Dead Toshiba Laptop Power Supply - Can it be FIXED? 

I fix these supplies/adapters all the time. *As for opening them:* First, before using the hammer, I'll put the adapter in a vice and GENTLY squeeze the edges (not dead center) until I hear some cracking/snapping. I do this all around. I now have my own "procedure" that usually results in a nice, reasonably clean separation of the 2 parts. I start by using my little heat gun (the one on my SMD station) and set the temperature low to about 150C or so (adjust as needed). I go back and forth along one edge and one end first. I make sure to NOT melt the plastic. You can see if you're getting close to the melting point as the pattern on the plastic will start to distort. I move the heat gun away as needed. Once I have one side and one end warmed up, I then use a spudger or metal edge (thin) and start to work the seams until I hear that wonderful SNAP as in the video. Sometimes I do have to use a small hammer to gently bang along the seam. With patience and repetition, I usually get good separations. Once one side/end is done, I do the same to the other side. *As for the cap in this video:* From how the spray looks, that cap didn't "BANG." Rather, it did the fizzy spray thing where the + slits open as it swells and does the ppssszzzzttttT thing rather than an explosion. A cap that explodes, causes a lot more damage and mess. This just fizzed out. Personally, when I fix a supply, I check all of the larger caps, even if the look good. I always unsolder them and test for value and ESR. I almost always find a failed cap that may or may not be bulged and as here, may "test" ok, but ESR is off the wall. I replace any and all caps that are even questionable. Where possible too, if space permits, I'll often put a new cap with a slightly higher voltage than original. I do this now, because several times, after fixing a supply, a year or so later, the same cap goes again. So I started putting in higher voltages, same value, low ESR and since doing that, not one supply has failed again (so far) . LOL As for re-assembly, I no longer glue them back together (since these are my own). Well, I might add a little glue on all 4 corners, but not the entire thing. I then put black electrical tape around the edge and then put a couple of plastic pull ties to keep them closed. This has worked without issue.

How strange, the power supply on my acer went just last week and after getting into it, it looked exactly the same as your Toshiba and the same capacitor and fuse had blown. I just got the new parts fitted yesterday and it's working fine, so far

Not sure if this is of interest Vince but when i want to get into a sealed power supply i tend to use a vice to at least try and crack the glue, has worked many times.

They are ultrasonically welded, which basically vibrates both halves of the case against each other until the surfaces melt at the touch point, they then join together as a result. The welds are still a weak point, I’ve found just using a hammer to be good enough to crack them at the weld without much damage, it can take a while sometimes though.

The channel is good and still growing because Vince has not changed one bit since he had two viewers. No fancy shop or expensive tools. Sans the yellow mat. No showy cars (a dumper in fact) or posh nonsense. The guy is winning the RU-vids because he's real and a bit of a penny pincher. Never change mate!

Next time you should check the bridge rectifier before putting in a new cap. Voltage being fed into the capacitor backwards would cause it to explode quickly.

Instead of super glue, try plastic model glue. It takes longer to set, but actually melts the plastic slightly, giving a much better bond.

You've honestly become my mate. I love your show. Your honestly excited when you get the fix and disappointed when you don't. I'm with you for the ride my friend. Appreciate the fun. Thanks.

Nice job Vince. You can break the seal with adjustable pliers also. Works great, just pinch all around the seal with the tips of the pliers. It allows you to get the force in the right area.

I've been watching your videos for years for the entertainment. However, this is the first time I have seen a video that is extremely relevant as I to have a failed brick and just looked online YESTERDAY for videos on how to disassemble and potentially fix. Thanks!

Nice work Vince, I like your methodical approach to trouble shooting, don't overthink ,don't over complicate ,being realistic about your results !

I've found using a bench vice on these ultrasonic welded cases is a great start to cracking them open without causing much damage.

TIP the next switching power supply that you must fix , first test that must make is take a AM radio, place near from the power supply, power on the radio, connect the power supply, you will heard a noise like a whistle, that indicates that the source primary is working, if instead you heard a "brrr" that indicates the power come in but no oscilation on the primary, may be emi coil broken, fuse blown, mosfet blown, if you heard a "chip chip chip" sound that indicate a short on the secundary side.

