How to Make, Repair and Upgrade Laptop and Notebook Power Supplies, AC/DC Adapters and Power Jacks

How to make, repair and upgrade power supplies for laptops and notebooks. Links to free do-it-yourself instructions. If you have written a do-it-yourself guide yourself (or if you know of a report not linked here), please submit a new entry.

Acer Aspire 5000	A complete disassembly to fix and resolder the little circle PSU port which went inside and somehow snapped of the motherboard.
Advent 6418XP (aka Gericom Webgine) [PDF]	A power charger socket repair guides, with take apart pictures.
Amstrad NC100	It seems that many NC100 owners plug in a third-party power supply instead of running the machine on batteries. Unfortunately, the standard-looking power connector has its polarity reversed from what is usual: The outer side of the connector is +, the inside is -. Alas, a fuse in the NC100 blows up when you get the polarity wrong. This results in a dead machine. Null modem cable trouble: The normal way to communicate with the NC100, lacking a disk drive, is to use a null modem cable, but standard cables don't work here is the fix: solder a wire between RTS and CTS on the NC connector - short pins 7 and 8.
Amstrad NC100	"A surgical guide to the Amstrad Notepad Computer" includes a table of what is in the NC100, a block diagram, IC's and PCMCIA card connector pinouts.
Amstrad NC100/NC200	How to fix a broken mains lead and other tips and tricks for repairing the laptop.
Amstrad NotePad/Book NC100/150/200	How to detect and repair the fuse to revive a dead laptop.
Apple iBook (1. Generation)	How to repair the power connector (in French).
Apple iBook G3 Clamshell	DC power plug disassembly.
Apple iBook/PowerBook	Power jack and power supply schematics.
Apple iBook/PowerBook	The DC plug of Apple Power Adapters: have you ever wondered about how the illumination in the DC plug of the DC adapter of your PowerBook or iBook works? Occasionally the cap broke once when I was trying to unplug the connector, so it revealed its internals.
Apple iBook G4	DC power adapter plug repair HOWTO.
Apple iBook G4, PowerBook G4	Repair your macintosh power cord: Tired of Mighty Apple charging you beaucoup $$$ for those badly designed power adapters which break all the time? Repair it yourself.
Apple PowerBook 5300	Disassembly and power connector repair.
Apple PowerBook Duo	Overclocking, cleaning the keyboard, changing the CAPS LOCK light to a red LED, adding a hard drive activity light, adding a ADB port in place of the modem, repairing the AC adapter port.
Apple PowerBook G3 Kanga	How to fix the powersource's connector by soldering..
Apple Powerbook G3 Wallstreet	Fix loose sound ports, display hinge and the power plug using a tongue depressor. Replacing the original hard disk with a bigger one.
Apple PowerBook G3 Wallstreet	Soldering the power plug (in German).
Apple PowerBook G4	65W AC power adapter repair.
Apple PowerBook G4 12'' 867Mhz	How to repair a 45W AC adapter, a step-by-step guide with pictures.
Apple PowerBook G4	Inside the 65W power supply, an attempt to repair.
Apple PowerBook G4 Titanium (TiBook)	How to replace the original power supply cable with a standard cable (Norm IEC C5, KSS 25, 2.5mm stereo jack) (in German).
Apple N.N.	How to fix a laptop power adapter.
ASUS L2400D	How to fix a loose power supply plug. Disassembly for removal of mainboard and for resoldering.
COMPAQ Contura 4/25cx	Pictures from inside the laptop. Voltages on the power supply interface and battery pinout. Circuit diagram of the 4 MB memory module. Circuit diagram of the 16 MB memory module. Motherboard outline with chip product numbers.
COMPAQ Presario 1210 (HP Pavilion XF235)	Broken AC power plug repair.
DELL Inspiron 8600	How to fix a loose power flex cable connector, which prevents the notebook to power on.
DELL Latitude	A quick fix to run a laptop from a DC-DC convertor. The only trouble is, the laptop has an odd square plug and the convertor only has round plugs. An in-line adaptor made from a pen barrel solves the problem.
Fujitsu-Siemens LifeBook S-2020	How to repair a bad AC jack, includes disassembly instructions and pictures.
Fujitsu-Siemens LifeBook S-6110	An illustrated guide to power connector repair, instead of buying an expensive replacement part a few pigtails have been soldered to the motherboard.
HP Pavilion N5190	Shared knowledge: a take apart picture gallery and disassembly guide. Cleaning the fan from dirt and remounting the CPU using thermal conductive paste. Upgrading the hard drive. Replacement of CD/DVD, LCD video driver board and BIOS battery. Fixing a broken power adapter jack.
HP Pavilion ZE 5400EA	A complete disassembly with four objectives: clean fans and exhaust airways of dust to improve air flow and cooling - investigate poor wireless performance - investigate faulty power switch - investigate broken floppy drive.
HP Pavilion ZT 1141S	How to fix a broken power-connector. Disassembly photos and instructions.
IBM ThinkPad A21p	Solar Powered Wireless Laptop Web Server.
IBM ThinkPad X20/X21	Power supply cable grounding (earthing) (in Korean).
IBM ThinkPad N.N.	ThinkSafe: A Magnetic Power Connector for Thinkpads.
NEC LitePad Tablet PC	Healing a 'crazy cursor' bug which causes the pen/cursor to move to and click at the top right hand corner of the screen (in Portrait mode) or the button right hand corner of the screen (in Landscape mode). This can cause randomly close windows or open up the Date and Time dialog box. Very annoying! The real hardware reason for this problem is caused by AC leakage from the power supply (which should be outputting only DC and very low amounts of AC). 80VAC zooming around trying to earth the device probably generates quite a bit of EM interference which screws around with the tablet digitizer. You can permanently fix the problem by adding additional electro-magnetic shielding to your Tablet PC. All you need are a screwdriver and some aluminium foil.
Sony VAIO PCG-FX310	How to disassemble an old laptop and repair the power connector.
Toshiba Satellite A70, A75, M35X	Failed power jack workaround.
Toshiba Satellite M35X/M30X	Does your laptop randomly shut off and not fully charge the battery? Fixing a power jack issue.
Toshiba Satellite Pro 6000	How to fix the power on connector.
Toshiba Tecra 8100 [PDF]	Complete disassembly to get a broken power jack re-soldered.
VPR Matrix 175-B4 [PDF]	DC jack repair guide. Modification of power supply plug.
Zenith 8088	Hardwired power supply to the mother board, bypassing the battery equipment.
Zenith Z-Note MX	Removing the keyboard to get the hard disk changed. Pinout of the strange external power connector.
N.N.	How to power a notebook with solar energy (in German).
N.N.	Laptop power system overview and troubleshooting.
N.N.	A cool portable AC adapter.
N.N.	How to resolder a broken power jack.
N.N.	Notebook Won't Turn On With AC Power Adapter Plugged In? Here is the troubleshooting flowchart for laptop power supply problems before you rip it apart.
N.N.	Step by step power jack replacement and re-soldering instructions. This guide will fork for all laptops with the power jack installed on the motherboard.
N.N.	Laptop power plug multimeter tests for voltages and shorts.
N.N.	Different AC/DC connector types used for notebook computers.