A Dell Vostro which had been dropped, after which it neither ran from the mains or charged the battery.

The top photo shows that the socket is damaged (it’s supposed to be right-angles to the case). It’s very loose too

First thing is to disassemble the laptop (Dell provide a guide for doing this), almost everything needs to be stripped out to get to the power socket.

When we get to it, all the connections look sound, and have electrical continuity from the socket through to the motherboard. Parts of the plastic surround is broken, but we’re able to successfully glue this back in place.

At this point the laptop still doesn’t work, but when I try a spare power supply it’s OK, meaning that the power supply is damaged too. It’s rarely worth troubleshooting these so we buy a new one (£6.74)

For an hours work I charged £10, plus the cost of the new power supply. A quick clean and the laptop is ready for collection.

Later on (in my own time), I strip back the connector on the broken power unit to find that 2 of the 3 wires are broken (positive power, and the capacity-signalling wire which seems unique to Dell PSUs). While it’s possible to repair the plug using a 3D-printing pen, it would never look “good as new” so I’m not going to attempt it on a customer’s piece of equipment. (but you would on something more valuable!)