DIY: HP Laptop Power Adapter Repair

Got my wife one of those netbooks HP 2140 last year, the last couple of months it suddenly won’t turn on. The warranty was out and thought of the worst like motherboard failure etc.. Luckily it turns out the battery was drained and the power adapter was not working to charge it. After some googling it turns out this is common on HP laptop power adapters, there is a break going either on the pin side plug or the strain relief. So I was able to pinpoint the problem and just wiggled the strain relief and then taped it to position so it wont move that much. The strain relief is the rubber on the cable wire after the main power adapter box.  Tape fix was not elegant to look at but it worked.

Several days ago the HP netbook went dead again, power supply tape fix is not working anymore, exhausted trying to wiggle the strain relief and cable wire. Using another similar power adapter and netbook charged. So back to the power adapter problem I’m sure you can get a replacement for this online from $10-$25. But here in the Philippines maybe HP service center or distributor it’s pretty much around $20-30. But if your DIY like me, It was time to open it up look in the insides and repair it.

What I needed to do is cut the wires inside the strain relief,  remove the soldered wires, strip out portions of the longer wire to solder them back to board.

The tools I used were:
1. Hammer
2. Long flat knife
3. Cutter
4. Soldering Iron
5. Cable ties.

So first position the knife flat on the opening of side of the power adapter and slightly tap it going from base to up. This will open up the case instead of prying it open with a screwdriver. Do that on all sides then it would come off.

Next there is a metal sheet protector, remove them. On the bottom part it’s soldered to an IC. So heat it with a soldering iron and remember that extended IC as you will iron it back later. Now the strain relief is kinda messy, I had to cut it with a cutter to open it up then cut the wire. Next I unsoldered the portions of the wire connected on the board. Total there were three wires. First is the outer wire, white wire and the blue wire inside. So cut the wire and trim it the wires. Solder it on the same location as you did when you removed the old one.  Tape the remaining expose wires then  put back the strain relief.  Put back the sheet casing, iron the IC to the bottom part like earlier. Close the box and tie it with a zip a couple of cable ties to hold in place.

And there you have it, I managed to salvage the power adapter of my wife’s HP netbook.

PS. Pics are kinda blurry as I only took them with my phone’s cam. HTC Hero phone camera sucks at natural and low light! 🙁

10 thoughts on “DIY: HP Laptop Power Adapter Repair”

  6. What do you mean by “So first position the knife flat on the opening of side of the power adapter and slightly tap it going from base to up. This will open up the case instead of prying it open with a screwdriver. Do that on all sides then it would come off.”?

    Trying to figure out but cannot seems to understand how to do it.

    1. hi jc, on the part where it is joined in the middle, put a slim knife in between and slightly tap it, you will feel the case open.

  8. Sir,

    I am also trying to do the adapter rework. So i got some information from you this blog.
    And i have a query after this rework how we can fix this adapter pack. Which glue or gum is applicable for this process. In future if we are getting any other failures, if we applied gum for fixing,we cant open it again with out any pannel damage.
    So which solvent is better for the refixing process of adapter pannels….if possible please suggest something….

    1. hi, you are right the panel once open its difficult to close without using solvent but this permanently bonds it. I used a cable tie instead, used a couple to firmly hold it to place. Looks ackward but does the job.

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