Not sure if this is of interest Vince but when i want to get into a sealed power supply i tend to use a vice to at least try and crack the glue, has worked many times.
Big Clive calls that "The Vice of Knowledge". I too have had success there. My favorite was helping my Grandpa open the faulty tail light from his truck. He was miffed that a burnt out LED meant the whole assembly needed replacement and was determined to attempt to repair it. I came over, the vice helped pop the seams without issue and he got to fix the blown LED.
On this subject when I opened up my dewalt site radio to change a fuse , the instructions were remove all the screws then hit it on the bottom on the joint hard with a rubber hammer worked a treat heard the glue crack
The channel is good and still growing because Vince has not changed one bit since he had two viewers. No fancy shop or expensive tools. Sans the yellow mat. No showy cars (a dumper in fact) or posh nonsense. The guy is winning the RUclipss because he's real and a bit of a penny pincher. Never change mate!
They are ultrasonically welded, which basically vibrates both halves of the case against each other until the surfaces melt at the touch point, they then join together as a result. The welds are still a weak point, I’ve found just using a hammer to be good enough to crack them at the weld without much damage, it can take a while sometimes though.
I got you all the best Solution hands down. Basically you put sone Diesel fuel or ( Gas ) just around the seem and wait 5 min it will open like a charm tested 100 times there are videos on youtube also. thank me later
Thank you for making all these videos. I got a returned ups with shipping damage from my work. It had a crack at the top and wouldn't work. Only the orange led came on. When I opened it up I found out that the pcb also cracked together with the outer shell. I fixed up the traces with my soldering iron and small coper wire. And guess what. It's now working properly. I would have never attempted a fix like this if I didn't watch all your videos. Thank you.
I've been watching your videos for years for the entertainment. However, this is the first time I have seen a video that is extremely relevant as I to have a failed brick and just looked online YESTERDAY for videos on how to disassemble and potentially fix. Thanks!
Great Video Vince, and nice fix. Before I powered it up I would have checked the bridge rectifier just in case one or more of the diodes had failed. Great Job 👍
I've also used this method many times with success. Just need to be careful not to crush the PCB inside with too much force on the vice. Just put some tension to the one half of the welded case and then slightly tap the other half with an hammer and it usually cracks open pretty clean. Sometimes it's necessary to use a knife or some sort of prying tool and tap it against the weld. Just use some cloth or thick cardboard between vice and the plastic case, otherwise it will leave ugly marks all over.
Nice job Vince. You can break the seal with adjustable pliers also. Works great, just pinch all around the seal with the tips of the pliers. It allows you to get the force in the right area.
Next time you should check the bridge rectifier before putting in a new cap. Voltage being fed into the capacitor backwards would cause it to explode quickly.
The capacitors used in these power bricks are often bottom of the barrel trash, probably dumpster dived out of the back alleys of Huaqiangbei/Shenzhen. I'm well acquainted with LTec capacitors, them exploding, leaking or failing in any number of other ways is common. I've replaced them by the thousand in power supplies, monitors, motherboards, random consumer electronics, etc. If he were going to use this power supply long term, I would suggest not using that United Chemi-Con brown crap stain capacitor, because UCC is known for garbage capacitors as well, like their infamous KZG and KZE series during the capacitor plague era. I'd also recommend replacing all of the capacitors in the rest of the supply, because they're the same dubious garbage that is subject to failure. I'd recommend Wurth Elektronik, Nichicon, Rubycon, Panasonic or Samsung capacitors from reputable vendors. If you buy mystery meat on Ebay/Ali Express, you're probably getting counterfeits, or are paying more in markup.
@@phonotical It wouldn't, but if one of the diodes in the rectifier failed, it could potentially backfeed something. That said, bridge rectifiers don't really fail that often. They'd have to be blown up by a power surge or heavily overvolted.
When I was a hardware computer engineer, this was such a common point of failure for all brands of laptops (and Pc's, the PSU's used to fail with age and if you didn't have a surge protector) as mentioned, these plastic cases are ultrasonically welded together to create a tamper proof seal, keep up the good work. 👍🏻
The capacitor was rated at 420v, so to get the DC voltage above that you would need the AC voltage to be more than 300v and sustained for a while too I'd think for the electrolyte to heat up. (300V AC rectified is around 422v DC). I think more likely explanation would be cheap capacitors that just fail after a while...
How strange, the power supply on my acer went just last week and after getting into it, it looked exactly the same as your Toshiba and the same capacitor and fuse had blown. I just got the new parts fitted yesterday and it's working fine, so far
TIP the next switching power supply that you must fix , first test that must make is take a AM radio, place near from the power supply, power on the radio, connect the power supply, you will heard a noise like a whistle, that indicates that the source primary is working, if instead you heard a "brrr" that indicates the power come in but no oscilation on the primary, may be emi coil broken, fuse blown, mosfet blown, if you heard a "chip chip chip" sound that indicate a short on the secundary side.
Very nice fix, good job on that :) . That cap probably had a manufacturing defect or (as you said) there was a surge, usually the big filtering caps don't fail. The only advice I can give is to just zip tie it together after the fix, these laptop chargers get VERY HOT, especially when the laptop is charging while it's in use. I am saying because I put one back together myself with hot glue when I fixed one of these and after the first use the glue melted and it came apart.
You've honestly become my mate. I love your show. Your honestly excited when you get the fix and disappointed when you don't. I'm with you for the ride my friend. Appreciate the fun. Thanks.
