Power Cable problems - laptop

[heaver]

Hello,'
My name is Matheus and I'm pretty new to dealing with electrical stuff.
I spliced a couple a wires, soldered some things, play around a little bit in the past year or so.
Last week, my laptop's power adapter died (it had been staggering for the past couple of weeks so I saw something bad coming haha). I found today laying in my house another power supply (HP) laying around, but the connector was different from my VAIO. I was a little bit drunk at the moment (I'm even more right now) and i thought:
- I'm just gonna f*cking cut the wire from the good one, cut the wire from the bad one, solder the wires together putting the wire with the right connector into the good power adapter (they have the same voltage and amperage). Piece of Cake!!!!

So i cut the sony cable, ok
Then i went ahead and cut the hp one and to my surprise there were 3 brands of wires inside...3 different colors, while in the sony it was just 2...the positive and the negative one...

WTF DO I DOOOOO? lol

i thoguth about going into the chip of the good power adapter, desoldering those wires and putting the one with the right connector, but i figured theres must be a reason there were 3 brands there....Is my situation hopeless?
I'm by not means poor or anything, I could easily order another POS power adapter lol or buy one of those generic ones, whatever , but i really wanted to make things happen haha...now I'll drag myself to the bar to relieve the stress...

Thanks in advance,
Matheus

 

[puttsy]

The 3 means there is a ground. Tie the ground (possibly the shield) to the negative wire and you should be good.

The problem you MAY run into is, are the power adapters the same. You say thay have same voltage amd apmerage BUT, what's the polarity on them? Is the PIN on your HP plug hot but the shield on your Dell is hot? If that's the case, you will likely kill anything you connect to it. And by the sounds of it, you are already out of your depth. "splicing wires" and "soldering some things" does not make you a technician, nor does it mean anything if you don't actually know what you are doing. Just be careful and look up anything you are un-sure of...and keep the alcohol away from your electrical work. Accidents happen when you're being careless. And I don't mean making the booze go boom.

To sum up with standard colors.
HP power brick has:
1. -red- = positive
2. -black- = negative
3. -green- = ground

Dell:
1. -red- = positive
2. -black- = negative

Do this: Tie pins 2 and 3 on the HP together. NOW, connect the black to the black and the red/green to the red. That should do it.

note: I am NOT responsible for any of the actions taken by you or anyone else that views this topic. You are doing this at YOUR OWN risk. DO NOT take this as fact, read all appropriate material for your equipment prior to working with them. The colors of leads are likely different and I cannot know what is what without proper material. Nor will I look it up if you provide proper material. I AM NOT liable for any damages caused to your equipment or any personal injury up to and including death if you follow these suggestions.

 

[stubbies2003]

It's more than mildly ironic that you are talking about drinking alot and chose the handle "heaver"...

 

[Pyree]

The problem you MAY run into is, are the power adapters the same. You say thay have same voltage amd apmerage BUT, what's the polarity on them?

The polarity of the connector should be also on the brick. Looks something like this:

(-)---C.---(+) and multimeter is your friend. Figure it out.

 

[puttsy]

The polarity of the connector should be also on the brick. Looks something like this:

(-)---C.---(+) and multimeter is your friend. Figure it out.

Good point. Make sure to check the power bricks, and use a multimeter...if you ever actually remember starting this thread that it....

 

[heaver]

K, First of all thanks for you guys' attention.
For some reason I'm too dumb to do mass quoting, but anyways...

Puttsy> the colors of the wires inside the HP cable are white, black and blue.
I saw you talking about 1, 2 and 3 ( positive, negative and ground), but I got confused when you said:

To sum up with standard colors.
HP power brick has:
1. -red- = positive
2. -black- = negative
3. -green- = ground

Dell:
1. -red- = positive
2. -black- = negative

Do this: Tie pins 2 and 3 on the HP together. NOW, connect the black to the black and the red/green to the red. That should do it. "


You say tie pins 2 and 3 (black is 2 rite?), then connect black with black and the red/gree (tied together, but 1 and 3?, not 2 and 3).

Should I assume the black is negative, white is positive and the blue is ground?

Also my other cable is a SONY, not Dell and it doesnt have any colors inside. It's just one white thingy with copper wires inside and lots of the same wires around it...I separated them, alright but is the white one positive? is that the standard?, the one that came without gay special coating is...?



Now Pyree> In both power adapters it says (-) ---C---(+) (midle thing open to the right with a white thing inside)

Again, Thanks for you patience with me
Matheus

 

[Pyree]

If the (-)---C.---(+) and both looks the same, that means the positive inside and negative outside on the connector. Just solder the wire to the connector and check that you have the polarity right with multimeter.

 

[puttsy]

Check them with a multimeter. Take to polarized end of the power cable (the FAT one) and see what color it connect to. That is Neutral/negative. That is the one you want to tie the "ground" to. I cannot recommend a suggestion as to what color is what in good conscious. But, Tie the ground and that "neutral" together and the positives together and it *should* work. You seem to skirt around the fact you need a multimeter. They are cheap, <$10. It will be one of the best investments you make in your learning process of electrical appliances/interest.

If the cable is NOT polarized, you should still run the multimeter to the contacts to see what color goes to what. For testing the actual plug that goes into the laptop, you will need to test the "pin" that is INSIDE the circular plug, and then the sleeve. Again, I cannot in good concious say what is positive or negative here. If there is no pin, there is probably a sleeve inside the plug to make the contact and the pin would be in the laptop. Testing the pin inside the laptop won't really accomplish anything so don't bother with that, only focus on what is ON the cable/power brick.

 

[heaver]

Best answer selected by heaver.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey