Well many people seem to suffer from the dreaded brick Failure, I have had a few go crap, and many of those failures usually were traced back to a broken wire in the DC cable assemly. If you wiggle the cable in the area if the strain relief you can usually hear the crackling sound.

I usually find it breaks in the strain relief - See attached Picture.

Fixing this can be easily done with a few items, there are a few little challanges as well.

1. Soldering Iron & Solder
2. Solder Sucker (removing tool) or Solder Wick
3. Wire Cutters
4. pliers, Small Screw drivers
5. Volt Meter (DVM)
6. Electrical tape

If you see Picture 1 of the plug, I just wanted to point out the typical barrel type connector used in the Dell laptops 6000/6400/9400/M1710 Etc.

There are 3 wires to connect here, The Out side Barrel is the Negative supply, The inside Barrel is Postive, and the inside Tip is a Voltage Sense.

I have added some new Pictures to show the inside of the PA-13 brick.

You can see the three connectoins on the bottom side of the board. The spacing is tight, and you can easily solder across two pads, checking for solder bridges is important

Please note, the spaces are small, and you require good eyes, a magnifying glass would help, and some soldering skills.

After your soldered the new connections careful inspection to check for any solder bridges is required.

Board Revs change and the lay out may as well, You should always verify pin outs with a DVM to be sure. After the repair a continuity check is required and check for shorts as well.

Step 1: is to remove the 4 rubber feet on the bottom of the brick. Here is the tricky part, Dell use Security type screws, they are a allan type head, with a pin in the middle. you can either get the proper security type bit or as I did break the centre pin off and use my regular allen keys.

Step 2: Remove the top/bottom covers to expose the brick PC board Assy.

Step 3: Using your cutters cut the cable leaving about 1-2 inches from the PC Board.

Step 4.: Pull the remaining cable back through the strain relief, and clean out any remaning cable from the strain releif.

Step 5: Cut back about 6-8 inches of the cable and feed it through the strain relief leaving about 1.5 inches to connect to the brick PC board.


Step 6: The Outer Shield is the Negative Polarity. There is a inner cabel with Shield and a small gauge white wire. The inner Shield is the Positive polarity and the small white wire is the Voltage Sense.

Step 7: Using the solder removal tool. or a Solder wick remove the three wires from the PC board. You will see the Pos, Neg & Sn connections marked on the PC board, Take note of this. Make sure the three holes a clean once you remove the old wires.

Step 8: Strip the new cable back about 1.25 inches and separate the outer Shiled, Inner shield, and Sens Wire.

YOU MUST USE electrical tape to isolate the two shields from each other.


Step 9: Solder the three connections onto the PC Board

Step 10: Re-assemble and test using the Volt Meter. Should get about 19.6 volts from the outer barrel to the inner Barrel. with the postive on the inner barrel.



Now this does take some skill, and not all of you maybe upto the task, Have a friend give you a hand if your not sure.

one hour of my time saved me 50 dollars, and was fun.

If you have any questions I would be pleased to help if I can.

Cheers

Nice how-to!

Stickied. Very worth-while.

mine went melty, but ya, good stuff!

This guide stinks. With no pictures and and vague steps I waste 2 hours before I had completely burnt the circuit board and destroyed the power brick. I highly recommend against any non-electrical engineers attempting this repair job. I'd like to hear someone who has successfully done this, as we struck out.

the guide doesnt suck, it just needs pictures. this is a very technical thing, and we need high resolution high quality pictures that werent slapped together in paint. (sorry OP!)

Glad 1 of your 9 amazing posts could be so supportive. Do trolls just grow on trees nowadays?

I have added some Better pictures and updated the write up

Hope this helps

Cheers

Dave

Very Nice Guide!

Just did this repair myself with NO soldering experience other than a few vids I watched online tonight. This works perfectly and I now have a working power supply for my 1705.

The only thing I can say to suppliment this guide is more pics and some clearer instructions, but if your half way intelligent you will be able to do this repair I mean common I was able to do it.

Just wanted to add that your guide assisted in my recovery as well. With my DMM I noticed connectivity between neg and pos on the plug. Right where the cable entered the block (your indicated usaual point of failure) the shielding had contacted the inner wire. All it took was some electric tape to isolate the short.

What exactly indicates a dead power brick? My 90W has started to say "power adapter unrecognized" in the bios and will not recharge the battery. On rare occasions it still charges the battery but I don't know why sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

I have had one other power brick do the same thing before it was replaced but now I am out of warranty. Another 90W power brick from my sister's i6400 works just fine and eliminates the error (as the error could also be due to the motherboard).

Could this DIY fix my powerbrick as well?

More info:

http://www.laptop-junction.com/toast...not-recognized

http://www.laptop-junction.com/toast...r-id-chip-died

EDIT: Ok it is definitely the "signal wire" that is broken. I have found the position to bend it in that it works! Can anyone instruct me on how to open up the 90W power adapter? The above link says it is glued and not designed to open, but he still does it...

For a brick that is glued, you basically have to break it apart. Since it not really working, it really not a loss, so have at it.

If you identify the three wires properly, cut them back and resolder them to the board you may be able to fix your problem.

If you have any questions as you go at it. I will try to help.

Cheers

For now I decided to leave it as is (Tried to open it, it's just bending the plastic). I wrapped the little strap tight around so that it holds the wire in the proper position. Once this stops working, I will attempt it and update my progress here.