I have an OEM charger for my laptop (Model number:DA130PE1-00), and after 5 years of use there are signs of wear right below the tip of the DC pin.

There are three exposed wires - green, white and black. The insulation around the white and black wires has been damaged (apparently from twisting) and the wiring within is now exposed and frayed, as can be seen in the attached picture. I just noticed sparking from where those wires are exposed while the charger was plugged in and connected to my computer, and I have two main concerns;

1) could this sparking damage the motherboard or any other components of the laptop?

2) would it be possible to safely repair the insulation with some electrical tape? Or would this fault still pose a risk to the laptop?

As an aside, this morning I had to remove the battery from my laptop because it had significantly expanded - could this wiring issue have contributed to that swelling?

If there's any more information I can provide I'd be happy to do so, and thanks for taking the time to look at this!

⟐ Commented August 10, 2022 at 8:24 MST

⟐ Edited September 23, 2024 at 16:37 MST

Earlier today I spilled coffee on my dell laptop. Immidiately I turned it off, unplugged power,placed it upside down and disconnected battery/hard drives. Hard drives seem unaffected but I found some liquid above the battery.

Cleaned it up externally with some isopropyl alchohol. Not sure if it’s definitely dead/should order a replacement. I need to be back to work ASAP and got deadlines soon so cant really afford to keep putting it together and waiting for parts.

The keyboard is definitely soaked. There’s coffee and sticky residue on both sides of the keyboard. I’m thinking of soaking everything where I found residue in distilled water to get rid of sugar etc.. and then soak in isopropyl. (Other than battery/lcd)

1) Do I definitely need a keyboard replacement or is there a good chance it will be fine after soaking it. There was less than 10 seconds between the spill and the laptop being completely powered down, and then maybe like 10-15 mins before unplugging the battery.

Want to know if I should just order a new keyboard to save myself the hassle of finding out later, or if I could actually fix it with a good soak in distilled water then isopropyl.

Same with the battery, is it more than a 50% chance that ill need to replace it or will i likely be okay? No visible coffee or residue inside/around the edges though maybe i cleaned it off.

2) can I soak the motherboard inside a vat of isopropyl with the fans/heat sinks or will that affect the fans/thermal paste?

⟐ Answer edited February 11, 2020 at 20:19 MST

⟐ Answer accepted December 02, 2019 at 5:31 MST