HP Envy Laptop Power Adapter Repaired
Two days ago I got a phone call from the nephew of a good friend asking my help. It was about his HP Envy 17 n-010nb laptop. Apparently he previously had brought his laptop to a repair shop, and there they told him afterwards that his – still quite expensive – HP laptop couldn’t be repaired because of an internal short-circuit on its mainboard.
After I started examining the original HP laptop power adapter – also quite expensive at about a price of 120 euro bought new – I noticed the half broken of power cord. These laptop adapters are designed especially with a 3 wire power cord that communicates with the laptop it was sold with to check if the right original adapter is attached.
In this case the adapter gives up to a current of 6.15A at 19.5V DC. Which makes it possible to use and to charge the large laptop at the same time.
When the laptop notices that a different or for instance a universal adapter is used, or a type with only a 2 wire DC power cord, this will prevent the Battery pack from correctly being charged, or even recognized. The third DC power cord wire to the laptop power input is for communication with the laptop mainboard. This also assures the mainboard that the battery is charged correctly by the right original power adapter. It also makes sure that the battery pack is charged in the correct time it was designed for. Safety above all to prevent fire or explosions. I checked if the laptop worked with the
adapter attached but nothing happened. Which looks like a dead laptop with a mainboard failure. I noticed that the 19.5V DC voltage disappeared after I had attached it to the HP Envy 17 laptop. So this could mean that the laptop was short circuiting like the repair shop had stated. But that is hard to tell without any Led on the adapter outside. I of course first had fixed the damaged 3 wire power output cord to be sure that would give no problem. But still the laptop kept completely silence. And because I heard some crackling noises inside the 120 Watt power adapter when I attached it to the laptop I decided to start opening the laptop to check the mainboard and power jack. To my surprise there was no short circuit or malfunction at all! Strangely only a not attached power cable to the mainboard input connector. And I attached it back to the connector where it should have been attached all along. And the only conclusion left was that it must be the power adapter that was defect. So it was time to open the original 120Watt 6.15A 19.5V HP adapter and check the inside. With a screwdriver I opened the glued together plastic by giving it some blows all around the housing so both halves came almost completely loose. And by giving it some opening space I was able to take the power board out to one side (it doesn’t have to be opened all around to be able to do that) for inspection. But first thing I did was to make sure that the laptop would work when I attached an external 19V DC voltage from another power supply attached to the output wires of the now open original power supply on its 3 wire DC output cord without using the adapter itself.
And indeed the HP Envy 17 worked! Which proved that the repair shop was in error and not worth the 75 euro they were paid ! Above photo shows the adapter solder side after both Aluminium metal safety shields were removed. And by using my nose I was able to track the position of the faulty component. It was the primary interferences preventing AC input coil that apparently got hot and made the adapter useless when it failed making contact to the D10XB60 greatz diode bridge.
It only worked okay incidentally when the coil did make good contact which explained the crackling noises I heard. And so it had nothing to do with any short circuit in the laptop!
Previous photo showed the coil after my repair. Which involved fixing the two broken input wires. Next follow 2 photos that show where the coil detached itself from the solder side.
Following photos show more of the inside of the now good as new repaired 120 Watt HP adapter.
After repair both adapter AND laptop work splendidly again! And following photos are proof of that. The nephew of my friend is very happy I could help him although he previously already had bought a universal Power adapter from manufacturer Trust (that didn’t correctly charge nor recognized his original HP laptop battery pack, which could be bad too?). Also stores do not have such expensive adapters to sell in stock. So my friend’s nephew now only has to check with the now fixed adapter and another new battery if everything is working as is to be expected.
I doubt if the repair shop was qualified enough after these conclusions.
And I hardly dare to repeat myself like frequently before but again this repair is another one at no component cost whatsoever. It only took a lot of time to open and close adapter and laptop afterwards. But it was all worth it. I even may be able to fix his laptop battery but that all depends if he will be able to buy a new one for a reasonable price. And next 2 photos show the snaps I made of the controller chip on the power adapter board after I had scraped of some of the white stuff. I had to play with the contrast/brightness enhancing a bit to make the chip’s markings better readable.
I almost wanted to order a couple of these DAP 019D controller chips through Aliexpress (see next picture) but luckily there was no need for. Also because all other board’s semiconductors, with also at least one 600 Volt (RDS on of 0.24 ohm) n-channel P14NK60ZFP mosfet, checked out fine!
And next photo shows the (3 contacts) Power plug that goes into the laptop’s power input jack.
