Foo - IT people, you tried to warn me, but...

I bought another Acer laptop like Dec. 19 of last year. Which was like 3 weeks ago. And on Thursday Jan. 8th, the power adapter quit working!

No harm to the CPU (that I can tell), battery is fine. Used the old laptop's (also Acer) adapter and works just fine. But it will suck *sharing* the adaptor w/my teen (who inherited my old laptop). I'm temporarily using an adapter that belongs to my wife's old HP (wife's idea). The connection is very loose and I'm paranoid that contiinued use of this adapter could result in damage to my new laptop.

And I did send off an email about possible warranty service, but so far, the enthusastic lack of response is less than anticipated. And Best Buy (place of purchase) won't touch it because it is past their 14 day return policy period, and I did not get the ESP (again, the wife's idea).

So the question is, should I stop using the HP adapter on the Acer asap?

check the voltage and amperage that the adapter outputs. It should match your original, if its to high it could hurt your laptop. Most Best Buys sell universal ac adapters.

The voltage/amperage are compatible. I made sure to check that before even using it. But the connection is extremely loose. If I so much as sneeze, then the connection is broken. It's like the Acer male is a little too big for the HP female.

The voltage input should be similar. And as long as the amperage is equal or higher than the unit that went bad, you'll be OK.

Where is it "loose"? The diameter of the plug on the HP is probably just smaller than the Acer. As long as you have connection and power, it should be OK.

We use both HP and Acer Laptops, and the power supplies we have are interchangeable. 19volt dc 3.42 amp. Don't think it will hurt anything to use the HP power supply if it's the same voltage.

If voltage/amperage are equivalent, then you won't harm anything. The worst that you can do is probably break off the jack if it doesn't fit and you force it off, which doesn't seem to be your issue.

The voltage input should be similar. And as long as the amperage is equal or higher than the unit that went bad, you'll be OK.

Where is it "loose"? The diameter of the plug on the HP is probably just smaller than the Acer. As long as you have connection and power, it should be OK.

It's loose where the tip enters the laptop. It's doable, but annoying when I shift around in my recliner, or my dog/cats/kids step on the cord causing it to unplug itself.

That is something I wish laptop makers would standardize on -- a standard type of plug and charger across vendors, or at least across their whole laptop lines. Maybe once Apple's MagSafe patent expires.

Just wanted to update. Received an email stating that they would replace under the limited warranty.

And I'm with you, mits22, on standardizing.

We mix and match adapters all the time around here. My wife is running an ancient IBM R40 using an adapter from an even more ancient Compaq Pressario. Only issue I have run into recently is that apparently Dell is using some type of recognition chip. I plugged my IGO universal adapter with a Dell tip into my D610 and it refused to recognize it. As long as the voltage and amperage are correct you will be fine.

Aaron:)