Fixing a Laptop Charging Cable

Step 1 Slice off the old sheath

Unplug the charger!

 Slice away the old rubber sheath.  Underneath there is the metal plug, and it should have 2 wires soldered to it.  One is the center of the wire from the charger, and the other is a short one that connects to the metal strands from the outer part of the charger. Try to remember which wire is connect to which part.

Once the rubber plug is removed cut the plug off the cord, cutting off the damaged part of the cord.

Next cut the sheath from around the magnet, and the magnet should slide off the cord.

You should be left with just a plain cord coming out of the transformer box.  

Hold the frayed ends of the solder with the pliers and heat the solder attaching them to the plug to pull them off.  A vise or an extra pair of hands helps with all the soldering.

I have no pictures for this step.

Comments

[pmsfo]

I think there is a typo on your last sentence here: "The third picture below shows the tubes in place so the two wires can short out." Shouldn't "can short out" be "can't short out"?

[unkn0wn1]

pink heat shrink. lol
why pink?

[Fashim]

Would this work for the middle of the cord, I need to thoroughly put it together so the cables don't come apart.

[Fazulka]

It would work... I would tie a little knot so if the cord is pulled it won't pull right on the soldered joint though.

[Fashim]

Smart thinking, thanks. I bought the Heat Shrink yesterday.

[Fashim]

Finally Got it, used an Inline or something like that then taped it with electrical tape and heat shrinked it. It works fine but now the Jack is broken thank god for this instructable.

[getbusy21]

The magnet is a ferrite bead. We use them as low pass filters for data wires. I could be wrong but I don't think they have anything to do with power spikes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrite_bead

[Fazulka]

 Thanks

[getbusy21]

http://revision3.com/tzdaily/2007-12-26ferrite

[Fazulka]

Thank you for the link.

[winston_smith]

What you call a magnet is actually a toroid which is a filter which helps cancel spikes in the power being provided by the power supply.  Removing it could cause other problems not so easy and much more expensive to fix.

[Fazulka]

Thanks, I will add that in.

[bikedude880]

I did this myself a few months back to an old G3 iBook (Dual USB) after the connector died of old age.  Nice to see that other people value their equipment in the same fashion I do.  Nice fix!

[cyberfux]

 Good Job!

I don't know how often i had to fix my laptop cords ;-)
I fell over ove cord, the connector brake, my dogs chewed on 3 or 4 cords as puppies, rodents (i live in a farmer village) ate one etc.

I think you could call me "laptop power cord fixing pro", but you made an awesome job!