I am working on a g4 laptop and the DC plug on the power adapter is broken. where the heck can I get a replacement without having to buy a whole new adapter?
I have been looking on Google with no results
philo philo@redacted.invalid wrote:
I am working on a g4 laptop and the DC plug on the power adapter is broken. where the heck can I get a replacement without having to buy a whole new adapter?
I have been looking on Google with no results
Have you tried any of the web site that specialize in hard-to-find Apple parts? Here are a few from my bookmarks:
http://apple-parts.com http://www.dvwarehouse.com http://www.thediysite.com http://www.welovemacs.com
On 08/14/2011 09:09 AM, Jolly Roger wrote:
philophilo@redacted.invalid wrote:
I am working on a g4 laptop and the DC plug on the power adapter is broken. where the heck can I get a replacement without having to buy a whole new adapter?
I have been looking on Google with no results
Have you tried any of the web site that specialize in hard-to-find Apple parts? Here are a few from my bookmarks:
http://apple-parts.com http://www.dvwarehouse.com http://www.thediysite.com http://www.welovemacs.com
I don't do that much work on macs
mostly PC's so I'll check out those links
thanks
In article j28p9r$rpl$1@redacted.invalid, philo philo@redacted.invalid wrote:
On 08/14/2011 09:09 AM, Jolly Roger wrote:
philophilo@redacted.invalid wrote:
I am working on a g4 laptop and the DC plug on the power adapter is broken. where the heck can I get a replacement without having to buy a whole new adapter?
I have been looking on Google with no results
Have you tried any of the web site that specialize in hard-to-find Apple parts? Here are a few from my bookmarks:
http://apple-parts.com http://www.dvwarehouse.com http://www.thediysite.com http://www.welovemacs.com
I don't do that much work on macs
mostly PC's so I'll check out those links
thanks
You may not have to resort to those shops either. See if you can determine which specific model you have by using iFixit's "ID Your Computer" wizard:
http://www.ifixit.com/Info/ID-your-Mac
Once you have nailed down the model, iFixit should tell you if they carry parts for it.
On 08/14/2011 11:23 AM, Jolly Roger wrote:
In articlej28p9r$rpl$1@redacted.invalid, philophilo@redacted.invalid wrote:
On 08/14/2011 09:09 AM, Jolly Roger wrote:
philophilo@redacted.invalid wrote:
I am working on a g4 laptop and the DC plug on the power adapter is broken. where the heck can I get a replacement without having to buy a whole new adapter?
I have been looking on Google with no results
Have you tried any of the web site that specialize in hard-to-find Apple parts? Here are a few from my bookmarks:
http://apple-parts.com http://www.dvwarehouse.com http://www.thediysite.com http://www.welovemacs.com
I don't do that much work on macs
mostly PC's so I'll check out those links
thanks
You may not have to resort to those shops either. See if you can determine which specific model you have by using iFixit's "ID Your Computer" wizard:
http://www.ifixit.com/Info/ID-your-Mac
Once you have nailed down the model, iFixit should tell you if they carry parts for it.
So far no luck in finding the dc plug
guess I'll keep looking
or maybe one the the local shops may have a dead one I can steal the dc plug from
In article j28i3t$cot$2@redacted.invalid, philo philo@redacted.invalid wrote:
I am working on a g4 laptop and the DC plug on the power adapter is broken. where the heck can I get a replacement without having to buy a whole new adapter?
If it's the wire or the connection that's broken (which is usually the case), and not the actual connector, it's possible to take the thing apart and redo it.
Isaac
On 08/14/2011 11:38 PM, isw wrote:
In articlej28i3t$cot$2@redacted.invalid, philophilo@redacted.invalid wrote:
I am working on a g4 laptop and the DC plug on the power adapter is broken. where the heck can I get a replacement without having to buy a whole new adapter?
If it's the wire or the connection that's broken (which is usually the case), and not the actual connector, it's possible to take the thing apart and redo it.
Isaac nope
the tip is broken off
On 8/14/11 9:21 AM, philo wrote:
I am working on a g4 laptop and the DC plug on the power adapter is broken. where the heck can I get a replacement without having to buy a whole new adapter?
I have been looking on Google with no results
You may have luck on http://www.dealextreme.com
They specialize on all sorts of knock-off electronics that are DIRT cheap. As always, you get what you pay for. The stuff there is all functional, but in my experience, somewhat shoddy. On a G4 laptop, I imagine you're at the point that function is more important than form.