Thank you for making all these videos. I got a returned ups with shipping damage from my work. It had a crack at the top and wouldn't work. Only the orange led came on. When I opened it up I found out that the pcb also cracked together with the outer shell. I fixed up the traces with my soldering iron and small coper wire. And guess what. It's now working properly. I would have never attempted a fix like this if I didn't watch all your videos. Thank you.

Vince your videos keep me entertained for many hours of the day, keep the entertaining content coming and all the best to you. Take care buddy 🙂👍🏻

I have repaired dozens of these, the best way to remove the casing is to put it in a vice & slowly tighten until it cracks open at the seam.

The music at the start just relaxes me whenever I’m ready for a new video.

Vince, when are we getting a tour of all your spare parts bins or wherever you are storing everything? Would make quite a good video I think. Cheers.

When I was a hardware computer engineer, this was such a common point of failure for all brands of laptops (and Pc's, the PSU's used to fail with age and if you didn't have a surge protector) as mentioned, these plastic cases are ultrasonically welded together to create a tamper proof seal, keep up the good work. 👍🏻

Great Video Vince, and nice fix. Before I powered it up I would have checked the bridge rectifier just in case one or more of the diodes had failed. Great Job 👍

Mrs Vince is very lucky to have you and that you're able to fix things around the house for her! 😂😂

Very nice fix, good job on that :) . That cap probably had a manufacturing defect or (as you said) there was a surge, usually the big filtering caps don't fail. The only advice I can give is to just zip tie it together after the fix, these laptop chargers get VERY HOT, especially when the laptop is charging while it's in use. I am saying because I put one back together myself with hot glue when I fixed one of these and after the first use the glue melted and it came apart.

Oh how i love the sound of notifications and mucking about with porcelain and glass in the background of your videos, it's not annoying at all.

Well done Vince!

Nice vid. I opened my chargers rubbing petrol or white spirit around the seams then a tap or 2. Works a treat. Lots of videos on youtube that look fake but I can confirm it worked for me.

Love all you videos Vince! Greetings from Sicily!

I always squeeze welded together cases like that in the vice, and the case comes apart quite easily. It's what Big Clive calls the vice of knowledge. 😁

After the glue, I roll the whole charger (or at least both sides, near the cables) with many turns of black electrical tape. You can also use some across the broken lines in the middle first, to make it look a bit better. Nice fix!

I keep some old transparent folders around "just in case", and this is a perfect example of "case". Cut four strips to measure, reassemble the brick, put it in the bottom part of the case, insert a strip for each side, close with the top case and a few points of superglue.

The way I would approach reassembly is, after gluing, also wrap many turns of strong tape around the enclosure.

To break ultrasonic welds like on this enclosure, I prefer to use something like Big Clive's favourite entry tool, with a vice. Just clamp one side of the enclosure into it and tighten the vice jaws until the ultrasonic bond breaks. This generally gives about the cleanest possible result relative to other methods, like bashing tools like screwdrivers onto the joint.

Don't think I didn't notice that shinny new Hakko good on ya for getting some nice gear! You've earned it.

Brilliant fix Vince that should be fine now glued back together, done it myself and it out lived the laptop, just a pointer don’t leave things on charge when you’re out, nasty things can happen, I’ve seen a laptop go up and it’s not fun it happens so quick, although saying that it was a copy power supply 😊 worse things are scooters and electric bikes, thanks again Vince

Yes, ultrasonic plastic welding is a pain to get into. Excellent video. Thank you

I have done similar work, splitting-open sealed Units, and repairing them. I re-seal them by heating a clean Soldering Iron, and then start to re-flow the molten plastic across both halves - neatly! No glues or untidy wraps of PVC Tape. I replace any "bulging" Capacitor without testing at all. Always nice to see a good result, and less s...t for Landfill.

