Laptop PSU cord repair

[F]

The cord on the laptop's PSU plug (the small, hollow, cylindrical shape that plugs into the side of the laptop) is fraying were it enters the plug. It's possible to manoeuvre the cord to get the laptop to charge but it's going to fall apart soon.

New PSUs are available from Hong Kong on ebay for a fiver but past experience of cheap goods from HK hasn't been good and I'm concerned that the adaptor brick might damage the laptop with, for example, poor voltage regulation.

Is it possible to repair the plug? If I cut the cable, are spares available to solder/screw on?

TIA

[Norman Billingham]

They come in quite a range of sizes but are pretty easy to find. Maplins does quite a wide range:

solder types

[Bill]

In message , Norman Billingham writes

Hmm, Maplin were unable to find anything to match my old IBM laptop and I'm very doubtful about the plugs used in some Dell models. With the IBM, I ended up cutting away the moulded outside of the plug and peeling it all off, then cutting back the cable to beyond the break and resoldering. Then I think I used hot-melt glue to encapsulate the repair. It looked awful, but worked.

I asked somewhere, but no-one seemed to know a source for any decent semi-flexible reasonably cheap encapsulation material.

[Dave Liquorice]

Self amalgamating tape. Can be built up around the plug and tailed off with less layers along the cable to give progressive strain relief.

[Man at B&Q]

No good if you have a recent, e.g., IBM laptop, nor, I suspect, a number of other manufacturers. Not everyone uses ordinary "DC" connectors these days.

MBQ

[Mat C]

How about buying the £5 replacement, and just using the cable off it?

Mat

[Al]

I've usually found that the plugs fail on the cheap ones from China :(

I've never found a supplier for the plugs on my Acer laptops (DC power plug

5.5 x 1.7).

Al.

[Adrian C]

Which laptop make / model?

[Clint Sharp]

In message , Norman Billingham writes

Be aware, the ones sold by Maplin usually aren't rated for the sort of current a laptop can use (although they will work), RS do some high current ones but they cost a bit more and it's a limited range, not all sizes are available.

[Clint Sharp]

In message , Al writes

I've also found some very 'odd' things when cheap rip off PSUs are used, like the battery not charging properly or the laptop refusing to power on, one hung every time a USB device was plugged in whilst the rip-off adapter was in use!

The first question asked whenever a client had a charging or other power related problem was if they had the original PSU.

[steven.langdale]

What laptop is it?

Got a pic of the connector?

I've got a couple of spare PSU's, the cable at least may be of use to you.

Steven

[Peter Parry]

A number of laptops, Dell in particular use what looks like a normal DC power plug of that type but are in fact three pole connectors, the third wire used for measuring battery temperature.

[Adrian C]

As far as I know, and experience of folks who've been through the mill with trying to use 3rd party supplies, the third wire is there to aid the laptop in determining if the adaptor is a genuine (and judged safe) manufacturer approved adaptor. There is an ID chip built into the adaptor; Battery charging is refused in the laptop if the adaptor hasn't been recognised (or the third pole connector in the middle of the connector has fractured).

If battery temperature monitoring has been added, I'd suggest that's a very recent addition to combat the uproar about restrictive practices on accessory supply.

[Andy Burns]

Not necessarily refused, sometimes a missing signal pin will make the laptop recharge at its slowest rate, give warnings about underpowered power supply and even throttle the CPU/GPU to consume less power.

[Clint Sharp]

In message , Andy Burns writes

Slightly worse than that, some of the Dell machines only use two pins and still signal. The Dallas chips used are fairly common failures and the laptop will also refuse to charge but it will at least warn you of the reason.

[F]

Thanks, had thought of that but the cable in question is fixed into the adaptor brick.

[F]

Thanks, that pretty much confirms my worries about the HK sourced replacements.

[F]

Toshiba Equiium.

[Frank Erskine]

Just chop it off and join the relevant leads together with solder and heat-shrink.

[F]

Model name: Toshiba Equium M70-173 Model number: PSM77E-002002AV

it looks a little odd that's because I used the 'lump' on the cable to prop the brick up!

Thanks. I'll open up the plug and get back to you.