Dell D630 broken power pin removal

[brookesandrew]

Hi,
I cant be the 1st to come across this, someone managed to break to pin on their Dell power supply, which is now stuck in the socket on the machine.

I've bought them a new PSU and it will plug into laptop, but doesnt push fully home due to old pin still in socket but at least it now charges and works.

Does anyone know how I could remove the broken pin, I did strip the laptop down in the hope I could push a thin wire through the rear of the socket to remove the old pin but there is no space around the contacts to get anything in to push it through.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Andy

[SYSMAN_MK]

Tweasers and patients

[brookesandrew]

Thanks, do you have a pair of tweezers less than 1mm across which will still have 1/2mm or so gap to grasp the broken pin deep down inside the socket?

Oh Joy!!

[FN-GM]

You could borrow a strong magnet from the Science department and see if you can get it out that way.

[SYSMAN_MK]

Sorry fella didn't realise it had snapped off flush

[brookesandrew]

No problem Sysman_MK, i think its going to be impossible to sort, but at least it works if they are careful, except it is reception and nursery class so I wont be surprised if its busted again by next week.

[AngryTechnician]

Perhaps an alternate approach would be to trim the power pin on the new PSU? I can't say I like the idea myself but I thought I'd throw it out there.

[Oops_my_bad]

Ask dell to send someone to fix it and, if it's out of warranty, give the bill to the person who broke it.

[mac_shinobi]

are they magnetic ? If so you could get a strong magnet or find somewhere that does to borrow or buy one if they are cheap enough to magnetically pull it out ?

[mark]

Is it possible to drill from the back of the socket and push it out? (you can get drill bits that small). The pin seems short, and the recepticle looks hollowish??

Found this on the web:

We repair or replace power sockets where the power pin has broken or has become disconnected from the motherboard. In most cases the motherboard needs to be removed from the system to complete the work. Sometimes the power connector makes a poor connection with the Latitude X300 jack. This causes arcing which can generate enough heat to melt the Latitude X300 dc jack and the power pin may become lose.

...If you fancy some fine soldering and can get hold of a connector.

[synaesthesia]

Trouble is with the d630 like its counterparts is the jack is surrounded by a thick metal shroud which in itself is a complete pig to get into. I've done it only once by snipping the shroud away and resoldering the connector on a D830 and that was a hell of a job myself - but it was such a lovely laptop I couldn't see it go to waste and in the scrap pile

But if you're feeling adventurous, something you can try from the outside without stripping the machine down:

Find a VERY thin but very strong piece of wire. Paperclip will suffice. Holding it with pliers and heatproof gloves, heat it up with a soldering iron, blowtorch or other heat source.
Push it into the plastic (melting it as you go) directly adjacent to the offending pin. Just about 1cm as per the length of the pin should suffice.

This small hole will likely gain you enough leverage to prise out the pin, either with another (not hot!) paperclip, tweezers or similar without causing damage to components, although you will of course be leaving that burn mark. It's probably preferable to stripping the entire unit down though. I don't mind that personally, they're some of the easiest laptops to work with I know of.