Good job! So happy to hear you had the appropriate cap and fuse to hand! Hahaha! Roughing up about 1 cm on both sides of the seal and then using epoxy (black for aesthetics) would have made a safer seal. One could also enclose it in a thin transparent acetate box would have probably made it acceptable for third parties to use, but of course you'd have to tell them of any risk etc.

Those welds are the worst to deal with. I see Defpom already mentioning the same thing but you can often undo them by just banging more on the shell. Not hulk-smashing per say but lots of light percussive maintenance tend to be key :)

It's being plugged into the mains all the time that blows the cap. Nice fix, cheers.

Great video! Thanks for sharing and the explanation.

Maybe wrap a thin band of tape around it, the hotglue might soften when it's warmed up!

Your vids are the best thing on RU-vid

Both myself and my parents had the same Toshiba laptops. The chargers failed within 2 years, they used theirs almost daily whereas I hardly ever used mine. Replacement third party ones have lasted a lot longer than the OEMs.

That would have been a nice tea break fix. Nice one.

Very nicely explained, Thank You Dear.

I've used a bench vise (with some protective wood/cardboard) to slowly work pressure on the joints on these types of sealed power supplies to crack them open along their seals Of course, getting them back together again is pretty much a roll of the dice as to how they crack open

Good job mate 👍

Great Fix I never saw on of this opened.

The mains cap in these brick type power supplies is always the most likely cause if it's dead. An easy way I found after fixing several of these type of brick power supplies as well as the little square type is to put the case up to the joint into a vice then just squeeze it gently along the joint with the vice you will hear the plastic welded joint crack apart it will come apart in only a few minutes and it doesn't make a mess of the case so when put back together you wouldn't even know its been apart.

g`day old mate vince if you at anytime want to get back in to the power supply to unseal the superglue just heat it to around 60 c degrees and it becomes pliable again great video mate cheers

I wonder where all the magic smoke went haha 🤣

I love these videos as a professional tinkerer myself , but I really love the sounds of domestic life that go on in the background , never fails to elicit a smile

In brazil we have a thing called banana oil, which is basically an amyl acetate based product, its used mainly to dissolve nail polish, but you can use to dissolve those ultrassonic welds on the charger, just apply it with a small neddle and wait some seconds, reapply it if necessary. I dont know how easy would to find it in UK, but give it a look next time you try opening a charger, it opens perfectly without any damage.

Nice fix!

I fix things like this at home and if they test OK, they work, then I'm quite happy to continue using them. I wouldn't sell them on after fixing because like Vince I'm not a professional and with things like power supplies I would encourage people to buy a new one for about GB£15 (in the case of the Tosh PSU) . Interesting fix though and it reminded me of a problem I had with mt laptop last night where it just shut down completely. I'm in the Philippines and after a severe storm, lots of lightning, we had a power surge that shut down my laptop like it was dead. My laptop started working again after a few minutes just using the power cycle on the start button but it scared me that my GB£1500 laptop had died

Great fix

Ooh intresting still loving these varied videos

Interesting & useful video thanks

Great and quick fix Mon Ami , I heard about you from Buy it Fix it ...... I came I saw I liked LOL>>>. I'll be watching more vids ....

Well done, another product saved from landfill. I would advise against using superglue as this can cause fumes which will damage components over time. Non flex gel type superglues also become brittle fairly quickly. Most of these cases are ABS so you can use evo-stik pvc pipe weld (melts the case together, experiment, use sparingly).

For extra safety, when I glued the case of my power supply back together, I put two cable ties around the body of the PSU. It doesn't look too good but it makes it impossible to accidentally come apart and therefore safer to use.

safe to sell =no, safe to give away = no, Vince wife has a good life assurance policy = yes

mate i love your videos

A bit of heat round the seam whilst squeezing it with water pump pliers did the job for me. I superglued it closed then placed a large heatshrink tube over the case.

I've had those clover head cables fail before now, very loose and intermittent contact. Many of the issues people have with power bricks is because they wrap them up ridiculously tight and strain the cables.

I've opened plenty of these adaptors simply by placing them on concrete on one edge then giving the top edge near the corner a good hard whack with a hammer. The two halves will usually just crack open, and in such a way that you can glue them back together later on with no real signs of damage to the case.

