A friend of mine bought a Laptop and ended up spilling some water on it by mistake, he took it in to futureshop, and they told him that the power supply had been ruined and it would cost 800 dollars to fix the problem. He called me up, being that I am the best person he knows to handle his computer related problems. I figure there is no way it could cost 800 dollars to replace a power supply, i replaced the one for my pc recently and it was only 33 dollars. So my question is, how much are laptop power supplys, and are they complicated to fix, would I be able to do it myself, or would it be easier just to take it in to a shop that wont charge me 800 dollars to fix the problem? Could I just buy a new power supply for it and change it myself?

Did he spill water on the laptop itself, or the power adapter? Most adapters I've seen don't seem like they'd be very affected by a spill, unless it was completely submerged? A replacement power adapter costs about $60...$800 sounds like the cost of an entire new laptop. http://www.atbatt.com/computer-power-supply/b/Acer/m/TravelMate_240_Series.asp

Glad to hear the spill was by mistake and not on purpose LOL. You are unlikely to be able to repair the PS Unit but you might be able to replace it yourself, if necessary, as long as you can gain access. There is a vague possibility it might start working when dried out. Water spillage wrecking the PS would not have been my first assumption. Often they can withstand a direct short (they have what they call "Crowbar" circuits that protect them). Water would only cause an increase in current - nowhere near a short circuit. DerekW

You're such a smart-ass Derek. i love it. I spilt a large amount of water on my laptop once. i cant remember if it was on at the time or not... I didnt have the time to leave it for a few days and see if it would work after some time to dry, and i was concerned about corrosion and rust setting in and killing it for sure. SO i decided to completely dissasemble it and dry each component thoroughly. id never even seen inside a laptop before and there were only a couple of screws that i didnt take out. But i laid everything out in such a way as to know how to reassemble it correctly. from that i can tell you with confidence, it's certainly possible to replace the psu yourself. you need to have a delicate touch though as many of the connectors you'll have to seperate are very small and finiky. never resort to brute force to detatch anything-find a more appropriate tool, you'll certainly need very small screwdrivers. the jewlers type. you'll see that the internal components are actually more robust than you probably expect. Did you try tuning it on afterwards? id think the only way to get enough current through a laptop to do enough damage to the supply would be if it were plugged into the A/C mains, and passing into the ground through your friend. Since hes alive id say that didnt happen. Try dissmantling and drying if you're game enough, you might find you dont need any new parts. oh i should have mentioned mine worked flawllessly after being dried thoroughly good luck

Ya, the water was spilt on it accidentally, I dont actually know where it was spilled but i know it was on the laptop itself and not the adapter, it still works fine. I talked to an aquaintance at work he deals with computer hardware and he said he might be able to order me a replacement power supply, said it would be about 100 bucks, I dunno the guy well so he might be messin with me, I'm gonna do a little searchin myself. I'll check around and look at the link Jam posted. The water was spilled on it like 2 months ago so its likely dried by now. What happens is, I plug the adapter into the back of the laptop, a green light comes on to show it has power then it makes a buzz noise and just shorts out suddenly within about 5 seconds of the adapter being connected. Hopefully I can get this fixed, cause my friend pretty much said i could have the laptop, I was gonna go buy one for myself so this will save me a nice chunk of change. Thanks for all the comments, gimmie some more feedback if you guys get any ideas or have links to Acer part sites or whatever.