R2D4 wrote:
Can anyone tell me what size or type of power connector is on the end of
the power supply for the Dell 1545? Mine has become intermittent and I
can actually see some of the copper shielding making its way outside the
insulation. I don't need the entire power supply replaced-- I'd just
like to cut off and replace the end connector if I can get the specs.
Thanks in advance.

http://www.formfactors.org/developer...public_br2.pdf

Connector: MOLEX* housing: 24 Pin Molex Mini-Fit Jr. PN# 39-01-2240 or equivalent

Contact: Molex 44476-1112 (HCS) or equivalent

[ Mating motherboard connector is Molex 44206-0007 or equivalent) ]

If you scroll down here, you can see "Associated Products".

http://canada.newark.com/molex/39-01...anada%2Fsearch

Unfortunately, some of those are male pins and some are female.
One part would be a motherboard-side solution, the other a
cable-side solution. There are solder-tail and crimp. For
example, when making ATX 24 pin extension cables, those are
crimp style on either end. The motherboard application is
solder-tail.

If you check out the individual pages, a PDF datasheet should
be available, but it isn't as good as the whole 20-30 page
Mini-Fit Jr. section of a catalog.

I have a sample here in my load-box parts of some pins, but
it's the wrong one for what you want to do. Mine has to plug
into the power supply end, which makes it a "motherboard-side"
connector. Both the male and female have square pins, only
one is smaller than the other, in square dimension.

The package I got, was a package of 15 pins. You would need
two packages to re-do a 24 pin application. You also need
a means to do crimping. In my application, I mangled them
with pliers and some solder, which is *not* how you do it.
I built a load box, to put a defined load on an ATX supply,
so technique does not matter. My load box is a "light load",
100W or less kinda thing. It's not a stress test, merely a
means to put a light stable load on the PSU for a couple
hours, while I probe with a voltmeter for "surprises".

When you re-terminate them, be careful of wire length. You
would be surprised how much of a difference it makes,
if you make one wire too short. They behave badly if you cannot
trim them to the right length when assembling.

You can buy male to female extension cables for ATX. Snipping
one end off, does give a cable. But then you need to solder
the end of the cable, inside the PSU. And I definitely do
not recommend that. You might need a 200W iron, half an
inch in diameter, to get enough heat to work on the
"blob" inside the PSU. So crimping on new pins, and
sliding them back into the existing shell, is the right
way to do it. (The pins have "ears" that grip the shell,
so the wire cannot back out.) A crimping tool would do a
nice job (one crimp grips the bare copper, the other larger
diameter crimpt grabs the insulation to maintain wire security).
Doing it with pliers, you better have spares, and not get upset
easily :-)

Yeah, it's a project...

Paul