• Question: is it dangerous to try and fix my laptop charger by myself?

    Asked by busstopbaby to Ben, Clare, Ezzy, Mario, Sam on 16 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Mario Campanelli

      Mario Campanelli answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      well, if you get electrocuted it certainly is…

    • Photo: Elizabeth Pearson

      Elizabeth Pearson answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      It’s always dangerous to mess about with electronics if you don’t know what your doing. The dangerous part isn’t so much hurting yourself when you’re fixing it but blowing your laptop up when you try to charge it.

    • Photo: Sam Vinko

      Sam Vinko answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      Unplug it from the wall first!
      The danger with the charger is that it can store some of the charge even when unplugged, so before you do any work on it, you should ground all the circuits. If you don’t fully understand what I mean you should probably stay away. However, if everything is unplugged you’ll probably get a small shock at worst, and you’re very unlikely to be seriously injured.

      In any case, always have someone with you when you do potentially dangerous things – never try it alone.

    • Photo: Ben Smart

      Ben Smart answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      Probably. As long as the charger isn’t plugged in, and hasn’t been plugged in for a while (so that it’s all discharged inside), when you work on it then you shouldn’t be in any great danger of being electrocuted. The bigger problem is that unless you fix the charger perfectly you could very easily destroy your laptop.

      When I was a kid I used to take stuff apart to find out how it worked and to try to fix it… I was electrocuted several times and it always really really hurt.

      In order to be a responsible adult though I have to tell you that you shouldn’t go taking the charger apart as you might hurt or even kill yourself. You’ve been warned!

    • Photo: Clare Burrage

      Clare Burrage answered on 18 Mar 2012:

      Probably! If you don’t have the charger pluged in it’s probably pretty safe to take it apart. but unless you really know what you’re doing you might make a mistake when you’re trying to fix it which could end up electrocuting you or destroying your laptop.

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