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Bypassing OEM Laptop AC Power

toxxn

Hello everyone,

It has been awhile since I have needed help from the community with a project but I am in need of a solution.

 

Awhile ago my laptop but the dust. Unfortunately I don't have the means of purchasing a new one or taking it to a repair shop, but I have done some tinkering and have narrowed down the problem.

The laptop is a Lenovo G50-45, its not powerhouse, but it has an AMD A8 and 8Gb of ram so it does everything I want it to do. Well, did. One day I smelt a subtle smell of burning plastic and saw a little smoke only to find that the power cord had a small break and was shorting. I fixed the short as a temporary means, but ultimately the fix end up failing over time. One day, I found hat laptop was no longer being powered or charged by the AC adapter. Desperate, I purchased a new AC power supply only to find this did not fix my problem. Laptop would still not power on nor charge the battery. I recently replaced the battery as a last ditch effort, and found that the laptop was still working fine but I found the "Plugged in, not charging" message. I tried all the simple DIY fixes on the internet related to this issue only for none of them to work. Therefore, I can only deduce that the plug or the circuit linked to it is fried, although the plug looks fine and I see no physical evidence of malfunction on the motherboard.

 

So without means of professional repair, I want to bypass the AC power plug of the laptop all together, simply being able to use the laptop again while I gain the means of buying a new one. Problem is, I am not sure how to proceed.

 

My first theory was one could remove the Li-ion batteries from the battery pack and apply an AC voltage to the circuit found in the pack, sort of tricking the laptop into thinking a fully charged battery was in he laptop, however I know it is not that simple as there is a connection between the battery and laptop using signals to essentially talk to one another.

 

My second theory was to modify the battery pack to somehow charge he batteries within the pack while powering the laptop using AC voltage just as the OEM AC plug would do, however bypassing the OEM plug. Thing is, I am completely aware on how dangerous Li-ion batteries are, and if mistreated, the results are spectacular to say the least. Long story short, Li-ion batteries scare me.

 

Does anyone know how I could safely do either of these or have any other ideas that would allow me to continue using my laptop without having to buy a new one or getting it repaired?

Any help would be much appreciated!

 

-Cory

  • Hi Cory,

     

    Have you confirmed with a multimeter that the laptop supply/charger brick correctly functions?

    From all of the above, it actually sounds like it is faulty, and perhaps the laptop is fine. Third party chargers are cheaper, but can be unreliable. If you purchased a third party one (or if it was claimed to be an original but was suspiciously cheap compared to an original one) then I'd suspect that.

    Replacing the battery would have worked for a short while because batteries come partially charged.

     

    I think trying to power the laptop through the battery connections will be difficult, this is just based on a guess, nothing more. It would depend how smart the battery is. Finally, trying to charge the laptop LiIon battery directly or some custom circuit is something that shouldn't really be attempted.

  • It sounds like you have a bad dc in jax actually. On the Lenovo G50-45 the dc in is on the motherboard. To do what you want is a severly bad idea and I would highly recomend you don't try it. Pick up a new system board and use this hardware matnience manual https://download.lenovo.com/consumer/mobiles_pub/lenovo_g_z_50_series_hmm.pdf instead of either accidently hurting yourself or others. As a certified Lenovo tech I tell you this so you do not fry the computer or your self.

  • in reply to william_hoffer

    To "Pick up a new system board" is going to cost Cory a lot of money which he doesn't have.

     

    He has little to lose now so he might as well take the board out and look for damage -  and may get lucky and see something fixable.

     

    I agree that it is not a good idea trying to charge the battery in some unconventional way, and without a full schematic it would be hard to power the board directly.

     

    MK

     

     

  • in reply to shabaz

    Thanks for the reply Shabaz.

    I have confirmed that both the original charger (despite the fixed short) that came with laptop and the new OEM charger I purchased are in fact working and functioning correctly using a couple different multimeters. The battery replacement worked temporarily, as you explained, because they come partially charged, however that gave me the indication the laptop itself is working properly, just that the power adapter is not supplying power to the board nor charging the battery.

    As Bill explained, the problem could be within the female plug connected to the board, which I have not replaced as of yet.

     

    I decided that the time and effort it would take is not worth it compared to just spending a few dollars on replacing the plug. As of right now the laptop sits collecting dust and have taken the route of purchasing a new laptop with my tax return. I backed up all of my data from the Lenovos harddrive so I have I have no lost data technically.

     

    I appreciate everyones concerns, comments, and recommendations. I know that tinkering with laptop batteries in general is an unsafe and unidealistic thing to do, although I feel comfortable enough in doing so, I have moved on from the idea.

  • in reply to michaelkellett

    false he can actually start a battery on fire, he can cause a electrical shock to pass threw his arm and across his heart stoping it, he literlly can cause the bettery to explode no its a bad idea no matter how you look at it.

  • in reply to william_hoffer

    I would say the charge circuit is fried.  Personally, I'd just take out the Lithium battery pack and go the resolder of the mainboard jack.  If the actual jack is toast, perhaps solder the wires directly to the board and hot glue the hole to take the strain.  Of course the laptop will not be as portable as it used to be, as it will need to be tethered to a power source (UPS?).

     

    I can't say that I have heard of anyone stopping their heart by playing with ~20V DC.

     

    If it turns out that you killed the poor old laptop, you could still use the screen in a raspberry pi build!!!! WIN