Hey guys. First off, let me warn you about buying Dell peripherals. Be careful. I have a charger sitting here on my desk that I'm looking to fix to avoid having to pay $30-45 for a part that I can make/fix with $1.

There's a cylindrical metal piece which I suppose is there to protect the metal pin that snapped off. The pin is nothing special, about as thick around as a standard paperclip. So just a little while ago, I decided to pull out my soldering iron and try to solder a straight segment of a paperclip into the cylinder, hoping that if I got a pool of solder inside of the cylinder, it would attach the paperclip and the metal stub that was once part of the original pin (it was flush with the bottom of the cylinder). When I stuck the new pin into the laptop, it didn't charge, and I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why.

At this point, I'm really frustrated and I'd like to know a way that I could fix this or even create my own charger from scratch, if I could get just a little bit of help. Is it possible to build a makeshift 19.5v AC adapter?

Here are the technical specs (reading this right off the adapter itself):

http://bit.ly/gf12Io

AC Adapter
Manufacturer: Dell
P/N: TN800
Model: FA65NE1-00
Input: 100-240V~50-60Hz 1.5A
Output: 19.5V 3.34A

Made in China
DP/N TN800

Any help?

Is there metal on the inside of the cylinder as well as the outside?

Yes...oooh...yeah. Does that server a purpose other than protecting the pin? I most likely screwed the whole thing up by soldering the pin in like that. The entire cylinder is metal.

So it's not as simple as making a 19.5V 3.34A power source and sticking a single pin in the laptop?

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Oh, scratch that. I'm pretty sure the inside of the cylinder was plastic. I also think the problem might be that the plastic melted a bit (I couldn't avoid it) and a thin layer of plastic might be covering the stub. But it's nothing I'd be able to fix now. Is picking up a few parts from Radio Shack and throwing something together not feasible at this point?

It's absolutely feasible, as long as you can find the proper plug. Just make sure you cut far enough below the plug that you can find out which wire is the center pin and which wire is the cylinder.

There are three wires, it looks like, coming from the actual adapter. One on the side is connected to the pin, one on the opposite side is connected to the cylinder, and one in the middle is connected to god-knows-what. It's connected to a small circular circuit board, but I'm 99% sure it has nothing to do with anything but the blue LED that lights up when it's plugged in.

I think I know how to do it now but I'm not sure where exactly I'm supposed to connect the "cylinder wire", but I'll try to figure it out.

Just out of curiosity, why are there two wires? DC-out and ground? o.o

If there's three wires, it's possible that pin, outside cylinder, and inside cylinders are three different contacts, perhaps ground, +12V, and +5V, or something along those lines. Sounds complicated.

I believe the inside of the barrel is plastic, so I can't imagine there'd be more than two contacts. I just looked again and it still looks to me like it was only for the LED.

Usually the LED on the power socket is inside the laptop rather than on the adapter. What do you mean that there's a circuit board on the plug?

It's just a small circular green printed circuit board. The blue LED was on it, and the center wire was attached to it. I cut off the plug and made a pretty quick fix with tape, solder, and some wire, but it didn't work. The DC-out pin slipped and touched ground. Scared me to death. Anyway, I'll just pay the cash and avoid the hassle.

Thanks though Kerm. (:

If nothing else, you've gained some valuable experience with electronics...

Very true. Progbeard, then the plug just has two wires that go to the actual plug itself, and you could easily fix it if you have a replacement plug and some patience. If you'd rather not, I can understand that too.