Inspirion 6400 charger, barrel conector wiring

[jon123]

Hey,

I had problems with the charger.. broken wire internally. I am replacing the cable and want to verify which wire goes to which connector on the barrel connector.

I drew a diagram before taking off the barrel. But when I opened the block I saw a + next to the shield like wire. That is contrary to what I drew... the shield like wire should go to the outer barrel as a negative. So I want to ask if someone can confirm for me how this is connected.

There are three wires. Two are together in plastic and the other one is like a shield wrapped around the plastic. I know one of the middle wires in the plastic is to the middle pin, that is easy to identify. So I only need to identify the other two.

What wire goes where? I think the wire in the plastic goes to the connector closer to the center pin and the shield like wire goes to the outer barrel connector.

It is an inspirion 6400 charger.. charger cf745.

 

[Guest]

You should use a meter on the wiring and find out which is pos that way.

I'd recommend a medium priced digital multimeter preferably with a rubbery casing to protect again dropping.

 

[jon123]

I would use a meter but where I am they are impossible to find...

 

[Guest]

I would use a meter but where I am they are impossible to find...

I know the feeling, my apartment can be such a mess !

I don't know which connector your Dell has but it's likely to be centre pos and edge neg. Where there are three pins (as per most older Latitude and Inspiron laptops) the third conductor was feedback to tell the laptop or charger that the battery was charged.

 

[jon123]

Where I am not a lot of people have money to buy multimeters so they are not a common household item... and even fewer people that know how to use them. I had a very confused electrician looking at it. Fortunately I didn't trust what he said.

I did figure it out though. On the top of the circuit board, the ground is marked with 'gnd'. I didn't see it at first because the wire is crammed against the outer edge of the aluminum cooling shield, among other things, and it was blocking the view. I am not sure why there is a + on the same connector below the board though. But I soldered it and its working .

If anyone has the same problem with this model of charger:

On the circuit board there are two wires along the leading edge. On mine they are both wrapped in white shrink wrap leading off the board. They both enter into a bigger white wire in the cord. The center pin is the small white wire that enters the bigger white wire in the cord. The other connects to the middle connector of the barrel.

Along the edge of the circuit board there is a black shrinked wrapped wire. This is the negative that goes to the outer barrel of the connector. In the cord it is the outmost wire that wraps the white wire with the two other wires inside.