I have done similar work, splitting-open sealed Units, and repairing them. I re-seal them by heating a clean Soldering Iron, and then start to re-flow the molten plastic across both halves - neatly! No glues or untidy wraps of PVC Tape. I replace any "bulging" Capacitor without testing at all. Always nice to see a good result, and less s...t for Landfill.
Nice vid. I opened my chargers rubbing petrol or white spirit around the seams then a tap or 2. Works a treat. Lots of videos on youtube that look fake but I can confirm it worked for me.
I fix things like this at home and if they test OK, they work, then I'm quite happy to continue using them. I wouldn't sell them on after fixing because like Vince I'm not a professional and with things like power supplies I would encourage people to buy a new one for about GB£15 (in the case of the Tosh PSU) . Interesting fix though and it reminded me of a problem I had with mt laptop last night where it just shut down completely. I'm in the Philippines and after a severe storm, lots of lightning, we had a power surge that shut down my laptop like it was dead. My laptop started working again after a few minutes just using the power cycle on the start button but it scared me that my GB£1500 laptop had died
I had exactly the same symptoms with exactly the same psu and the same difficulties getting into it. In fact, once inside, there was far more of the white silicon covering everything. I left it overnight (about 10 hours) to allow the capacitors to discharge before starting to investigate the inside and BANG!!! I got a huge belt from the main capacitor. Lesson learnt, some large capacitors can retain their charge for a very long time. I won't do that again.
I always squeeze welded together cases like that in the vice, and the case comes apart quite easily. It's what Big Clive calls the vice of knowledge. 😁
Brilliant fix Vince that should be fine now glued back together, done it myself and it out lived the laptop, just a pointer don’t leave things on charge when you’re out, nasty things can happen, I’ve seen a laptop go up and it’s not fun it happens so quick, although saying that it was a copy power supply 😊 worse things are scooters and electric bikes, thanks again Vince
Good job! So happy to hear you had the appropriate cap and fuse to hand! Hahaha! Roughing up about 1 cm on both sides of the seal and then using epoxy (black for aesthetics) would have made a safer seal. One could also enclose it in a thin transparent acetate box would have probably made it acceptable for third parties to use, but of course you'd have to tell them of any risk etc.
After the glue, I roll the whole charger (or at least both sides, near the cables) with many turns of black electrical tape. You can also use some across the broken lines in the middle first, to make it look a bit better. Nice fix!
In brazil we have a thing called banana oil, which is basically an amyl acetate based product, its used mainly to dissolve nail polish, but you can use to dissolve those ultrassonic welds on the charger, just apply it with a small neddle and wait some seconds, reapply it if necessary. I dont know how easy would to find it in UK, but give it a look next time you try opening a charger, it opens perfectly without any damage.
I love these videos as a professional tinkerer myself , but I really love the sounds of domestic life that go on in the background , never fails to elicit a smile
I've opened plenty of these adaptors simply by placing them on concrete on one edge then giving the top edge near the corner a good hard whack with a hammer. The two halves will usually just crack open, and in such a way that you can glue them back together later on with no real signs of damage to the case.
I keep some old transparent folders around "just in case", and this is a perfect example of "case". Cut four strips to measure, reassemble the brick, put it in the bottom part of the case, insert a strip for each side, close with the top case and a few points of superglue.
A bit of heat round the seam whilst squeezing it with water pump pliers did the job for me. I superglued it closed then placed a large heatshrink tube over the case.
I did pretty much the same repair with my dymo labelwriter psu. I used hot melt glue but also used an heavy duty zip tie as a little insurance. I still ordered another one though but generic laptop chargers can be bought for £6
You should use the term "hazardous voltage" when working on a switched mode power supply, as they are capable of delivering a massive shock. The definition of AC voltage bands as found in BS7671 are: Up to 50 volts is "Extra low voltage" from 50 to 1000 volts is "Low voltage" and above 1000 volts is deemed "High voltage". It is fair to say that the bulk capacitor holds a charge of around 300 volts DC, but that also falls in the "Low voltage" category. (Just a point, not a criticism Vince).
Well done, another product saved from landfill. I would advise against using superglue as this can cause fumes which will damage components over time. Non flex gel type superglues also become brittle fairly quickly. Most of these cases are ABS so you can use evo-stik pvc pipe weld (melts the case together, experiment, use sparingly).
g`day old mate vince if you at anytime want to get back in to the power supply to unseal the superglue just heat it to around 60 c degrees and it becomes pliable again great video mate cheers
Those welds are the worst to deal with. I see Defpom already mentioning the same thing but you can often undo them by just banging more on the shell. Not hulk-smashing per say but lots of light percussive maintenance tend to be key :)
good job Vince. but i would have wrapped it with some thick Kapton tape at the end. the super glue cristalizes and could crack if its knocked. plusthere was ipa around the remaining hot glue so that could have weakened. in any case. good job with the fix. keep it up
I have seen one youtuber using lighter fluid to dissolve the meeting points of 2 halfs. I used same approach in some power supplies and it works. Try with another PSU. You just need to allow it to dwell and be absorbed. Sometimes pour it couple times. It evaporates quite quickly so do it in a well ventilated area.
try using sime vice grips to open the case, depending how its glued by clamping across the seams has often helped me break the glue seal while doing little or no damage to the plastic case
The way I have found to get into these without too much damage is to get a long straight reasonably sharp knife - I have a big old bone handled table knife. Lay it along the groove with the block resting on a hard surface. Now give the back of the knife a sharp tap (or a bit more than a tap) with a wooden mallet. I find they usually just pop open. Both sides may need doing.