I did pretty much the same repair with my dymo labelwriter psu. I used hot melt glue but also used an heavy duty zip tie as a little insurance. I still ordered another one though but generic laptop chargers can be bought for £6

You should use the term "hazardous voltage" when working on a switched mode power supply, as they are capable of delivering a massive shock. The definition of AC voltage bands as found in BS7671 are: Up to 50 volts is "Extra low voltage" from 50 to 1000 volts is "Low voltage" and above 1000 volts is deemed "High voltage". It is fair to say that the bulk capacitor holds a charge of around 300 volts DC, but that also falls in the "Low voltage" category. (Just a point, not a criticism Vince).

Quite lucky it wasn't the bridge rectifier that had gone putting AC onto the capacitor. Nice little fix.👍

The way I have found to get into these without too much damage is to get a long straight reasonably sharp knife - I have a big old bone handled table knife. Lay it along the groove with the block resting on a hard surface. Now give the back of the knife a sharp tap (or a bit more than a tap) with a wooden mallet. I find they usually just pop open. Both sides may need doing.

I did manage to repair a Dell power brick once. I had to use a Dremmel to open it. The parts inside were just about completely encased in that same VERY hard glue of some kind like in yours.....only MUCH more! Either it was for vibration protection or to keep us "meddling tinkerers" out of it or maybe both! Lol😂! Luckily though, it ended up being a broken solder connection at the output wire end, but MAN, was it a b$tch to get the glue out of the way! Needless to say, the case was just too damaged to put back together again and I almost, just barely, missed cutting a capacitor open with the Dremmel! Just nicked it! It works but is too dangerous to be trusted, especially alone. Good for me alone though. Like you, I just had to see what went wrong and if I could fix it. A good learning experience none the less! Nice video and be well! 👍👍

In the future you might try laying the edge of a knife blade along the seam and striking that with a hammer. You'll find it breaks the seal on glued together electronics better than the screwdriver you've used in the video here.

Now after our Generation are mostly gone through several Notebooks and Laptops almost everybody should have one of these 19V Adapters laying around. I bet I have at least 2-3 in my Basement-drawer for Power-Adaptors. Anyway a nice Video to watch.

That's funny, one of those going bad. I have a fleet of 'em in my spare-power-supplies bin just because they outlive their laptops all the time. xD Eta: also holy crow they aren't this hard to take apart for me either! You got an extra-enthusiastic plastic welder clearly. (I took one apart not to fix it - because like all of them, it was fine - but to move the output wire to a different location on the box to make it more suitable for the project for which I was adapting it.)

I am a big fan of using self resetting fuses like the polyfuse.

Nice fix Vince. Maybe not leave it charging when you go out. But I dont think for one minute you would. Whens the next Rolls Royce video ??. Love those.

Thats a real nice fix, im not sure if id use the charger as the main source of power, id still buy a new one, and just have that as a back up or even use it in a diy project but thats just me... Anyway great job.

good job Vince. but i would have wrapped it with some thick Kapton tape at the end. the super glue cristalizes and could crack if its knocked. plusthere was ipa around the remaining hot glue so that could have weakened. in any case. good job with the fix. keep it up

Easier method to get those ultrasonically welded plastic cases open is to squeeze them in a vise. Alternatively, you can use a 2-3" metal paint scraper in the seam. The extra contact area when you hit it with a hammer breaks the weld easier. For getting them back together, I usually use E6000 adhesive. If the plastic is damaged/missing, a plastic welder also works well, but it won't look great cosmetically.

Some RTV to seal around the join would be good too. High temp silicone sealant.

great vid, thanks so much super interesting

I have seen one youtuber using lighter fluid to dissolve the meeting points of 2 halfs. I used same approach in some power supplies and it works. Try with another PSU. You just need to allow it to dwell and be absorbed. Sometimes pour it couple times. It evaporates quite quickly so do it in a well ventilated area.

I had repaired some of this chargers... And I use zipties to close it and it works fine!

