I love this laptop apart from the laggy keyboard, so much that I actually have 4.... and had a feeling something like this might happen hence having my own boxed spare - when DSG dropped the price from £799 to £300 in a matter of months I kept noticing the price drop and finding something 'wrong' with my current ones to get refunds within 28 days to buy another. It got a bit harder to find the stock towards the end... Cheapest I got was the celeron model for £200 with cosmetic scratches. They make good hackintoshes. I've even got the add-on battery... But anyway...
All the ebay sellers seem to think the Roma et al adapters fit the Altro
We know it doesn't.
But there is a solution ( if you still have your ethernet dongle adapter ) - the charger plugs into this to feed the laptop when using the dongle, so if we were to open the dongle up it would be possible to splice a suitable non-altro adapter in to supply the power and connect through the dongle adapter to the laptop.
I *have* a spare already ( and sorry, but I'm keeping it with my spare battery! ) but am more than happy to experiment on my spare dongle adapter if anybody would be interested? If it's easy I might also do it for others on an exchange basis for your adapter + a suitable new donor laptop charger + donation to cancer research. Please post here if interested.
As for people trying to take them back, stick to your guns! Contact trading standards, write a letter to DSG head office and say you will have the adapter independantly tested by an electrical engineer and will sue DSG in the small claims court for the cost of the laptop and your costs in bringing the action.
It would be fairly straightforward based on the AWG gauge of the cable to prove it's not accidental damage if the mains adapter fails. The lack of strain relief at the plug is something of a design flaw IMO. Unless there is an obvious cut in the cable seriously, stand your ground.
Don't worry too much about finding the receipt - the model only launched IIRC August 2009 and DSG *can* do a receipt trace from *any* store given the date you bought it assuming (unlike me) you don't complain when they ask for your home address etc... It takes less time to search from the store you bought it in though. And remember a DSG sales receipt is not the only thing that counts as a 'proof of purchase' - so if they can't or won't find it - go to your card company as they may be jointly liable under the consumer credit act if it's a credit card or may have their own policy in place if a debit card, or be able to provide a visa transaction number to 'help' DSG find it.
Please post any updates here. And don't trust DSG!
Richard
('HP accredited platform specialist - Servicing HP Desktops, Workstations and Notebooks' amongst other stuff. And yes, I've had an Altro in bits. Don't try it unless you have lots of guitar plectrums handy!)
EDIT: Just checked the website of another company that badged this laptop - Olidata ( the 'uleader design' on the bottom casing is their design company) and it seems they've already thought of my idea!
http://www.altroview.com/?module=produc ... sory&pid=1Altro® Mini Port Replicator is a cheap and handy cable management and additional connectivity solution for your Altro notebook. Simply plug in your Altro Multi Function Connector (MFC) cable to get access to your external monitor, Internet connection/LAN, USB devices.
- 2 USB 2.0 ports
- 1 VGA port
- 1 Ethernet 10/100/1000
- Alternative power supply <----------------------------------------- which looks like a standard laptop adapter barrel from the pic, and explains why all the eBay sellers think the Roma et al adapters fit! 'Cos they do with the redesigned dongle
Also going back to DSG - I think they knew there was a potential issue - as the shelf life of a laptop model is usually 9-12 months dropping slowly in price until stocks run out, not 3 months and dropping £50 a week to shift them. The olidata units are still sold in mainland europe, with newer CPU's and in other colours and it would seem a redesigned dongle to use other mains adapters and possible a redesigned mains adapter as well.
to test with and I'll take some pics for those in the future who are out of warranty and google onto this. I was hoping for a space on the board for the socket and to be able to solder one in but the socket there and connected is a good result - I did briefly check continuity over the connection so it is hooked up. Seems very odd to blank this off on purpose when other countries' non DSG supplied models have it available. 