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Soo, I recently had a voltage surge at my house, and a couple of my chargers blew up. My laptop's charger was one of them. Upon opening I found out that only a fuse labelled T3.15A/ 250V had burned. Everything else looks fine. So my question is, can I just skip the open fuse and connect the two terminals of it with a piece of wire? I understand that the next time a voltage surge hits me and the MBC doesn't stop it, the charger will probably blow up, unless of course if I add a fuse externally to the charger. Like a do have an extension board which has a built-in fuse, so I guess that'd probably work.

And I know that this probably isn't worth it in the first place, but still I want to try it for the fun of it. I am planning to get a replacement charger anyways.

Also the replacement charger I'm planning to get has the same 3.34A & 19.5V rating, but is made for a different laptop (Insipiron 15 3521, mine is 15 3531) Will it do fine or will it cause damage to the battery?

Edit: Just to clarify, I wasn't trying to use this under normal working circumstances at all, I just wanted to know that would it be possible to just bypass the fuse given that the current will remain within safe limits or a additional fuse of same or lower rating is applied beforehand.

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    You should buy a new fuse of the same type and rating. A charger with the same voltage and connector (wired identically) will not damage anything.
    – AFH
    Commented Nov 15, 2018 at 17:41
  • I would not try this, even as an experiment. The surge may have caused other damage, such as a shorted rectifier. Probably not but it does happen. Such damage is rarely visible, even to a trained technician. In that case the current can reach such levels to cause a fire.
    – LMiller7
    Commented Nov 15, 2018 at 20:53

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Just an opinion... Not an answer as I don't know the ins and outs of any charger but if the charger blew a fuse that means that there was too much current flowing through it. If for some reason, the extension board's fuse doesn't stop it or more likely, the extension board's fuse is of a higher rating than that of what was in your charger, it might damage your charger. Now a damaged charger could still charge your laptop but it could damage the internal circuitry of the laptop as well.

My recommended option is to check if the fuse in the extension board matches the rating of the one in your charger. If it's equal or less then try it out.

Just don't quote me on this. This is just something that has happened to a friend of mine but could vary from charger to charger.

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  • This... the internal fuse is rated for the piece of equipment. The fuse in the wall-to-adapter cable is typically rated for the cable (higher), and the House circuit's fuse is rated even higher (to supply for all the things you plug in at once)... Uprating a fuse is a dangerous thing to do... Uprating it with "a piece of wire" is not a smart move.
    – Attie
    Commented Nov 15, 2018 at 17:39
  • I don't think I'll using this charger to charge my laptop at all, don't wanna risk it. A burned charger is better than a fried laptop.
    – DentFuse
    Commented Nov 15, 2018 at 17:42
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You do realise a fuse has a purpose?

That purpose is to prevent you setting fire to your house &/or electrocuting yourself.
Its secondary purpose is to prevent permanent damage to the equipment it is there to protect.

Bypass it only if you own a fire extinguisher.

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  • Yes I do understand a fuse has a purpose, and I just wanted to try it for the fun of it. Of course I'll have safety precautions in place. Such a voltage surge had never happened before, but we have recently shifted places and apparently electricity is a problem here.
    – DentFuse
    Commented Nov 15, 2018 at 17:32
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    "for the fun of it" is not a good reason to justify the potentially dangerous situation you could create...
    – Attie
    Commented Nov 15, 2018 at 17:37
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I experienced a similar situation. My laptop charger died due to voltgage spikes in my area and I had this same idea of replacing the fuse with with a piece of wire as I urgently needed to charge my laptop and an alternate charger or a new fuse was not an option that time. So I soldered a piece of wire in place of the fuse. As soon as I plugged in the charger there was a tiny explosion and I could smell the burnt circuit. I opened the charger and it was completely damaged inside.

So to answer your question I don't think shorting the fuse connections is a good idea. I thought that it would just work since it's just bypassing the fuse. Maybe there was internal damage as well. A better way would have been to first get a replacement fuse and then test it with the fuse. If it works, then take out the fuse and test again. That would definitely tell us if powering the adapter without the fuse can work temporarily.

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