The plug outside diameter is only about 4.48 mm and none of my universal laptop adapters had this same matching plug. And neither did I have another identical HP adapter to test the HP Envy 17,3 inch laptop with. But not that I really needed one in the end.
So if you ever get a defect high power 120 Watt HP laptop 6.15Amps adapter (with likely only one year of warranty ?) you know what to do and look for.
You all have a very good day!!
Albert van Bemmelen, Weert, The Netherlands.
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Note: You can read his previous repair article in the below link:
https://jestineyong.com/exachron-time-pulse-receiver-repair/
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Humberto
July 7, 2017 at 12:18 pm
Good repair Albert. I have one concept: when someone comes to me with a equipment with malfunction and saying that other tech inspected it, I hear the person, but in fact I begin checking from zero and not taking into consideration the previous opinion.
D. Wilson
July 8, 2017 at 4:30 pm
Good job. However, the fact that the previous technician did not get the job done does not mean that he should not be paid for his effort. It took him time to assess the unit. Unfortunately, his assessment was incorrect but such is life. You are not always correct. If you were to have gone to the doctor and was charged an amount for his fees following which he prescribed medication that did nothing for you, would he deserve payment for his time?
Albert van Bemmelen
July 9, 2017 at 5:08 am
Of course it is normal that someone gets paid for his service D. Wilson. But in this case it was malpractice by a not qualified person. And he shouldn't have opened the laptop to begin with in the first place. He not only told my customer that his laptop was beyond repair but also made it worse by leaving a connector unconnected. And he wasn't able to test the laptop like he should have done like I did. I have repaired many times without having got paid on No Cure No Pay base. Mostly because the mainboard was beyond repair because of bga solder problems or defect cpu/gpu chips. And if a doctor removes the wrong leg he shouldn't be paid either. And likely you will get more money than it would have cost if he had done his job right. I hope you do agree that it was a very bad technician?
Parasuraman
July 7, 2017 at 12:47 pm
Excellent! Your expertise in action!
Albert van Bemmelen
July 7, 2017 at 2:53 pm
Thank you Parasuraman. It always makes me very happy when people bring in their electronic problem devices that others couldn't fix. Which makes the repair more exiting and also possible to write a new article about afterwards. Sadly I wasn't able to reset and repair his old 8 pole connector HP HSTNN LB40 11.1V 62Wh battery pack. Because the BE2WORKS program only supports MAX1781 controller chips and not the MAX17817 inside this pack. Which makes the HP LB-40 serie batteries sadly unrepairable.
Albert van Bemmelen
July 7, 2017 at 2:04 pm
You are very right Humberto. We have always take into account other people's mistakes. Even that of the customer because it often is simply the wrong laptop adapter people brought in with their laptop, or a wrong not matching power plug. It is wasting a lot of time if we open a laptop when it turns out that it just was the not working adapter. Why I normally start with checking the power adapter's output voltage, which here measured the expected 19.5VDC. So in this case I still had to open the laptop and afterwards also the power adapter too. Because both were the problem after it was previously checked by a repairshop.
James
July 7, 2017 at 2:22 pm
Hmmm........ lol very interesting. 🙂
Albert van Bemmelen
July 7, 2017 at 4:44 pm
I hope the article helped you to fix your device James. I tried to add an emoticon but was unable to do that, I came not further then this (;). Cheers.
Anthony
July 7, 2017 at 5:09 pm
Hi Albert, a very interesting repair because the repair shop had not been very thorough in its
diagnosis of the fault and therefore incorrectly advised the customer of a non existent problem!
Well done to you for rectifying the fault for next to no money spent apart from some elbow grease
and making the customer feel at ease that his laptop was not at fault at all !
Thanks for sharing this story here Albert !
Regards Anthony
Albert
July 8, 2017 at 11:01 am
Thank you Anthony! Indeed this repair again proves that time often is worth more than money. Because that was all that it took. I also hoped to be able to show more photos about the second semiconductor. Next to the mentioned n-channel P14NK60ZFP mosfet which was also mounted on the same aluminium cooler. But sadly it was all covered with the white sticky substance. And removing that would make its internal construction weaker afterwards. So I left it in place.
hongkongpom
July 7, 2017 at 5:40 pm
Very well done repair!
It goes to show that doing the easiest thing first ie using another known good charger is the best. However I guess many shops don't want to keep stock. Using a 19.5V power source was a great idea.
Albert van Bemmelen
July 7, 2017 at 11:29 pm
I couldn't have said it better myself! Thank you hongkongpom.
