Satnav 12v power lead

steady__eddie

The in car power lead on my satnav is not charging the p.d.a. and after a couple of hours the p.d.a. battery is on its last legs. When I waggle the lead about in the socket, power gets through for a while until the lead moves about half a micron due to vibration/gravity and charging stops.
Can anyone tell me if in car power leads are a universal fitting or do they vary according to manufacturer ?
Ths satnav itself is a Lidl special from about 18 months ago, admittedly it has a 3 year warranty and I have no doubt about Lidl offering me my cash back but I would rather try a new power lead first and if the worst comes to the worst (and it's the power socket on the p.d.a. that's at fault), then I'll pursue the refund course.

banger9365

3 year warranty just take it back ,you have your receipt yes ,,
they will fix ,exchange or refund

steady__eddie

Yeahbut,nobut,yeahbut, I have my receipt but my experience of Lidl is that they refund only. They only have the kit for a week and if they haven't sold it they return it to thier warehouse. I had a leccy sewing machine off them a couple of years back which malfunctioned after 5 months. The authorised U.K. repair centre is only 3 miles away but they would not repair and a cheque arrived 3 days later from head office for a refund.
Being a silver surfer, it takes me a long time nowadays to assimilate instructions for these new fangled technical things and I had finally got to grips with the ins & outs of it. I am a little reluctant to exchange and get another as the grey matter will be forced into overdrive again !

C_Ronaldo

if you want an exchange it will depend if they have any left, you may be better off taking the refund

AndyRat

If you only ever use it in one vehicle, you could splash out on a decent mount with a powered cradle, they aren't cheap, but so effective, you will wonder how you managed without it (I have one in my car, but have to use the old stick on the windscreen one with the iffy power lead when I have a hire car from work, and it is a real pain).

Try http://www.handnav.co.uk/ or do a search for Sat Nav mounts, or Brodit.

steady__eddie

Thanks for that Andy, had a look on the link and found an all singing all dancing job with the combined speaker for 40 odd quid which would fit the bill admirably. see what you mean when you say they aren't cheap.
The only thing that I need to do now is find out if it is my power lead that is duff or the input socket on the p.d.a. 'cos I don't wanna shell out for a mount if the latter is duff and I'm in the same boat or do you reckon that the mount would cure the prob ?
Do you know if this fault is relatively common then ?

AndyRat

I'm not sure how common the problem is, but I am on my second power lead, and it's got bent pens, whereas, the cradle and PDA work perfectly.......and the cradle never falls off the windscreen either......

melipona

Mine was an Aldi special, its a common fault, it could be either the pda or/and the power lead, send it back under the warranty. Assuming its a Medion then you may find them reluctant to do a freebe and they may suggest its misuse, particularly if the pin is bent but be insistant and they should sort it out.