Repairing laptop power cord

[Mephistopheles Jones]

Hello everybody,

I have a laptop whose power cord consists of a brick with two cables on
both ends. The cable which connects to the laptop is shaped like a single
tube (1 mm radius), and the connection to the brick is damaged in that I
have to twist the wire a bit in order for the power to flow through. I'm
thinking that I should make an incision in the wire and insert a short
piece of thick copper wire in it to complete the circuit, and then cover
it with electrical tape. Is this a sound thing to do?

Meph

 

[James Sweet]

Hello everybody,

I have a laptop whose power cord consists of a brick with two cables on
both ends. The cable which connects to the laptop is shaped like a single
tube (1 mm radius), and the connection to the brick is damaged in that I
have to twist the wire a bit in order for the power to flow through. I'm
thinking that I should make an incision in the wire and insert a short
piece of thick copper wire in it to complete the circuit, and then cover
it with electrical tape. Is this a sound thing to do?

Meph

Take the brick apart, cut the wire past the break and solder it into the
board in the brick then reassemble.

 

[Sam Goldwasser]

Take the brick apart, cut the wire past the break and solder it into the
board in the brick then reassemble.

It sounds like this person doesn't own a soldering iron. I suggest he
take it to an electronics repair shop, pay them $10 or a six pack or
whatever, and let them do a proper repair. You don't want to mess
around with the AC line.

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[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

Take the brick apart, cut the wire past the break and solder it into the
board in the brick then reassemble.

You're assuming that's possible. With some bricks it is possible to take
them apart nondestructively and actually work on the insides too. My Compaq
LTE 5000's brick died recently of a broken cord problem. I tried getting it
apart and failed miserably. The circuit board came out in one piece, but the
casing was pretty messed up. To make matters worse for me, the power cord
was attached to a "floating" circuit board inside that made a simple cut and
resolder job impossible.

It pains me somewhat to say that shelving it for now and using my spare was
the easiest thing to do.

William

 

[James Sweet]

Hi!


You're assuming that's possible. With some bricks it is possible to take
them apart nondestructively and actually work on the insides too. My Compaq
LTE 5000's brick died recently of a broken cord problem. I tried getting it
apart and failed miserably. The circuit board came out in one piece, but the
casing was pretty messed up. To make matters worse for me, the power cord
was attached to a "floating" circuit board inside that made a simple cut and
resolder job impossible.

It pains me somewhat to say that shelving it for now and using my spare was
the easiest thing to do.

William

Usually a vice or a rubber mallet will get these open if there's no screws.
An alternative is to cut out the broken part of wire, and splice it together
then slide a piece of heatshrink tubing over it.