I've used a bench vise (with some protective wood/cardboard) to slowly work pressure on the joints on these types of sealed power supplies to crack them open along their seals Of course, getting them back together again is pretty much a roll of the dice as to how they crack open
To break ultrasonic welds like on this enclosure, I prefer to use something like Big Clive's favourite entry tool, with a vice. Just clamp one side of the enclosure into it and tighten the vice jaws until the ultrasonic bond breaks. This generally gives about the cleanest possible result relative to other methods, like bashing tools like screwdrivers onto the joint.
The mains cap in these brick type power supplies is always the most likely cause if it's dead. An easy way I found after fixing several of these type of brick power supplies as well as the little square type is to put the case up to the joint into a vice then just squeeze it gently along the joint with the vice you will hear the plastic welded joint crack apart it will come apart in only a few minutes and it doesn't make a mess of the case so when put back together you wouldn't even know its been apart.
I did manage to repair a Dell power brick once. I had to use a Dremmel to open it. The parts inside were just about completely encased in that same VERY hard glue of some kind like in yours.....only MUCH more! Either it was for vibration protection or to keep us "meddling tinkerers" out of it or maybe both! Lol😂! Luckily though, it ended up being a broken solder connection at the output wire end, but MAN, was it a b$tch to get the glue out of the way! Needless to say, the case was just too damaged to put back together again and I almost, just barely, missed cutting a capacitor open with the Dremmel! Just nicked it! It works but is too dangerous to be trusted, especially alone. Good for me alone though. Like you, I just had to see what went wrong and if I could fix it. A good learning experience none the less! Nice video and be well! 👍👍
Both myself and my parents had the same Toshiba laptops. The chargers failed within 2 years, they used theirs almost daily whereas I hardly ever used mine. Replacement third party ones have lasted a lot longer than the OEMs.
Good video, but I strongly recommend in cases like this to wash the circuit board and all mounting accessories in order to remove any electrolyte, regarding her conductivity...
Very good advice. I did wipe around a bit with a tissue, but I should have used IPA on the whole board to remove any traces of the electrolyte. Thank you 👍
I'd check any small cap too, could make a voltage regulator IC go out of whack and blow something up, just an idea but it was probably the big cap as you found
When you were taking it apart, seeing the moist, I was thinking for some kind of oily substance applied to the shields and heatsinks in order to create some kind of thermal bridging, so that poor thing could shed some of its heat to the environment. Because these things can get very hot when they really need to work. I don't know how much liquid such a cap would spew when it blows. Usually by the time you find a blown cap, most of the electrolyte has evaporated already. But in such sealed enclosure, it won't be able to do that. Again, interesting.
I have two chargers for my Toshiba, both of them failed or get faulty with the same fault. They would start to provide less or unstable jumping voltage and my laptop (no battery) will self restart. I opened them both and no leaking or broken things in there. The first one start working fine merely by just opening it and breaking the metal ground cage around it. The second is partially fixed by using flux and heating the solder points of the transformer. The other possibly is that my NEC cap is going bad, but that won't explain why my AC adapters get broken.
5 месяцев назад
Good fix don't forget extreme heat inside no ventilation hence caps goes, good one's 105c....
Have the same one, would randomly get an amber flashing light, and before I swaped out to a generic battery, random reboots. Only recently found out it was the charger being wonkie. Fyi the amber light can be fixed by disabling acpi compliant battery and rebooting with the battery out, then enabling it again and slap the battery back in.
Best way to open these I have found is to repeatedly apply lighter petrol around the seam and after awhile it will come apart easily I have done this many many times hope this helps and of course no damage so easy to re glue
A good fix! It's common for the caps to go in these types of PSUs. I had one once, was on a call with someone who said their PSU was getting hot when plugged in. Asked them to disconnect it asap. They tested it again on the call and it went up in smoke. They make good mini PSUs for projects, worth keeping in mind for future repairs/tests :)
I've had those clover head cables fail before now, very loose and intermittent contact. Many of the issues people have with power bricks is because they wrap them up ridiculously tight and strain the cables.
for future reference.........using the hot air station will loosen the joint just enough to use a pry tool ensuring a clean release. Or yiou can use a junior saw and cut along the groove just enough to release it also.
That's funny, one of those going bad. I have a fleet of 'em in my spare-power-supplies bin just because they outlive their laptops all the time. xD Eta: also holy crow they aren't this hard to take apart for me either! You got an extra-enthusiastic plastic welder clearly. (I took one apart not to fix it - because like all of them, it was fine - but to move the output wire to a different location on the box to make it more suitable for the project for which I was adapting it.)
Thats a real nice fix, im not sure if id use the charger as the main source of power, id still buy a new one, and just have that as a back up or even use it in a diy project but thats just me... Anyway great job.
To open the brick easy without damage you put wooden plank on the joint of the case and wack it with hammer until the joint crack all the way, without prior tool, the case will open without visible damage and you can super glue it at the end. Check the small electolitic caps, their ESR often go high and prevent the oscillation of the oscillator. ALWAYS dischrge the caps before measure them, if there is a charge, you can blow your meter.
In the past, I have used a knife and scored in the groove repeatedly until it's weak enough to break. Then glue it back up later. Keeps it in relatively good condition
The best way that I've found to non-destructively burst those uwelded PS cases is to gently squeeze them along the seam, in a vice. Often, it's enough to simply compress the seam by a couple of millimeters. In the extreme cases, the seam will give up in some places but not others, requiring pry tools.
Now after our Generation are mostly gone through several Notebooks and Laptops almost everybody should have one of these 19V Adapters laying around. I bet I have at least 2-3 in my Basement-drawer for Power-Adaptors. Anyway a nice Video to watch.
