also (dear lazyweb),

[zwol]

I suspect the power brick for my monitor is about to fail. It still works, but it's very hot all the time. The monitor is a Dell brand 2001FP, and Dell seem to be profoundly uninterested in selling me a replacement. Does anyone know where one might be able to get a replacement? I suppose one could find some no-name power brick with the same specifications, which are conveniently printed on the brick, and wire it to the existing cable, but one generally prefers solutions that do not involve soldering irons.

[EDIT: I have found any number of things online that purport to be the same part ("Delta Electronics ADP-90FB") but I don't think they actually are. My part delivers 20VDC, not 19VDC, and has an output jack that looks like the picture at the right.

Also, if you know how to crack one of these bricks open and fix it, please do tell.]

Comments

[brooksmoses]

No idea on where to get a new one, but it occurs to me that, if you've got a multimeter handy, it might be useful to measure the voltages on the various pins there now -- while it still works -- in case you do need to go with the solution of wiring the plug to a new no-name brick.

[zwol.livejournal.com]

An excellent idea! It turns out to be simple: the "top" two pins (with the flat part of the plug up) are at +20V, and the bottom two pins are neutral.

opening power supplies

[tkil.livejournal.com]

My part delivers 20VDC, not 19VDC

Most electronics should be able to deal with a 5% difference. The plug geometry is of course a different story...

if you know how to crack one of these bricks open and fix it, please do tell.

SFAIK, most of these bricks are held together with cement of some sort. The usual method for opening them involves using razor blades or Dremel-style tools to cut along the join seam, and eventually taping it back together.

In this case, I don't know if there's all that much to fix; it's a switching power supply, so it's likely pretty complex.

Finally, doing some searches for the Dell part number (R0423) gave me more promising results:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&c2coff=1&safe=off&q=dell+r0423&btnG=Search