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
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