A lot of them have different size connectors, and also some have chips in them so the laptop can identify the power supply (I know DELL power supplies certainly did). There were also some odd ones that were 15v too.
For extra safety, when I glued the case of my power supply back together, I put two cable ties around the body of the PSU. It doesn't look too good but it makes it impossible to accidentally come apart and therefore safer to use.
Can you do a video on how to find shorts on a circuit board etc? Step by step, the different components and what they do? As someone interested in fault finding, I’m always watching your videos thinking, how does he test for shorts? What settings the MM is on? where does he put the probes etc
Great repair, Vince, as always. The only additional things I would suggest with a power supply repair is while you are in there, replace ALL the electrolytics as they are the things that deteriorate over time and then do a load test by soldering some high watt resistors across the output or make up a resistor load with some high watt aluminium resistors on a heat sink THEN measure the DC AND AC on the output. You are looking for, obviously, 19 Volts DC with this PSU or the rated voltage and about a 1% regulation so with this PSU when measuring AC with it under load it should be about 190mV AC. You can also do this with an oscilloscope. If you have Volts AC on the output superimposed on the DC the chances are there are some rectifier diodes blown. An AC voltage superimposed on your DC could damage anything it powers, so beware. I speak from experience and seeing the magic smoke escape......It ruins your day. ☹
The toshiba (now Dynabook) batteries are just as stubborn, sound sealed with clips, but it can be done, wedging a gap and letting it sit for 20 minutes or so also helps to loosen the seal, but you have to fight with it as well.
Nice fix Vince. Maybe not leave it charging when you go out. But I dont think for one minute you would. Whens the next Rolls Royce video ??. Love those.
I have more than a dozen of broken Dell power supplies that I dread fixing just due to that darn glue that keeps the casing shut. Some of them are shorting out and some have damaged cords, so I could probably make half of them work by simply replacing the cable from the other non-working power supplies.
try applying lighter fluid to the seams. a small syringe full is usually enough to weaken the weld to the point where one can crack it open. It takes a while though
When I did mine during lockdown, I put a couple of cable ties around my ASUS laptop PSU (In addition to the glue) - Looks a bit daft but it's not come apart yet.
I certainly did. I noticed that after I released the video!!! I'm surprised not more people mentioned it. Well spotted. Luckily the ESR was still out compared to the good cap, but I can't believe I read it wrong 😂👍👍👍
Just did mine, well a temp fix to just see if the charger works, pup when I got her last year chewed the cable, I ended up trying to just solder the 2 ends together and nothing so in the end tried getting into the casing of the power supply got half of it open but loads of dents and holes and managed to get access to where the cable was so just cut the ends off close enough that the wire can go outside casing and still splice onto, but then I couldn't get the wire through the grommet or whatever it was called so gave up and just decided to splice together just enough to see if it worked and when it did just left it charging long enough to fill battery, I need a way to make the hole in the grommet bigger so I can feed through cable and just resolder it again.
Vince, when you attempt to repair one of this in the future use my tehnique in a serynge i'm putting some gasoline and go all aorund the edges and it will open nicely and non destructive, to have more precison you also need a needle along with the serynge
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
Not sure if this is of interest Vince but when i want to get into a sealed power supply i tend to use a vice to at least try and crack the glue, has worked many times.
Big Clive calls that "The Vice of Knowledge". I too have had success there. My favorite was helping my Grandpa open the faulty tail light from his truck. He was miffed that a burnt out LED meant the whole assembly needed replacement and was determined to attempt to repair it.
I came over, the vice helped pop the seams without issue and he got to fix the blown LED.
I'd add a couple of cable ties and what about a project box
Works great. Every time.
On this subject when I opened up my dewalt site radio to change a fuse , the instructions were remove all the screws then hit it on the bottom on the joint hard with a rubber hammer worked a treat heard the glue crack
@@peterthebricky if they snap you’ll end up with a big hazard
The channel is good and still growing because Vince has not changed one bit since he had two viewers.
No fancy shop or expensive tools. Sans the yellow mat.
No showy cars (a dumper in fact) or posh nonsense.
The guy is winning the RUclipss because he's real and a bit of a penny pincher.
Never change mate!
They are ultrasonically welded, which basically vibrates both halves of the case against each other until the surfaces melt at the touch point, they then join together as a result.
The welds are still a weak point, I’ve found just using a hammer to be good enough to crack them at the weld without much damage, it can take a while sometimes though.
Or hitting them on the joint with the handle of a screwdriver is quite effective too! 😉
I got you all the best Solution hands down.
Basically you put sone Diesel fuel or ( Gas ) just around the seem and wait 5 min it will open like a charm
tested 100 times there are videos on youtube also.
thank me later
Thank you for making all these videos. I got a returned ups with shipping damage from my work. It had a crack at the top and wouldn't work. Only the orange led came on. When I opened it up I found out that the pcb also cracked together with the outer shell. I fixed up the traces with my soldering iron and small coper wire. And guess what. It's now working properly. I would have never attempted a fix like this if I didn't watch all your videos.
Thank you.
I've been watching your videos for years for the entertainment. However, this is the first time I have seen a video that is extremely relevant as I to have a failed brick and just looked online YESTERDAY for videos on how to disassemble and potentially fix. Thanks!
Great Video Vince, and nice fix. Before I powered it up I would have checked the bridge rectifier just in case one or more of the diodes had failed. Great Job 👍
Thanks Mick, yes others have said the same thing. I'll remember to do a bit more testing next time, could save another bang and a wasted capacitor 👍
It's easily done, I know from experience 😂😂😂
I've found using a bench vice on these ultrasonic welded cases is a great start to cracking them open without causing much damage.