Geoffrey Wight
July 7, 2017 at 6:57 pm
Very good sleuthing! It appears that some repair shops do not want to go the distance to make the thorough investigation that is needed. But they are still willing to charge for a half-baked look-see!
Success is always rewarding.
Albert van Bemmelen
July 7, 2017 at 11:06 pm
Indeed Geoffrey. That's why I adviced my friend's nephew to claim his money back from the shop for giving him a completely wrong diagnostic. If he will get his money back is the question.
Mike Zook
July 7, 2017 at 7:56 pm
Nice job Albert.
Albert van Bemmelen
July 7, 2017 at 11:10 pm
Thank you Mike, it was both for me and the HP Envy 17 owner, who is a young student, as well!
Vytas Karpavicius
July 7, 2017 at 8:32 pm
Excellent diagnosis Albert.Oh,those cold soldering joints and no solder joints.Been there done that.Looking forward to read more about your creativity!
Cheers
Vytas
Albert van Bemmelen
July 7, 2017 at 11:14 pm
Yes Vytas, it probably was a bad solder joint or a half broken coil connection. Because the bad connection worked as a small welding spot that got hot and could have made the solder melt.
Lawrence Pina
July 7, 2017 at 9:11 pm
Albert,
Best way to open a laptop charger:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G47DO2eSGM
Only takes seconds. Perfectly safe. Leaves no damage. Give it a try!
Albert van Bemmelen
July 7, 2017 at 11:26 pm
Thank you Lawrence for that videolink. I see what you mean. I however do not have such a large workbench clamp. But did it almost in the same way with same results by using the right screwdriver and a small hammer. But your method of course looks much easier and less destructive! But one should always be careful when using a flat chisel not to stick it into the 450 e-cap on the primary adapter side. It happened to me once. And the smell it caused was not healthy.
Joop
July 7, 2017 at 11:37 pm
Good work Albert!!
Albert van Bemmelen
July 8, 2017 at 2:13 pm
Thank you Joop!
Suranga Electronics
July 9, 2017 at 6:31 pm
Hi Albert , Good repair Article. Nice.. job.
Albert van Bemmelen
July 9, 2017 at 9:42 pm
Thank you Mr.Suranga. It was an easy successful repair. By-the-way: The mentioned 120 Watt Laptop adapter from Trust (which was an auto-voltage adapter) that my friend's nephew had bought was no use. It not only didn't charge the original HP battery, as was to be expected, but it also had only worked once. The next morning it refused to start-up the HP Envy 17 laptop. So better stick to the original power adapter if you encounter this problem. Cheers!
Yogesh Panchal
July 11, 2017 at 9:37 pm
Albert,
Good job!
Yes some time technicians who does not have proper knowledge will mess-up the things.
Albert van Bemmelen
July 12, 2017 at 2:09 pm
Thank you Yogesh. After such an unqualified technician had looked into the device it is quite impossible to prove he was not licensed or experienced enough to claim our money back. He even may have never opened the device but still claims he had. He still has to be paid for only taking the time to investigate. And likely thinks there was no warranty on the already defect laptop left anyhow.
Robert Calk
July 13, 2017 at 2:27 pm
Good job, Albert. The previous guy sure didn't know what he was doing. I agree that a person should be paid a diagnosis fee, but 75 Euros is way too much.
Albert van Bemmelen
July 14, 2017 at 12:54 am
Yes Robert, prices have gone up since we got the Euro in Europe. First we had the 'Gulden' (with an f for florein for the value, if I'm not mistaken), which was about a factor 2.34 cheaper than the Euro now. And Banks never became cheaper! But prices were much lower. And the US Dollar is close to the same value as the Euro now and it looks if foreign money is going to equalize in its values. So is the GBP which is still a little more than our money in value. Here in The Netherlands they always think of new things to make money with. They recently made the first water cleaning factory in the world that also pays itself back in time. By removing and reusing the celluloid in the sewage water. (From all toiletpaper). And with the granulate new products can be made instead of burning the celluloid as waste in the old way.
Ulises Aguilar Pazzani
August 19, 2017 at 12:54 pm
MR van Bemmelen, good urge , and good fix
Albert Hoekman, Tiel NL
November 5, 2017 at 5:41 am
Hoi Albert, goed artikel hoor. Ik heb in het verleden ook al een paar van die &-adapters gerepareerd in de afgelopen jaren.
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Hello Albert, good article. I repaired also a few of these & amp-adaptors in the past years.
Keep on going!
Ulises Aguilar
April 8, 2018 at 11:10 am
MR Bemmelen, another grate tutorial Sir