***"On TDC the exhaust valve spring is at 1-1/8 in. out and the intake is at 1-3/8 in. out."*** I need to emphasize that "TDC" and "TDC on the COMPRESSION STROKE".......are not the same thing. So, having made that statement, let me ask this: When you are measuring the length/height of the valve springs...do you have clearance, or lash, between the rocker arm and valve stem of BOTH valves/rocker arms???. If yes, then you have most likely detected a displaced valve seat. If, however, you have no detectable clearance or lash at the valve stem/rocker arm of the "shorter" valve spring....the engine is positioned at TDC on the EXHAUST STROKE, and the camshaft is holding the exhaust valve OPEN, thus the "apparent shortening" of the exhaust valve spring. So, let's just double check that before we declare a displaced valve seat for sure. ***"Is this motor worth the money with about 1500 hours of usage?"*** That is something that only you can really decide based on how much you want to spend to rehab this engine. You can base your decision on "cost of repair $" versus "cost of new mower $" if you like, and consider that as an "objective decision" based solely on money spent at this time. But, you will still have an older machine that will have other things to fail/wear out down the road, and sometimes......you can second guess yourself to death in these situations. The bottom line decision you have to make is not so much about the worth of repairing THIS engine. It is about how much time/money are you willing to spend maintaining an older machine/engine? AND, whether you are personally capable of doing the work (or the bulk of it) yourself. As to a personal preferrence or recommendation of a particular brand of replacement mower.......I don't go there! But, there are many, many, many threads in this forum where the yays and nays of the different offerings of the market have been argued/debated/dissed etcetera. It almost boils down to "What color do you like?"

There are a couple of things that could be going on here. First, how old is this laptop? I'm guessing it is maybe 8 years old or so and it's possible that it's not dual voltage. You should contact Acer tech support to find out whether or not it is, and to determine how to best approach this. If it's not dual voltage, then you should be able to buy a voltage converter so it can charge properly. If it's not dual voltage, I would worry about having it plugged in right now and causing damage to the computer (although the lower U.S. voltage may be less of a concern than if it were the reverse situation.) Secondly, I believe there are at least two kinds of European plugs that both have the round pins and look almost the same, but aren't. Sometimes if you have the wrong plug end adapter, the pins might not make proper contact inside the plug end converter. (Also, is this a 2 blade plug, or a grounded, 3-blade plug?) If you are convinced that power is coming from the receptacle, and to the original transformer, then that is not the problem. In that case, there could also be a break in the cord running to the computer, or something wrong with the little plug that inserts in the computer. Give Acer a call and then report back, please.

I hope that this is a "Been there done that" situation - if not then it is as others have posted. I mistakenly plugged the wrong computer power supply into my Acer EeePC and left it charging for a few hours and then it did exactly what yours is doing! Fortunately the EeePC has a protection circuit that switches things off when the charger voltage is too high - mine was 19 volts but the Acer only requires 12 volts. Thankfully after connecting the right charger the Acer returned to normal working. Needless to say now all of my multitude of chargers are very prominently labelled. Colin

My first laptop was an Acer and it lasted less than a year. DD had the same issue. On the recommendation of our computer guy, my DS and I both recently got an MSI. DS has a netbook for school and I have a regular laptop. I love it! We bought it offline it and it was around $475. It does have an integrated number pad on the right side and the touch pad is slightly off center to the left. It takes some getting used to but I really use the keypad a lot and like having it. Once you get used to it, you will love it. Here is a link that might be useful: Mine is similar to this picture but not the exact model