I've also used this method many times with success. Just need to be careful not to crush the PCB inside with too much force on the vice. Just put some tension to the one half of the welded case and then slightly tap the other half with an hammer and it usually cracks open pretty clean. Sometimes it's necessary to use a knife or some sort of prying tool and tap it against the weld.
Just use some cloth or thick cardboard between vice and the plastic case, otherwise it will leave ugly marks all over.
Nice job Vince. You can break the seal with adjustable pliers also. Works great, just pinch all around the seal with the tips of the pliers. It allows you to get the force in the right area.
Next time you should check the bridge rectifier before putting in a new cap. Voltage being fed into the capacitor backwards would cause it to explode quickly.
I just said the exact same thing 👍
Thanks Jessica 👍
The capacitors used in these power bricks are often bottom of the barrel trash, probably dumpster dived out of the back alleys of Huaqiangbei/Shenzhen. I'm well acquainted with LTec capacitors, them exploding, leaking or failing in any number of other ways is common. I've replaced them by the thousand in power supplies, monitors, motherboards, random consumer electronics, etc.
If he were going to use this power supply long term, I would suggest not using that United Chemi-Con brown crap stain capacitor, because UCC is known for garbage capacitors as well, like their infamous KZG and KZE series during the capacitor plague era. I'd also recommend replacing all of the capacitors in the rest of the supply, because they're the same dubious garbage that is subject to failure.
I'd recommend Wurth Elektronik, Nichicon, Rubycon, Panasonic or Samsung capacitors from reputable vendors. If you buy mystery meat on Ebay/Ali Express, you're probably getting counterfeits, or are paying more in markup.
Why would the rectifier suddenly be backwards?
@@phonotical It wouldn't, but if one of the diodes in the rectifier failed, it could potentially backfeed something.
That said, bridge rectifiers don't really fail that often. They'd have to be blown up by a power surge or heavily overvolted.
When I was a hardware computer engineer, this was such a common point of failure for all brands of laptops (and Pc's, the PSU's used to fail with age and if you didn't have a surge protector) as mentioned, these plastic cases are ultrasonically welded together to create a tamper proof seal, keep up the good work. 👍🏻
@@AppleReviews Happens all the time, especially during thunderstorms.
@@AppleReviews Unless they had surge protectors fitted inline to their devices then yes.
The capacitor was rated at 420v, so to get the DC voltage above that you would need the AC voltage to be more than 300v and sustained for a while too I'd think for the electrolyte to heat up. (300V AC rectified is around 422v DC). I think more likely explanation would be cheap capacitors that just fail after a while...
How strange, the power supply on my acer went just last week and after getting into it, it looked exactly the same as your Toshiba and the same capacitor and fuse had blown.
I just got the new parts fitted yesterday and it's working fine, so far
The music at the start just relaxes me whenever I’m ready for a new video.
TIP the next switching power supply that you must fix , first test that must make is take a AM radio, place near from the power supply, power on the radio, connect the power supply, you will heard a noise like a whistle, that indicates that the source primary is working, if instead you heard a "brrr" that indicates the power come in but no oscilation on the primary, may be emi coil broken, fuse blown, mosfet blown, if you heard a "chip chip chip" sound that indicate a short on the secundary side.
Very nice fix, good job on that :) . That cap probably had a manufacturing defect or (as you said) there was a surge, usually the big filtering caps don't fail.
The only advice I can give is to just zip tie it together after the fix, these laptop chargers get VERY HOT, especially when the laptop is charging while it's in use.
I am saying because I put one back together myself with hot glue when I fixed one of these and after the first use the glue melted and it came apart.
You've honestly become my mate. I love your show. Your honestly excited when you get the fix and disappointed when you don't. I'm with you for the ride my friend. Appreciate the fun. Thanks.
I have done similar work, splitting-open sealed Units, and repairing them. I re-seal them by heating a clean Soldering Iron, and then start to re-flow the molten plastic across both halves - neatly! No glues or untidy wraps of PVC Tape. I replace any "bulging" Capacitor without testing at all. Always nice to see a good result, and less s...t for Landfill.
Oh how i love the sound of notifications and mucking about with porcelain and glass in the background of your videos, it's not annoying at all.
I have repaired dozens of these, the best way to remove the casing is to put it in a vice & slowly tighten until it cracks open at the seam.
Nice vid. I opened my chargers rubbing petrol or white spirit around the seams then a tap or 2. Works a treat. Lots of videos on youtube that look fake but I can confirm it worked for me.
I fix things like this at home and if they test OK, they work, then I'm quite happy to continue using them. I wouldn't sell them on after fixing because like Vince I'm not a professional and with things like power supplies I would encourage people to buy a new one for about GB£15 (in the case of the Tosh PSU) . Interesting fix though and it reminded me of a problem I had with mt laptop last night where it just shut down completely. I'm in the Philippines and after a severe storm, lots of lightning, we had a power surge that shut down my laptop like it was dead. My laptop started working again after a few minutes just using the power cycle on the start button but it scared me that my GB£1500 laptop had died
The way I would approach reassembly is, after gluing, also wrap many turns of strong tape around the enclosure.
Vince, when are we getting a tour of all your spare parts bins or wherever you are storing everything? Would make quite a good video I think. Cheers.