On Mon, 15 Aug 2011 06:58:30 -0400, philo wrote (in article j2au4m$3u5$1@redacted.invalid):
On 08/14/2011 11:38 PM, isw wrote:
In articlej28i3t$cot$2@redacted.invalid, philophilo@redacted.invalid wrote:
I am working on a g4 laptop and the DC plug on the power adapter is broken. where the heck can I get a replacement without having to buy a whole new adapter?
If it's the wire or the connection that's broken (which is usually the case), and not the actual connector, it's possible to take the thing apart and redo it.
Isaac nope
the tip is broken off
If you are talking about the plastic plug that looks like an RCA plug
at the end of the wire which mates with the power jack on the computer,
you are not going to find one. They are custom made for Apple and Apple
doesn't sell them separately. Probably the best you can hope for,
short of buying a whole new power adapter, is to find a broken one
somewhere which still has the plug intact and splice it onto yours.
And forget about trying to modify an RCA plug... been there, done that
:-) There's a tiny circuit board inside the base of the Apple plug.
If the tip isn't broken completely off, there's a nice little DIY video
out on YouTube that shows how to disassemble and repair the plug.
Basically you cut the plastic case open with an xacto knife,
repair/resolder the parts, and then use hot melt glue to put it all
back together.
Best bet: buy a used or third party one and be done with it.
the tip is broken off
If you are talking about the plastic plug that looks like an RCA plug at the end of the wire which mates with the power jack on the computer, you are not going to find one. They are custom made for Apple and Apple doesn't sell them separately. Probably the best you can hope for, short of buying a whole new power adapter, is to find a broken one somewhere which still has the plug intact and splice it onto yours. And forget about trying to modify an RCA plug... been there, done that :-) There's a tiny circuit board inside the base of the Apple plug.
If the tip isn't broken completely off, there's a nice little DIY video out on YouTube that shows how to disassemble and repair the plug. Basically you cut the plastic case open with an xacto knife, repair/resolder the parts, and then use hot melt glue to put it all back together.
Best bet: buy a used or third party one and be done with it.
Yep
the thing is unrepairable
I'll see if I can find a used supply locally
On 08/15/2011 08:06 AM, Thom Rosario wrote:
On 8/14/11 9:21 AM, philo wrote:
I am working on a g4 laptop and the DC plug on the power adapter is broken. where the heck can I get a replacement without having to buy a whole new adapter?
I have been looking on Google with no results
You may have luck on http://www.dealextreme.com
They specialize on all sorts of knock-off electronics that are DIRT cheap. As always, you get what you pay for. The stuff there is all functional, but in my experience, somewhat shoddy. On a G4 laptop, I imagine you're at the point that function is more important than form.
Thanks for the link but it looks like Apple has the thing pretty well sewed up
philo philo@redacted.invalid wrote:
I am working on a g4 laptop and the DC plug on the power adapter is broken. where the heck can I get a replacement without having to buy a whole new adapter?
I have been looking on Google with no results
A 2.5mm stereo plug will work - IIRC, the tip is negative and the ground ring is positive. The downside is that you won't have the shroud, which protects against shorts if both terminals touch something metal.
But quite honestly, it seems silly to bother when one can get a brand new third party replacement adapter off eBay for about $12 shipped.
This is the sort of thing where eBay excels - obscure parts sold dirt cheap. A $12 power adapter that will likely last the useful lifetime of the laptop seems like a pretty cheap repair to me.
And if you must do it yourself, I guess you could buy one, cut off the plug, and splice it on to the existing adapter... :-)
On 08/15/2011 10:39 PM, Jim Glidewell wrote:
philophilo@redacted.invalid wrote:
I am working on a g4 laptop and the DC plug on the power adapter is broken. where the heck can I get a replacement without having to buy a whole new adapter?
I have been looking on Google with no results
A 2.5mm stereo plug will work - IIRC, the tip is negative and the ground ring is positive. The downside is that you won't have the shroud, which protects against shorts if both terminals touch something metal.
But quite honestly, it seems silly to bother when one can get a brand new third party replacement adapter off eBay for about $12 shipped.
This is the sort of thing where eBay excels - obscure parts sold dirt cheap. A $12 power adapter that will likely last the useful lifetime of the laptop seems like a pretty cheap repair to me.
And if you must do it yourself, I guess you could buy one, cut off the plug, and splice it on to the existing adapter... :-)
The reason I don't want to buy one is that I don't even know if the laptop itself is in working condition... but the 2.5mm plug may be good enough for me to at least test the thing
thanks
On Tue, 16 Aug 2011 04:19:21 -0400, philo wrote (in article j2d96b$mrs$1@redacted.invalid):
On 08/15/2011 10:39 PM, Jim Glidewell wrote:
philophilo@redacted.invalid wrote:
I am working on a g4 laptop and the DC plug on the power adapter is broken. where the heck can I get a replacement without having to buy a whole new adapter?
