Adapter blown, now laptop not charging as well.. HELP!

[adityanag]

Hi,

I have a T43 ( 1875-E5U). I was charging it, and the adapter cable got stuck in a door accidently.

This seems to have pulled the wire inside in such a way that it shorted. This is on the wire that goes from the adapter to the laptop.

I though the adapter was blown, but the laptop was ok.. BUT!

I tried another adapter ( exact same model).. No Dice.

I plugged my battery into another T-43.. battery working well, charging fine and all that..

Plugged it back into my latop.. Laptop working fine with the charged battery..

But it is not charging. The laptop can't detect that i have plugged an adapter in.. The laptop simply runs through the charge in the normal time and shuts off..

Some part of the charging circuit seems to have blown, but other wise the laptop is fine.

Any help would be appreciated.. I am not averse to taking the damm thing apart.. Am a geek, and am tech friendly.. so any tech suggestions would be useful too..

Many thanks.

Aditya

[djpharoah]

Ouch...

I think you might have broken some contacts with the DC adapter connection on the motherboard. Unless your really good with a micro soldering iron, you might have to buy a new motherboard.

[adityanag]

anyway of testing that? by looking at it , or so on? or do i need a multimeter?

[EOMtp]

The good news is that it is almost impossible to damage the motherboard on a T4x by any physical abuse of the DC jack. The yellow DC jack is a separate physical piece which is screwed to the frame and is connected via 4 wires to a socket on the motherboard. Consequently, the motherboard is isolated physically from damage to the jack.

You may have broken the center pin or a solder joint related to the jack/wires. The yellow DC jack is part of the kit with FRU #26R9985. The "bad" news is that one has to remove the lid (the top half) from the base and then disassemble completely the entire base of the Thinkpad in order to replace the DC jack along with the wires which connect it to the motherboard.

[mdarnton]

I can't believe I'm the only one who's had problems with that little yellow jack. Mine is always coming loose, and it's also had to be replaced when the little spring that presses against the outside of the male fitting broke. Right now it's grabbing none too well, and I'll probably need another trip back to the shop. Based on all that experience, I'm betting if you look down the barrel of the yellow thing the center rod will be fine, but the spring won't be sticking out of it's slot as much as on the other machine you tested your battery on, if it's sticking out at all.

Back to the shop with it, then--I don't think there's a home fix for this.