I had exactly the same symptoms with exactly the same psu and the same difficulties getting into it. In fact, once inside, there was far more of the white silicon covering everything. I left it overnight (about 10 hours) to allow the capacitors to discharge before starting to investigate the inside and BANG!!! I got a huge belt from the main capacitor. Lesson learnt, some large capacitors can retain their charge for a very long time. I won't do that again.
Nice work Vince, I like your methodical approach to trouble shooting, don't overthink ,don't over complicate ,being realistic about your results !
It's being plugged into the mains all the time that blows the cap. Nice fix, cheers.
Yes, ultrasonic plastic welding is a pain to get into. Excellent video. Thank you
I always squeeze welded together cases like that in the vice, and the case comes apart quite easily. It's what Big Clive calls the vice of knowledge. 😁
Squeeze in which direction?
@@michael.a.covington Across the width, putting pressure on the joined sides.
I love Big Clive too! He can be quite comical at times! 😂👍👍
Brilliant fix Vince that should be fine now glued back together, done it myself and it out lived the laptop, just a pointer don’t leave things on charge when you’re out, nasty things can happen, I’ve seen a laptop go up and it’s not fun it happens so quick, although saying that it was a copy power supply 😊 worse things are scooters and electric bikes, thanks again Vince
Good job! So happy to hear you had the appropriate cap and fuse to hand! Hahaha!
Roughing up about 1 cm on both sides of the seal and then using epoxy (black for aesthetics) would have made a safer seal. One could also enclose it in a thin transparent acetate box would have probably made it acceptable for third parties to use, but of course you'd have to tell them of any risk etc.
After the glue, I roll the whole charger (or at least both sides, near the cables) with many turns of black electrical tape. You can also use some across the broken lines in the middle first, to make it look a bit better. Nice fix!
a large piece of heat shrink will do the job
In brazil we have a thing called banana oil, which is basically an amyl acetate based product, its used mainly to dissolve nail polish, but you can use to dissolve those ultrassonic welds on the charger, just apply it with a small neddle and wait some seconds, reapply it if necessary. I dont know how easy would to find it in UK, but give it a look next time you try opening a charger, it opens perfectly without any damage.
Instead of super glue, try plastic model glue.
It takes longer to set, but actually melts the plastic slightly, giving a much better bond.
Just cable tie it. It'll fail again eventually and future you is really going to hate past you.
@@georgeprout42 My future me is dead...
Don't think I didn't notice that shinny new Hakko good on ya for getting some nice gear! You've earned it.
I love these videos as a professional tinkerer myself , but I really love the sounds of domestic life that go on in the background , never fails to elicit a smile
I've opened plenty of these adaptors simply by placing them on concrete on one edge then giving the top edge near the corner a good hard whack with a hammer. The two halves will usually just crack open, and in such a way that you can glue them back together later on with no real signs of damage to the case.
I keep some old transparent folders around "just in case", and this is a perfect example of "case". Cut four strips to measure, reassemble the brick, put it in the bottom part of the case, insert a strip for each side, close with the top case and a few points of superglue.
Vince your videos keep me entertained for many hours of the day, keep the entertaining content coming and all the best to you. Take care buddy 🙂👍🏻
A bit of heat round the seam whilst squeezing it with water pump pliers did the job for me.
I superglued it closed then placed a large heatshrink tube over the case.
I did pretty much the same repair with my dymo labelwriter psu. I used hot melt glue but also used an heavy duty zip tie as a little insurance. I still ordered another one though but generic laptop chargers can be bought for £6
You should use the term "hazardous voltage" when working on a switched mode power supply, as they are capable of delivering a massive shock.
The definition of AC voltage bands as found in BS7671 are: Up to 50 volts is "Extra low voltage" from 50 to 1000 volts is "Low voltage" and above 1000 volts is deemed "High voltage".
It is fair to say that the bulk capacitor holds a charge of around 300 volts DC, but that also falls in the "Low voltage" category. (Just a point, not a criticism Vince).
Well done, another product saved from landfill. I would advise against using superglue as this can cause fumes which will damage components over time. Non flex gel type superglues also become brittle fairly quickly. Most of these cases are ABS so you can use evo-stik pvc pipe weld (melts the case together, experiment, use sparingly).
I didn't know that thanks for the tip
g`day old mate vince if you at anytime want to get back in to the power supply to unseal the superglue just heat it to around 60 c degrees and it becomes pliable again great video mate cheers
Those welds are the worst to deal with. I see Defpom already mentioning the same thing but you can often undo them by just banging more on the shell. Not hulk-smashing per say but lots of light percussive maintenance tend to be key :)
Btw: Works on battery packs too. Just be gentle but persistent and you can crack them open with no visible carnage. :)
Use of of these rubber mallets.
good job Vince. but i would have wrapped it with some thick Kapton tape at the end. the super glue cristalizes and could crack if its knocked. plusthere was ipa around the remaining hot glue so that could have weakened. in any case. good job with the fix. keep it up
I have seen one youtuber using lighter fluid to dissolve the meeting points of 2 halfs. I used same approach in some power supplies and it works. Try with another PSU. You just need to allow it to dwell and be absorbed. Sometimes pour it couple times. It evaporates quite quickly so do it in a well ventilated area.
try using sime vice grips to open the case, depending how its glued by clamping across the seams has often helped me break the glue seal while doing little or no damage to the plastic case
The way I have found to get into these without too much damage is to get a long straight reasonably sharp knife - I have a big old bone handled table knife. Lay it along the groove with the block resting on a hard surface. Now give the back of the knife a sharp tap (or a bit more than a tap) with a wooden mallet. I find they usually just pop open. Both sides may need doing.