Great repair, Vince, as always. The only additional things I would suggest with a power supply repair is while you are in there, replace ALL the electrolytics as they are the things that deteriorate over time and then do a load test by soldering some high watt resistors across the output or make up a resistor load with some high watt aluminium resistors on a heat sink THEN measure the DC AND AC on the output. You are looking for, obviously, 19 Volts DC with this PSU or the rated voltage and about a 1% regulation so with this PSU when measuring AC with it under load it should be about 190mV AC. You can also do this with an oscilloscope. If you have Volts AC on the output superimposed on the DC the chances are there are some rectifier diodes blown. An AC voltage superimposed on your DC could damage anything it powers, so beware. I speak from experience and seeing the magic smoke escape......It ruins your day. ☹

In the past, I have used a knife and scored in the groove repeatedly until it's weak enough to break. Then glue it back up later. Keeps it in relatively good condition

I have two chargers for my Toshiba, both of them failed or get faulty with the same fault. They would start to provide less or unstable jumping voltage and my laptop (no battery) will self restart. I opened them both and no leaking or broken things in there. The first one start working fine merely by just opening it and breaking the metal ground cage around it. The second is partially fixed by using flux and heating the solder points of the transformer. The other possibly is that my NEC cap is going bad, but that won't explain why my AC adapters get broken.

When you were taking it apart, seeing the moist, I was thinking for some kind of oily substance applied to the shields and heatsinks in order to create some kind of thermal bridging, so that poor thing could shed some of its heat to the environment. Because these things can get very hot when they really need to work. I don't know how much liquid such a cap would spew when it blows. Usually by the time you find a blown cap, most of the electrolyte has evaporated already. But in such sealed enclosure, it won't be able to do that. Again, interesting.

try using sime vice grips to open the case, depending how its glued by clamping across the seams has often helped me break the glue seal while doing little or no damage to the plastic case

for future reference.........using the hot air station will loosen the joint just enough to use a pry tool ensuring a clean release. Or yiou can use a junior saw and cut along the groove just enough to release it also.

To open the brick easy without damage you put wooden plank on the joint of the case and wack it with hammer until the joint crack all the way, without prior tool, the case will open without visible damage and you can super glue it at the end. Check the small electolitic caps, their ESR often go high and prevent the oscillation of the oscillator. ALWAYS dischrge the caps before measure them, if there is a charge, you can blow your meter.

I'd check any small cap too, could make a voltage regulator IC go out of whack and blow something up, just an idea but it was probably the big cap as you found

Hi Vince they trick to open those if you use thinner on the seam that will solve the glue and you can easily open the power supply.

Vince, when you attempt to repair one of this in the future use my tehnique in a serynge i'm putting some gasoline and go all aorund the edges and it will open nicely and non destructive, to have more precison you also need a needle along with the serynge

Vince, from my experience, in trying to crack those boxes, its is better to start from the corners. Those big caps usually do not fail, so my guess is that there was a power surge of some kind.

Best way to open these I have found is to repeatedly apply lighter petrol around the seam and after awhile it will come apart easily I have done this many many times hope this helps and of course no damage so easy to re glue

I did this.... my on was drimmeled ... fixed a broken wire .. and taped back together 2 years ago... still works 😅

Good video, but I strongly recommend in cases like this to wash the circuit board and all mounting accessories in order to remove any electrolyte, regarding her conductivity...

At 5:05 Zip tie the case together and get out the hot glue; Works for me. And by the way a dremel makes short work of getting it apart.

Have the same one, would randomly get an amber flashing light, and before I swaped out to a generic battery, random reboots. Only recently found out it was the charger being wonkie. Fyi the amber light can be fixed by disabling acpi compliant battery and rebooting with the battery out, then enabling it again and slap the battery back in.

Nice repair Vince, that charger will last and has now been saved by you from the landfill! I know some of these chargers can get stupidly hot, like your really burn yourself when touching them! And that get´s me to think, if it now can be that hot on the outside, what a burning hell has it not to be on the inside? /L

In the C=64 days, I remember having to constantly replace the power brick, which often cooked itself to death. The whole system relied entirely on passive cooling.