Dell Laptop Charger advice needed

[ahhaa]

My friend's daughter is kinda casual about her old laptop, altho she's very up on Kindle, smartphones, Android, etc. I'd been thinking about putting Ubuntu on it, but then it had 'an accident'.

OK, so she performed a repair on the Dell's charger- simple connector issue probably, but now the DC plug terminals are buried in a cocoon of superglue and wads of electrical tape. (She was far tidier than it sounds )

It looks to me like she has shorted out the two leads at the terminals; my meter says zero volts and the power LED on the brick doesn't come on- I'm told it used to.

My first question is whether the charger has an internal fuse that might have blown, because it doesn't look like it opens easily.

My 2nd question is whether Radio Shack would carry the tubular connector, if I cut the old one off and the power LED just came back on and I found 2.21 gigawa, errr, 19.5 volts present on the wires... which I'm hoping are copper and not something hard to solder... and btw, where is my soldering iron these days?

Which leads me to my last question- I obviously looked online for a replacement unit, and found a bewildering array of chargers from $168 (Dell, but they 'throw in' a replacement battery too) to $19 for an iMicro Universal from Malwarts.

The battery is/was holding about a 1/2 hour of charge, and at this point is nearly discharged.

I've never had a charger problem before, and don't know much about the smart circuitry, potential mis-charging problems (some of the universals say 90 watts), and why the chargers vary so much in price. Any advice appreciated!

Here's the specs:
Dell Inspiron 1420
Model PP26L
Dell LBL P/N JX192 A00
Pentium Dual Core
Vista Basic

Adapter PA 10 or PA12

19.5 V 3.34 A / 4.56 A

Dell Charger
65W
Model HA65NS1-00 Rev A-01
Output 19.5 V 3.34A PA-12 family
Connector shield is negative, center plus

[Wolfen]

It's a lot easier to try ebay or Amazon and get it delivered to your door. I always start there and always get good deals.

[nic2k4]

First thing you should know is the connector has 3 terminals even though it looks like it has 2. The extra terminal tells the laptop which charger is attached. There is a fuse in there, but it's hardly worth the aggravation to try and fix it.

You could get a universal as long as the Voltage matches and it outputs at least 65W, but if it doesn't have that 3rd terminal you will get an error message every time you boot (it can be disabled in the BIOS).

Find a computer shop that sells off lease Dell laptops and get an original Dell charger for about the same price as a universal.

[lingyi]

@nic2k4 Interesting about the third terminal. Probably why some universal chargers will only power the laptop, but not charge the battery.

Second the suggestion to get a used Dell OEM charger. Too many variables with universal chargers. Unless it specifically lists your model # AND that it will both power and charge the battery, it's hit and miss.

[ahhaa]

Great advice guys! The good news is, I got an exact replacement used Dell charger; baddish news was I had to drive 50 miles to pick it up, but then it only cost $15- and problem solved!

Thanks again for the help!