irony has never sounded so sweet.
my alienware was on my lap, humming along merrily, having 1.25 gig of RAM felt good.. very good. charging was on, i was not against draining its battery to the very limit of its ability. eventually, the plugpoint was needed for more mundane usage, and so i yielded.
over the next few hours, i continued intermittent usage, mindful of the fact that i was using the poor thing after more than 2 days.. lab work has led me to be increasingly reliant on my desktop there. working on the alienware was a whole different story though.. this was a machine i had customized from the build up.
eventually, the battery showed signs of weakening.. i casually connected the charger and continued work. a cursory glance a little while later told me that it was not charging. damned loose connection. everything tested… still no go. yeagh. everything pulled out this time, the charger inspected very carefully.. reconnected.. and the LED on the damned thing doesn’t turn on. funny, the plugpoint seemed to be working fine a couple of minutes ago. a different plugpoint - same result. damnation.
it was now very apparent to me that the adapter was on the blink. repeated efforts didn’t have any effect, and so i whipped out the phone to call 1-800-ALIENWARE. 4th call in a year. it was a year ?! hmm.. vague remembrances of service/warranty contracts come to the mind. i should be safe, though.
eventually, self-identification done, the alienware rep confirms that the adapter, is indeed, at fault. no problem, replacements can be ordered. umm.. warranty.. has apparently expired 20 days ago. excellent. (renewal is impossible, and anyway, waaaay overpriced.) hmm.. model number: m5500. out of production. brilliant. parts aren’t as available anymore. what of a faulty part then ? an external supplier should be able to give me what i need. price check on adapter - one hundred fucking dollars. superb. you’ve got to be kidding me.
so my adapter apparently conked on me within 20 days of my not renewing the service contract, my model is out of production, and hence a simple AC adapter was going to cost me a $100 dollars.
also known as the answer to ‘define: ironic’.
[luckily, the very helpful rep found an adapter he could supply to me, which should work with my system.. and its to cost me $20.]
