Dell AC adapter unknown - lets find out why

Ғылым және технология

In this video we tear apart a Dell laptop AC adapter to find out why it is being reported by the computer as "unknown". The computer is still receiving power as Windows determines it is plugged in, not charging.
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0:00 Intro and explaination of the fault
3:55 Opening the power brick
7:30 Testing for breaks
11:00 Determining the exact break point
13:37 Plan B
15:33 A view of the actual fault
17:51 The hackjob
22:08 Will it work
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#sawickipedia #dellACadapter #chargerunknown

Пікірлер: 68

  • @Sawickipedia
    @Sawickipedia3 жыл бұрын

    The replacement cable took about 3 weeks to arrive and works without issue. The only difference being the wire colours, on the original red was for +ve and on the replacement white is +ve.

  • @subs4794
    @subs47942 жыл бұрын

    There needs to be a class action lawsuit for Dell's defective design, as well as some way to force them to redesign the power bricks to have a removeable cable on power output side for the sake of the fking planet. Product planned obsolescence is a crime against humanity and there needs to be regulations to against this form of corporate greed.

  • @Wahinies

    @Wahinies

    2 жыл бұрын

    Support the right to repair, spearheaded by the Rossmann group. It's even worse with Apple products which Louis Rossmann and his outfit primarily work on.

  • @andrejs0tube
    @andrejs0tube3 жыл бұрын

    Thanks a lot! I repeate your guide and now notebook working fine. I have little different model but similar issue.

  • @adiliraliyev5882
    @adiliraliyev5882 Жыл бұрын

    Thanks, helped me to solve my troubled adapter case. Thanks.

  • @nuklear8
    @nuklear82 жыл бұрын

    My M17 R3 is now charging thankyou for the guide👌

  • @NamVo-rn5ls
    @NamVo-rn5ls3 жыл бұрын

    Thank you so much for the great video.

  • @igordolovary4254
    @igordolovary42545 ай бұрын

    Thank You so much! In russian language have a proverb "Net nichego boleye postoyannogo, chem vremennoye" It looks like: A thing created for a short period of time will remain for a long time.

  • @hugoigni
    @hugoigni2 жыл бұрын

    Thanks for the video!

  • @amindavid11
    @amindavid112 жыл бұрын

    Have you tried desoldering the ic that sends the signal to the motherboard from the charger and soldering it directly to the input of the laptop? That way you could use any brand of charger. Would love a video on this

  • @tangwadivine-nq6mz
    @tangwadivine-nq6mz7 ай бұрын

    Thank you for this

  • @vlearmoes7012
    @vlearmoes7012 Жыл бұрын

    My adapter is going back to the suply shop for a different model Thanks for the video

  • @valsarff6525
    @valsarff65252 жыл бұрын

    First off, look on the brick. They are ALL cheap power supplies from China. Now.. I'm guessing it was just over a decade ago that I had to researdh this for a couple weeks or so because the center pin was a new thing exclusive to Dell. Keep in mind this is old information, but they had a chip just inside the laptop jack that measured the center pin for a voltage drop. As I recall it was normally 6 volts then, and the wires were bundle wrapped around under the insulation like a cable for TV. After a bit of flexing they would start to break. Eventually so many broke that it still carried voltage but resistance increased showing a voltage drop that the computer picked up and started throwing error messages. Those who called Dell and had an OEM brick were told, in order of repeat call-ins, you need a new battery, then told you need a new mother board and finally a new brick. It was ingenious because the same problem was so subtle it would manifest problems differently on peoples various machines, appearing to be different problems but it was all the same. It took nearly two weeks of searching before I realized these were all the same problem. One dude bipassed the chip inside the laptop but I didn't attempt that. I just soldered all the broken wires together into a blob, taped it up and was good to go. At that time they also had a timer of some sort in the battery pack. After so many charges the battery wouldn't accept any more charges. It didn't matter if it was still good or not. Their excuse was safety, but only an idiot would believe that. All of the above of course were timed to act up just outside of the warranty period. And if that wasn't enough insult, if you used XP's disc scan/repair that Microsoft built into the OS it triggered corruption of the Dell master Boot Record. You were dead in the water then unless you knew how to fix it yourself. That was my last Dell and I refused to work on them after that. Judging from your video they have cleaned up at least some of their act. Good Videio btw thank you.

  • @octaviochisi3144
    @octaviochisi31443 жыл бұрын

    Hello, a query, I have a dell inspirion 15 5000, the charging pin failed and I changed it to another, I soldered it and now it appears unkown and the battery does not charge this at zero, which may be before the charger and the battery were good, only the charging pin helps ...

  • @tawatchaipolwong35
    @tawatchaipolwong35 Жыл бұрын

    Good job thanks.

  • @jamierose6347
    @jamierose6347 Жыл бұрын

    Hello, is changing the charger will help on solving the problem?

