Laptop power supply repair. Model Targus APA32US
My sister in law told me that she has an old laptop and it is not working any more. She was not sure which device was faulty, the power supply or the laptop.
I dropped by the house to see the problem and the moment I looked at the power supply, I knew where the problem was.
If you look where the arrow is, you can see that there is no LED light on indicating a problem in the power supply itself.
With a sharp fine blade, I cut the power supply open to expose the inside parts of it.
I had to desolder the shield ground off to get it off the power supply.
Since there was no power, the first logical step is to check the main fuse. The fuse was fine. There was about 300 volts reaching the power supply capacitor indicating all is well before that point.
I checked all the SMD parts on it and all of them checked fine but what was causing the no power issue in the power supply?
I let the power supply sit on my repair bench for almost a day. When I came back the next day I started checking things out on the power supply. I thought of something that might be strange to some people. What if the LED light itself was shorted that is causing no power in this power supply. I have seen it happen before.
The LED light was shorted as expected. It was reading both ways indicating a bad short on it.
The moment I replaced that shorted LED light with a green one (the only one color that I have in my shop), the power was restored.
As you can see, the LED light is on and to confirm it, I tested it with the volt meter and the Laptop itself.
Mission Accomplished.
This article was prepared for you by Waleed Rishmawi, one of our ‘Master Authors’ and currently working in the Bethlehem area of Palestine repairing electrical and electronic equipment.
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Jestine Yong works as an Electronics Repair Lecturer in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia and his training website is http://www.NoahtechElectronicsTraining.com. You can check out his repair blog at http://www.JestineYong.com
14 comments on “Laptop power supply repair. Model Targus APA32US”
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Hi, what glue do you use for assembly the adapter?
Edgar: I used super glue just a tiny pit on its four corners and add electrical tape on it till it dries then take the tape off
Thanks!!!
Good repair but one that is very odd and normally should indicate that more parts on the secundary side could have been affected. Like the small power led serieresistor? Luckily it had not!
Albert: usually that is the case but in my case, the LED light got shorted..lucky me
Great article Waleed, I would of never expected the LED to be shorted. I guess that what experience bring. Thanks for sharing.
Andre: thanks. yes, in our field nothing can be ruled out. yes my friend, experience helps a lot.
Great work and more experience is the best .
Charles from Uganda Africa
Kigoma: thanks and yes experience can make the difference.. have a blessed day
Good hint.
I think that I let many power supply unrepairabled because of this faulty!
Jaime: I think I did too. nothing is wrong with making mistakes. the only wrong is when we do not learn from mistakes. keep up the good work.
Never thought of them that way. I guess I have to go back and check. Thanks for the insight.
I love it, way to go. I have found the oddest things can cause total failure. You always nail down the culprit. Since I started following your repair guides, I have ended up with more cool stuff that would be in a landfill otherwise. Thank you for that.
All repair tip are very simple even newbie can repair it.