I have been looking on Google with no results
A 2.5mm stereo plug will work - IIRC, the tip is negative and the ground ring is positive. The downside is that you won't have the shroud, which protects against shorts if both terminals touch something metal.
But quite honestly, it seems silly to bother when one can get a brand new third party replacement adapter off eBay for about $12 shipped.
This is the sort of thing where eBay excels - obscure parts sold dirt cheap. A $12 power adapter that will likely last the useful lifetime of the laptop seems like a pretty cheap repair to me.
And if you must do it yourself, I guess you could buy one, cut off the plug, and splice it on to the existing adapter... :-)
The reason I don't want to buy one is that I don't even know if the laptop itself is in working condition... but the 2.5mm plug may be good enough for me to at least test the thing
thanks
Be careful. As I mentioned in my previous post, it is not a straight through connection. There is a tiny circuit board inside the Apple plug which lights the led and, I believe, communicates with the charge monitoring circuitry. You bypass this at your peril.
On 08/16/2011 07:13 AM, Nelson wrote:
On Tue, 16 Aug 2011 04:19:21 -0400, philo wrote (in articlej2d96b$mrs$1@redacted.invalid):
On 08/15/2011 10:39 PM, Jim Glidewell wrote:
philophilo@redacted.invalid wrote:
I am working on a g4 laptop and the DC plug on the power adapter is broken. where the heck can I get a replacement without having to buy a whole new adapter?
I have been looking on Google with no results
A 2.5mm stereo plug will work - IIRC, the tip is negative and the ground ring is positive. The downside is that you won't have the shroud, which protects against shorts if both terminals touch something metal.
But quite honestly, it seems silly to bother when one can get a brand new third party replacement adapter off eBay for about $12 shipped.
This is the sort of thing where eBay excels - obscure parts sold dirt cheap. A $12 power adapter that will likely last the useful lifetime of the laptop seems like a pretty cheap repair to me.
And if you must do it yourself, I guess you could buy one, cut off the plug, and splice it on to the existing adapter... :-)
The reason I don't want to buy one is that I don't even know if the laptop itself is in working condition... but the 2.5mm plug may be good enough for me to at least test the thing
thanks
Be careful. As I mentioned in my previous post, it is not a straight through connection. There is a tiny circuit board inside the Apple plug which lights the led and, I believe, communicates with the charge monitoring circuitry. You bypass this at your peril.
I am going to take the laptop into some shop where they have an adaptor I can try it on... If it works I'll just buy it
On 08/14/2011 08:21 AM, philo wrote:
I am working on a g4 laptop and the DC plug on the power adapter is broken. where the heck can I get a replacement without having to buy a whole new adapter?
I have been looking on Google with no results
Ok
I decided the easiest thing to do would just buy one on eBay
It was just under ten bucks including freight...
I should know by Monday if the laptop itself is any good...
On a side note...the woman actually gave me two i Books to work on...
one of them supposedly good but with a broken adapter
and the second one (with no adapter) the screen is broken among other things but she wanted me to retrieve the data
I removed the drive and put it in a USB enclosure but my iMac saw the drive as unformatted...I was prompted to initialize the drive NO WAY!!!
I then tried the drive on my Windows machine and got some trial-ware mac utility to read the drive...it was unreadable
Then tried it on my Linux machine and again the drive was unreadable but I got my first clue when I tried to run fsck.hpsplus on it... I got a diagnostic that the drive was not cleanly unmounted... so I suspected some type of corruption.
using the Linux disc utility I found an HFS+ partition...good news but the disc label was listed as "apple partition map"
Once I edited the partition label to HFS+ the drive was readable!
I manged to save all her data and have just now burned it all to cd's!!!
1000 blurry cat and baby pictures saved!!!
hooray :)
BTW: there were a few good ones there too :)
In article j2hkfm$on9$1@redacted.invalid, philo philo@redacted.invalid wrote:
1000 blurry cat and baby pictures saved!!!
The pictures may be blurry, but the memories are clear.
On 08/18/2011 01:57 PM, Fred Lotte wrote:
In articlej2hkfm$on9$1@redacted.invalid, philophilo@redacted.invalid wrote:
1000 blurry cat and baby pictures saved!!!
The pictures may be blurry, but the memories are clear.
LOL
btw: the ten dollar adapter arrived today and the laptop works fine!
Thanks to all for the help