Gateway Parts

The AC Adapter for my Notebook is having problems. Should I buy a new one?

It is a 5002 ACER Aspire notebook. Sometimes my notebook will say that it's charging, while other times it'll say that it's running on battery power even though it's plugged in. Often I have to play around with the wire part that's close to the notebook, by bending in in certain ways or moving the part that connects to the notebook from different angles, to get it to work? Sometimes if I leave it alone long enough while still turned on and plugged in, it'll run out of electricity. I went to different stores, and all of their universal notebook AC Adapters were $90-$120. I went online to ebay, and a lot of them are about $15 for the specific type I need. Other cheap online computer stores have similar prices. However, I've heard that you should be careful about super cheap online computer stores, because sometimes they rip you off by not including many parts of the product with the package and often won't come with a warranty, saw that on a news article. So I don't know if I should just buy a universal $90 one from Wal-Mart, get something off of ebay for $15, or find some other way to fix the problem?

Public Comments

1. The One designed for your laptop should do fine, and I think that your are experiencing lose connection of wires, and some are broken... I do not recommend getting universal, because they have different heads, and if the metal heads connecting get bent your screwed of your 90 bucks. That happened to me on the first day when i bought my universal adapter..... Hope I helped =)
2. If you bought it recently, and it has a warranty, I would see if you could return it. If not, go for the $15 cord from ebay, if it's new. If used, it may not be the best option. If you have had it for a really long time, and it is outdated, you might want to just invest that money in a new laptop (it it's for work, they may pay for a cord or a new laptop). The powercords are usually the first to go.