I've used a bench vise (with some protective wood/cardboard) to slowly work pressure on the joints on these types of sealed power supplies to crack them open along their seals
Of course, getting them back together again is pretty much a roll of the dice as to how they crack open
And i thought i was the only one doing the same method 😅
To break ultrasonic welds like on this enclosure, I prefer to use something like Big Clive's favourite entry tool, with a vice. Just clamp one side of the enclosure into it and tighten the vice jaws until the ultrasonic bond breaks.
This generally gives about the cleanest possible result relative to other methods, like bashing tools like screwdrivers onto the joint.
"The vice of knowledge." I love Big Clive. xD
Thanks for the tip Maya 👍
@@solarbirdyz Yes, the "Widlarizer" would be perhaps a bit too much in a case like this.
The mains cap in these brick type power supplies is always the most likely cause if it's dead. An easy way I found after fixing several of these type of brick power supplies as well as the little square type is to put the case up to the joint into a vice then just squeeze it gently along the joint with the vice you will hear the plastic welded joint crack apart it will come apart in only a few minutes and it doesn't make a mess of the case so when put back together you wouldn't even know its been apart.
I have seen many of them with failed shotky diodes on the secondary side
Hi Vince they trick to open those if you use thinner on the seam that will solve the glue and you can easily open the power supply.
I did manage to repair a Dell power brick once. I had to use a Dremmel to open it. The parts inside were just about completely encased in that same VERY hard glue of some kind like in yours.....only MUCH more! Either it was for vibration protection or to keep us "meddling tinkerers" out of it or maybe both! Lol😂! Luckily though, it ended up being a broken solder connection at the output wire end, but MAN, was it a b$tch to get the glue out of the way! Needless to say, the case was just too damaged to put back together again and I almost, just barely, missed cutting a capacitor open with the Dremmel! Just nicked it! It works but is too dangerous to be trusted, especially alone. Good for me alone though. Like you, I just had to see what went wrong and if I could fix it. A good learning experience none the less! Nice video and be well! 👍👍
Both myself and my parents had the same Toshiba laptops. The chargers failed within 2 years, they used theirs almost daily whereas I hardly ever used mine. Replacement third party ones have lasted a lot longer than the OEMs.
Good video, but I strongly recommend in cases like this to wash the circuit board and all mounting accessories in order to remove any electrolyte, regarding her conductivity...
Very good advice. I did wipe around a bit with a tissue, but I should have used IPA on the whole board to remove any traces of the electrolyte. Thank you 👍
I'd check any small cap too, could make a voltage regulator IC go out of whack and blow something up, just an idea but it was probably the big cap as you found
When you were taking it apart, seeing the moist, I was thinking for some kind of oily substance applied to the shields and heatsinks in order to create some kind of thermal bridging, so that poor thing could shed some of its heat to the environment. Because these things can get very hot when they really need to work.
I don't know how much liquid such a cap would spew when it blows. Usually by the time you find a blown cap, most of the electrolyte has evaporated already. But in such sealed enclosure, it won't be able to do that. Again, interesting.
I have two chargers for my Toshiba, both of them failed or get faulty with the same fault. They would start to provide less or unstable jumping voltage and my laptop (no battery) will self restart. I opened them both and no leaking or broken things in there. The first one start working fine merely by just opening it and breaking the metal ground cage around it. The second is partially fixed by using flux and heating the solder points of the transformer. The other possibly is that my NEC cap is going bad, but that won't explain why my AC adapters get broken.
Good fix don't forget extreme heat inside no ventilation hence caps goes, good one's 105c....
I am a big fan of using self resetting fuses like the polyfuse.
That would have been a nice tea break fix. Nice one.
I use a 3d pen to fill in those gaps and sand them flat - usually looks like newish and always seals nicely . great vid
Have the same one, would randomly get an amber flashing light, and before I swaped out to a generic battery, random reboots. Only recently found out it was the charger being wonkie. Fyi the amber light can be fixed by disabling acpi compliant battery and rebooting with the battery out, then enabling it again and slap the battery back in.
safe to sell =no, safe to give away = no, Vince wife has a good life assurance policy = yes
😂
He just didn't want to admit shattering a good wife's kit on one tap, that's not a caring look.
Best way to open these I have found is to repeatedly apply lighter petrol around the seam and after awhile it will come apart easily I have done this many many times hope this helps and of course no damage so easy to re glue
Love all you videos Vince! Greetings from Sicily!
Mrs Vince is very lucky to have you and that you're able to fix things around the house for her! 😂😂
A good fix!
It's common for the caps to go in these types of PSUs.
I had one once, was on a call with someone who said their PSU was getting hot when plugged in. Asked them to disconnect it asap. They tested it again on the call and it went up in smoke.
They make good mini PSUs for projects, worth keeping in mind for future repairs/tests :)
Some RTV to seal around the join would be good too. High temp silicone sealant.
Maybe wrap a thin band of tape around it, the hotglue might soften when it's warmed up!
I always use modeling glue
I've had those clover head cables fail before now, very loose and intermittent contact. Many of the issues people have with power bricks is because they wrap them up ridiculously tight and strain the cables.
for future reference.........using the hot air station will loosen the joint just enough to use a pry tool ensuring a clean release. Or yiou can use a junior saw and cut along the groove just enough to release it also.
At 5:05 Zip tie the case together and get out the hot glue; Works for me. And by the way a dremel makes short work of getting it apart.
