse should function fine, just be gentle with it. Otherwise I'm pretty sure you'd also find replacement parts on eBay pretty cheap.

If you want to buy a new netbook, you should be able to put your current hard drive into the new one to save your data, but you may have to run a repair-install of Windows XP to enable the new hardware, otherwise your system may work, but you may suffer instability and crashes. The better option would be to get your new notebook, and for a measly few dollars on eBay you can get yourself an external case to put your old hard drive in. Then when you need it you can just connect it via USB and access your files.

 

I'm not sure where I might find another charger... Would any touchpad cable on ebay work?

One more problem I have is that the HDD might not be recognized when the computer turns on. HDD is find since I scanned it in an external enclosure elsewhere too and it was fine. What I have to do is enter the BIOS, hit save and exit and then re-enter the BIOS and volia the HDD is there. Could this be related to the charger too?

 

If you look on the bottom of your AAO it should mention which model it is (A150, D250, D260 etc), any eBay listing for any AAO parts should mention which models the parts are compatible with. Compare the compatible model list with the model of your AAO to find the appropriate, compatible replacement part.

Do you have to enter the BIOS every time to enable your HDD? If so you might have a more serious problem in your machine and it may be more worth your while to upgrade to a newer one. Before you do though, check to see if there's an updated BIOS version available for your machine on the Acer Support website, but be warned, incorrect BIOS or incorrect BIOS flashing technique could render your AAO unusable.

 

Thanks. Not every time - maybe once in a while especially when I don't turn it on as often now since the touchpad is broken. I'm using the 13.3in laptop now but it is definitely not as portable. Now I have to carry a backpack around and battery life is only 2hrs before with the netbook I just carry a side bag and battery life is 2-3x.