  • @user-mg2hf1xh8r
    @user-mg2hf1xh8r3 жыл бұрын

    Thank you

  • @GSXRMVDUCRD
    @GSXRMVDUCRD2 жыл бұрын

    Thanks for the great video and explanation. My barrel connector ended up like yours when I was diagnosing the exposed positive and negative wires. You said the outside of the barrel is ground, but you mean negative, correct? The center pin is ground I think.

  • @7x779
    @7x7793 жыл бұрын

    Was the performance incredibly slower before you fixed the charger? Mind seems to be horrible and the message implies that the computer will slow down the CPU if it does not know what wattage power supply is

  • @Sawickipedia

    @Sawickipedia

    3 жыл бұрын

    It's quite possible the system will slow down if it thinks it's not receiving enough power

  • @sourabhuwusingh

    @sourabhuwusingh

    3 жыл бұрын

    Same was the case with mine and turns out the jack was the issue as in the video. I did the hack with a glue gun and soldered the middle connection and everything works fine now. It was having power issues earlier so the processor was throttling. This is a great example of planned obselecence and how big companies try to screw us. A simple wire breaks and now your whole laptop is unusable

  • @7x779

    @7x779

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@Sawickipedia I used CPUz And confirmed it was slowing the CPU down To less than half, With a faulty and also a generic non-genuine Dell Power supply. It's struggled to play KZread video at 480P was miserable. I just got a new Genuine Dell power supply now it runs at full speed, Can play KZread 1080P.

  • @hindu_stani
    @hindu_stani2 жыл бұрын

    Whats the centre pin voltage

  • @adisebesan4756
    @adisebesan47563 жыл бұрын

    The same issue at my E5440, the sensor line is interrupted, twisted for the moment and started back charging. Unfortunately the cable comes with another charger.

  • @jaybutnotjay

    @jaybutnotjay

    3 жыл бұрын

    Yeah I could do that butttttt now Twisting it doesn’t work

  • @ydoucare55
    @ydoucare552 жыл бұрын

    The Latitude E5000 series laptops are riddled with power issues in general. I have a stack of dead ones (mostly E5450) all who either don't power on at all, don't charge, or don't recognize the AC adapter, but they're all board level issues (not adapter or barrel jack related).

  • @Wahinies

    @Wahinies

    2 жыл бұрын

    Ahhh I am discouraged now because I am waiting for an input jack on an E5570 that won't recognize any charger :( Dell definitely does not build them like they used to.

  • @Stephenasare672

    @Stephenasare672

    5 ай бұрын

    I have same Issue with my E5450

  • @werejiggy4433
    @werejiggy4433 Жыл бұрын

    Huh, didn't know that center pin was totally necessary for the PC to sense. Got an old D630 that has no option in bios to just use if it doesn't sense. Annoying, nothing wrong with the dell pack other than that stupid pin on that one too.

  • @Ikobeel
    @Ikobeel8 ай бұрын

    Heyy thanks for shariiing. I decided never to buy a dell laptop again after watching this. I have the same "unknown ac adaptor" problem. The thing is mine says plugged in and "charging" but the percentage only increases by 1 after a few hours, which means it's charging but realllly slowly. I tried another lower wattage ac adaptor and it works so the problem is clearly the ac adaptor but what I don't understand is that when I do a power reset (unplug the charger, remove the battery and hold the power button for like a minute then wait two minutes and plug everything) the ac adaptor is recognized again but only works after doing that. If I unplug it then plug it again, the "unknown" problem" manifests again. What could be the exact problem here, if it works again temporarily after a power reset" ?

  • @freeEagle21
    @freeEagle212 жыл бұрын

    Hey. My case, i purchased a new battery and still no go. I tried my charger on a different laptop which works fine. But it's not charging the battery and in the bios saying that it's healthy but unknown... very annoying.. I am guessing i need to pull apart to find where the issue is?

  • @colin8949

    @colin8949

    2 жыл бұрын

    Was it cheap .. and from China?

  • @freeEagle21

    @freeEagle21

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@colin8949 purchased it from the local shop so as almost everything manufactured from China, I'd say yes it's from China. But I figured it out that it was not only battery but also the charger was the problem. Low voltage charger was the issue. Hope this helps

  • @75slaine
    @75slaine3 жыл бұрын

    Super frustrating the way they do that with the center pin. Have just ordered a replacement after seeing a few vids like this. Pretty sure the sense pin is fragile connection by design.

  • @Sawickipedia

    @Sawickipedia

    3 жыл бұрын

    Yep, I feel the same. At first I just thought the cable would be broken somewhere before the connector which would be fair enough, it happens. But after tearing it down literally to the bare metal, and finding a very poor crimp connection in the plug, it looks more like it's designed to fail

  • @75slaine

    @75slaine

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@Sawickipedia other videos I came across the break was in exactly the same place. And given the destructive nature of getting at it, it’s designed to also not be repairable. Piss poor really.