That's funny, one of those going bad. I have a fleet of 'em in my spare-power-supplies bin just because they outlive their laptops all the time. xD
Eta: also holy crow they aren't this hard to take apart for me either! You got an extra-enthusiastic plastic welder clearly. (I took one apart not to fix it - because like all of them, it was fine - but to move the output wire to a different location on the box to make it more suitable for the project for which I was adapting it.)
Thats a real nice fix, im not sure if id use the charger as the main source of power, id still buy a new one, and just have that as a back up or even use it in a diy project but thats just me... Anyway great job.
To open the brick easy without damage you put wooden plank on the joint of the case and wack it with hammer until the joint crack all the way, without prior tool, the case will open without visible damage and you can super glue it at the end. Check the small electolitic caps, their ESR often go high and prevent the oscillation of the oscillator. ALWAYS dischrge the caps before measure them, if there is a charge, you can blow your meter.
Quite lucky it wasn't the bridge rectifier that had gone putting AC onto the capacitor. Nice little fix.👍
Great and quick fix Mon Ami , I heard about you from Buy it Fix it ...... I came I saw I liked LOL>>>. I'll be watching more vids ....
Thank you Cajun, I love watching his vids 👍
In the past, I have used a knife and scored in the groove repeatedly until it's weak enough to break. Then glue it back up later. Keeps it in relatively good condition
Great video! Rocking the PAGANI Design on the wrist?
Great Fix I never saw on of this opened.
The best way that I've found to non-destructively burst those uwelded PS cases is to gently squeeze them along the seam, in a vice. Often, it's enough to simply compress the seam by a couple of millimeters. In the extreme cases, the seam will give up in some places but not others, requiring pry tools.
Now after our Generation are mostly gone through several Notebooks and Laptops almost everybody should have one of these 19V Adapters laying around. I bet I have at least 2-3 in my Basement-drawer for Power-Adaptors.
Anyway a nice Video to watch.
A lot of them have different size connectors, and also some have chips in them so the laptop can identify the power supply (I know DELL power supplies certainly did). There were also some odd ones that were 15v too.
For extra safety, when I glued the case of my power supply back together, I put two cable ties around the body of the PSU. It doesn't look too good but it makes it impossible to accidentally come apart and therefore safer to use.
Love the precision hammer for delicate electronics... A C clamp to open it like a nut?
I did this.... my on was drimmeled ... fixed a broken wire .. and taped back together 2 years ago... still works 😅
Great video! Thanks for sharing and the explanation.
Can you do a video on how to find shorts on a circuit board etc? Step by step, the different components and what they do? As someone interested in fault finding, I’m always watching your videos thinking, how does he test for shorts? What settings the MM is on? where does he put the probes etc
Great repair, Vince, as always.
The only additional things I would suggest with a power supply repair is while you are in there, replace ALL the electrolytics as they are the things that deteriorate over time and then do a load test by soldering some high watt resistors across the output or make up a resistor load with some high watt aluminium resistors on a heat sink THEN measure the DC AND AC on the output.
You are looking for, obviously, 19 Volts DC with this PSU or the rated voltage and about a 1% regulation so with this PSU when measuring AC with it under load it should be about 190mV AC. You can also do this with an oscilloscope. If you have Volts AC on the output superimposed on the DC the chances are there are some rectifier diodes blown. An AC voltage superimposed on your DC could damage anything it powers, so beware. I speak from experience and seeing the magic smoke escape......It ruins your day. ☹
Well done Vince!
Thanks Shawn👍
I had repaired some of this chargers... And I use zipties to close it and it works fine!
The toshiba (now Dynabook) batteries are just as stubborn, sound sealed with clips, but it can be done, wedging a gap and letting it sit for 20 minutes or so also helps to loosen the seal, but you have to fight with it as well.
Vince, I know this is personal, but completely didn’t know you were still married. ❤ great fix!
Nice fix Vince. Maybe not leave it charging when you go out. But I dont think for one minute you would. Whens the next Rolls Royce video ??. Love those.
I have more than a dozen of broken Dell power supplies that I dread fixing just due to that darn glue that keeps the casing shut. Some of them are shorting out and some have damaged cords, so I could probably make half of them work by simply replacing the cable from the other non-working power supplies.
I may have to get one of these rubber mallets to do this. Repetitive tapping all over the case is the key.
try applying lighter fluid to the seams. a small syringe full is usually enough to weaken the weld to the point where one can crack it open. It takes a while though
Try running a line of bicarbonate of soda along the joint and dribbling superglue on it. It sets really solidly
When I did mine during lockdown, I put a couple of cable ties around my ASUS laptop PSU (In addition to the glue) - Looks a bit daft but it's not come apart yet.
9:30 you mixed around the capacitance and voltage
I certainly did. I noticed that after I released the video!!! I'm surprised not more people mentioned it. Well spotted. Luckily the ESR was still out compared to the good cap, but I can't believe I read it wrong 😂👍👍👍
Very nicely explained, Thank You Dear.
Just did mine, well a temp fix to just see if the charger works, pup when I got her last year chewed the cable, I ended up trying to just solder the 2 ends together and nothing so in the end tried getting into the casing of the power supply got half of it open but loads of dents and holes and managed to get access to where the cable was so just cut the ends off close enough that the wire can go outside casing and still splice onto, but then I couldn't get the wire through the grommet or whatever it was called so gave up and just decided to splice together just enough to see if it worked and when it did just left it charging long enough to fill battery, I need a way to make the hole in the grommet bigger so I can feed through cable and just resolder it again.
Vince, when you attempt to repair one of this in the future use my tehnique
in a serynge i'm putting some gasoline and go all aorund the edges and it will open nicely and non destructive, to have more precison you also need a needle along with the serynge