Although inaccurate, I shall refer to the connector on the laptop as
?socket? and the one on the adapter as ?plug?.
Just to clarify. When you insert the power adapter plug into the
laptop socket it sparks badly and sucks the life out of the adapter
light because the socket is short circuiting.
First thing, you are absolutely sure you are using the correct
adapter? I know this may sound like spoon-feeding but it happens to
the best of us :-) Please don?t take offence.
Assuming it is the correct item, was the replacement item identical?
Polarity does vary, and sometimes protection is provided by a beefy
diode in parallel with the input.
If no issue with adapter polarity, have you examined the socket to
ensure nothing has lodged across the contacts. Kids are very keen on
pushing ally foil into little holes. Also, is there any evidence of
the contacts having been bent?
Is the battery completely flat? Have you tried the adapter with the
battery removed? Depending again on the circuitry, a shorted battery
could drag down the adapter.
Exhausting all the above, you have a bit of a problem. Presumably the
connectors are one of the standard concentric two contact low voltage
types. These very rarely fail short circuit, and only then if there is
actual physical damage -- bits of plastic fall out. More likely it is
?that? protection diode which has gone short. Sometimes the excess
current blows an onboard fuse so don?t ?try? again. Further polarity
protection is sometimes furnished by an in-line diode. Lots of
variation so I can?t say precisely how the input circuit works or even
be certain that polarity protection devices are included. Also,
sometimes there is regulation circuitry inside the PC which can also
fail short circuit.
It?s doubtful that all this is of any help to you I?m afraid. Probably
it would be easy to repair but there are few people these days who can
do it. Replacing the motherboard (if you could actually get one) would
be horribly expensive. However, you should be able to find a laptop
repair shop on the web who could do it for a reasonable charge.
However, since you are querying motherboard replacement (yourself?),
you are quite techy? If you have a digi-meter, soldering iron, sucker,
small tools etc, go for it yourself -- or at least have a look. Pure
devils to take to bits sometimes but they are built by humans of no
great skill so a common sense approach gets them to bits. If you do,
first look for a protection diode across the contacts. De-solder one
end and check if it?s short. Same goes for capacitors across the
contacts -- especially electrolytic. Further than that just keep
checking.
If I can advise further, please post.
Best |
