Resurrecting a laptop / data contained within

My girlfriend's laptop has packed up. It's become very temperamental about
charging - sometimes it will, but most of the time it won't - as an example,
when I plugged it in a few minutes ago, the charging LED lit for a second or
two, then went out, and it's now come on again with a click, then gone out
again. The charger is fine (already tried a replacement) and the socket
doesn't appear damaged.

Anyhow, there is data on the machine that isn't backed up. I'm unsure as to
whether file system encryption is used on the machine or not.

So, what are the options? Pull the HD and plug it into a desktop machine? Is
this a fairly common failure with a common fix? In an ideal world, I'd like
the thing working again, so I can Nige it out on Ebay...

 

And if it makes any odds, it's an Acer Travelmate 2310.

 

Is the charging problem the battery refusing to take a charge? Or is it
the power circuitry in the machine?

Will the laptop run from mains with the battery removed?

Find out what drive's in it - IDE or SATA - and you can get an adapter
box cheaply enough to be able to use it as a USB drive on another
machine. I'd have thought you'd know if there was HD encryption, since
you'd need to enter a password to access the data.

 

So it's an IDE drive. A USB enclosure shouldn't be much over a tenner
from any of the usual suspect suppliers.

 

I've got no idea. It's now happily charging away. I suspect the answer may
be to get the most important stuff off onto a CDR and bin it...

I'll try that one next time it starts playing up. And it's stopped again
whilst I'm typing this post... Pulled the battery, no lights on. Tried
booting, got the POST screen and then it switched off.

I was under the impression that Windows can encrypt folders with NTFS
seamlessly (IIRC, the subfolders of My Documents), and I can't remember if
it's turned on or not...

 

That's the best bet. Though Adrian's suggestion of a USB connector
(below) is the way to do it.

 

If you've set this up and you try to read the disk with another
machine, ITYF you're screwed...

 

It is a fairly common failure - the soldering of the power socket to
the motherboard is failing intermittently. You can buy a new power socket
and solder it yourself, if you're competent with electronics, or send it
over to someone to fettle.

See Ebay items no 360125597543 or others.

 

You know what, I think you're right. I've given it a wiggle and it charged,
then didn't.

 

[...]

I had the same problem with my Jiujitsu-Siemens laptop, so I know the
symptoms. In my case, I simply bought a new laptop and consigned the
old one to the role of a backup desktop computer for guests, it's not
being carried around so the power cable is not being jiggled around and
it works, so far.

When it finally fails, I plan to strip it open and solder the power cable
directly to the motherboard. :-> Since I have not been able to find the
power socket for my model. But for the Acer, no worries, lots of them
on ebay. ;-)

Leslie