  • @Sawickipedia

    @Sawickipedia

    3 жыл бұрын

    Interesting, to be honest I hadn't checked if there were other videos on the subject, but yeah I'm not surprised

  • @75slaine

    @75slaine

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@Sawickipedia My replacement AC Adapter arrived, and wouldn't you know it, the laptop is charging again. I'm torn between being happy that problem is solved and annoyed that it's that stupid connector and feeling ripped off.

  • @Sawickipedia

    @Sawickipedia

    3 жыл бұрын

    I feel ya!

  • @rust1269
    @rust12692 жыл бұрын

    Hi I need help when I start the laptop it gives me an error in which it tells me that my charger is under 65wat and if I want to play something it goes into lag if I take out the charger it works fine and I can play I have a new 90wat charger for my laptop and I want to tell you that it doesn't charge, I put the charger in the laptop, it charges for 3 seconds and the battery stops, it doesn't discharge if the charger is plugged in, but it doesn't charge either, please answer me

  • @Sawickipedia

    @Sawickipedia

    2 жыл бұрын

    If it's a new charger then have you tried it with the original charger? Also is the new charger a genuine one from the same brand ie dell laptop and dell charger?

  • @rust1269

    @rust1269

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@Sawickipedia new charger original dell

  • @rust1269

    @rust1269

    2 жыл бұрын

    I have tow charger if I switch charger tow Time laptop will charge

  • @yukihatsune9636
    @yukihatsune96363 жыл бұрын

    Thanks goodness you are my Savior

  • @aamirshah6813
    @aamirshah6813 Жыл бұрын

    I had same problem and i replaced the cable. It worked fine but after few days it happened again so i decided to check with multimeter if the all 3 wires were making connection to laptop. When i tested all three were good, voltage perfect and ID sense was perfect. but it sometimes work (20%) and 80% its not charing. what can be the issue i have no ther laptop to check charger. but it giving 19.4V to laptop which is perfect. Any Help

  • @Sawickipedia

    @Sawickipedia

    Жыл бұрын

    Maybe the new cable is damaged. Have you tried twisting and bending the cable to see if that causes it to start or stop charging

  • @aamirshah6813

    @aamirshah6813

    Жыл бұрын

    @@Sawickipedia Cable is ok i tested with multimeter. How ever battery is 95% dead but when i plug only charger it still shows the same error

  • @Sawickipedia

    @Sawickipedia

    Жыл бұрын

    Very strange. Only other possibility I can think of is a fault inside the laptop

  • @aamirshah6813

    @aamirshah6813

    Жыл бұрын

    Is there any specific chip or IC related to same. Model is Dell 14 3421. It just worked for 10minutes and now again same problem.

  • @FantoNum
    @FantoNum2 жыл бұрын

    My adapter is also unknown but when I farted on my adapter.. it started charging

  • @Sawickipedia

    @Sawickipedia

    2 жыл бұрын

    Works every time

  • @smokegames1179
    @smokegames11793 жыл бұрын

    can it be the battery

  • @honeyglazedhams8188
    @honeyglazedhams8188 Жыл бұрын

    There's no reason they couldn't have soldered the pin as well, they did that on purpose. Bastards.

  • @AL-ri6bk
    @AL-ri6bk3 жыл бұрын

    i guess i might have broke that pin or shock the pc. I dont know... :S delicate ish SIghs.... troubleshootings. But thank yous.

  • @AL-ri6bk

    @AL-ri6bk

    3 жыл бұрын

    I dont get mine, it charges at times but then it doesnt at times. :S being poor stinks...ish The hassels... 50$ for a new brick or charger.

  • @Naxxx.110
    @Naxxx.1103 жыл бұрын

    Put putty on the damn jack & keep on using xD maybe also 3d print the cover

  • @kathysawicki2730
    @kathysawicki27303 жыл бұрын

    Good temporary fix while you wait for 6+ weeks till your replacement cable travels to you from the US via China!

  • @kathysawicki2730

    @kathysawicki2730

    3 жыл бұрын

    Only 3 weeks! Wow that was quick!

  • @ancientclown
    @ancientclown Жыл бұрын

    Very poor cord design that falls apart far too easily where it connects to the laptop and lights up. Designed to fail and make you buy a new one. Alienware 17 R5 my first Dell...my last Dell simply because of that. Far too much garbage in landfills already...quality never a word learned by tech.

  • @arnulfo217
    @arnulfo2173 жыл бұрын

    Hi bro, subtitule Spanish please.

  • @ryancrawford600
    @ryancrawford600 Жыл бұрын

    DO NOT short out a capacitor using a screwdriver, if there is enough voltage and the capacitor is polarized it WILL explode. The voltage stored power needs to go some where!!!!. Always use the proper resistor rated at the proper wattage

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