Ok so about a year ago, I had a laptop that it's charger broke. I went out to the store to buy a new charger. This charger came with a like 20 somthing tips that were interchangeable to charge different things. I was in a hurry so I didn't read the directions and took the first tip I saw and plugged it in my laptop. It worked for about 30 minutes, then all of the sudden, my compuer "popped" the screen turned black and I smelled smoke in the air for about 1 second. It wouldnt turn back on. I read the directions to see what had happened. I had used a tip for a Gameboy Advance SP charger in my laptop. I know I could take out the hard drive to get the data, but I dont care about that, I want that computer to work again. It's been sitting in my cupboard for over a year now, any way to revive it?

Ok so about a year ago, I had a laptop that it's charger broke. I went out to the store to buy a new charger. This charger came with a like 20 somthing tips that were interchangeable to charge different things. I was in a hurry so I didn't read the directions and took the first tip I saw and plugged it in my laptop. It worked for about 30 minutes, then all of the sudden, my compuer "popped" the screen turned black and I smelled smoke in the air for about 1 second. It wouldnt turn back on. I read the directions to see what had happened. I had used a tip for a Gameboy Advance SP charger in my laptop. I know I could take out the hard drive to get the data, but I dont care about that, I want that computer to work again. It's been sitting in my cupboard for over a year now, any way to revive it?

 

 

 

Okay if the tip actually fitted then it's probably the correct one, but why you now have a dead laptop could be one of the following reasons:

 

 

 

1. The Polarity of the tip was set incorrectly - Most multi purpose PSUs have a polarity selector, why manufacturers could not a agree on a standard polarity really narks me off. Wrong polarity could mean your laptop would have continued working off batteries for a bit but as soon as the charging circuit died (Which is directly connected to the battery) your laptop would have done exactly what it did.

 

2. The voltage of the new PSU was set too high. Again this would have worked for a short space of time but you would overload the motherboard and quickly kill it.

 

3. The new PSU could not deliver the requested power - On the bottom of the laptop there is a rating in Amps, if that rating is higher than the Amp rating written on the PSU, then it's possible the laptop drew too much current and has actually killed the PSU and your laptop is actually fine. Where did the pop and smoke come from, was it from the laptop or the PSU? By the way, if the Amp rating on the PSU is higher than the Amp rating on the laptop, that is perfectly fine, in fact that is better, it just means the PSU will last longer as there will be less strain to deliver the requested current.

 

 

 

I have bad news though, going by your description of what happened and if the smoke came from the laptop it sounds like you have fried the power/charging circuit and that's on the motherboard, you have killed it big style and replacing a motherboard in a laptop can cost anything from £200 to £600. In the trade this is known as uneconomical to repair.