Just over a year ago I bought an HP laptop cause it was on sale at Best Buy, I basically just use it as a secondary computer for use on the go, school work, travel, etc.
Anyway, last week it would start randomly switching to battery power even when it was plugged in, I inspected the power cord and saw that the end closest to the power adapter box was frayed, of course it's the part of the cord that gets the most stress when it's packed up. I patched it up with some electrical tape but then yesterday I couldn't get the power to patch through at all.
You'd think they'd make these things more robust but obviously they're designed to break exactly after the one year limited warranty period has passed.
I didn't want to plop down the ridiculous amount of money that the replacement power adapter would cost so I basically just decided to fix it myself.
It took about an hour with the wire strippers and soldering gun and it was a bit of a tricky job since the fray happened at the very end of the wire. I had to cut off the plastic nub that holds the wire to the adapter box with an Xacto knife to get a long enough length of wire. It's not pretty (big globs of solder and lots of electrical tape) but I think I got the job done. I'm just testing it now to make sure it doesn't short out or overheat, the last thing I need right now is an electrical fire.
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