Dell PA-3E Dim LED

[ratdude747]

I have a Dell PA-3E power brick that the LED light on the laptop plug is dim on. The brick otherwise works (charged and powered a Latitude D630 no sweat).

Where should I look? Bad cable? Known problem?

[dj_ricoh]

Re: Dell PA-3E Dim LED

did you wiggle it?

[stj]

Re: Dell PA-3E Dim LED

do you mean the laptop socket?
i'v never seen one on the charger plug.

maybe it's just a failing led if the laptop runs & charges.
it happens - it's rare, but it used to be pretty common.

[Alfa is auto]

Re: Dell PA-3E Dim LED

Also it might be that the caps are going bad in the charger..

[ratdude747]

Re: Dell PA-3E Dim LED

Yup, in the plug. google it.

[stj]

Re: Dell PA-3E Dim LED

then maybe the old "broken cable at the brick" problem?

[ratdude747]

Re: Dell PA-3E Dim LED

then maybe the old "broken cable at the brick" problem?

Perhaps. Looks like the old hammer and utility knife blade trick is in order.

[tom66]

Re: Dell PA-3E Dim LED

Same thing happened to mine, Dell overdrive the LED to make it bright but it last far less time than it should.

[ratdude747]

Re: Dell PA-3E Dim LED

Yup. Cracked it open, minus some lelon-ish caps on the secondary, I didn't see any issues. given that only 3 wires go to the cable, the LED(s) and resistor are internal to the plug.

Noted on the overdrive... I may save this to power a port replicator or something. I was going to use it with my E5530 I just bought w/o AC adapter, but I can just one of my shrinking stash of PA-10 bricks.