How to repair the charging adapter of the Microsoft Surface Pro 3/4/5/6/7

Written By: Valerio Nappi

Comments: 20

How to repair the charging adapter of the Microsoft Surface Pro 3/4/5/6/7

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

Time Required

30 minutes

Introduction

Due to design choices, in the connector of the Microsoft Surface Pro (3 and later) is prone to failure. The positive and negative wires short making the adapter unusable.

Fortunately the circuit is well designed and can resist a short, so it is sufficient to remove the short to get the adapter working again. It’s an easy fix!

Tools

Step 1

Open the connector by inserting a blade in the two slots on the end.
Some glue spots are holding the outer case on the connector
Detach the glue with a blade and proceed to next step

Step 2

Slide the outer case of the connector towards the cable side to uncover the connector

Step 3

With the help of a knife or a pair of tweezers, remove the resin to uncover the wires.
Be gentle!

Step 4

Microsoft inserted this protective spacer to prevent short of the positive and negative conductors.
Unfortuately this is not sufficient in many cases. We will replace this with a bigger spacer in the next step
Remove the red spacer

Step 5

Here is the short! Some threads burned, if they are not a significant portion, this can be ignored
The two poles touched here, let's clean this area and remove any debris

perfect resolution.

i did the same and booom its working

aman Singh -

Step 6

After clearing the connector from any wires that can touch, use a sewing needle and a cotton thread to well insulate the two wires
Use multiple turns to ensure the two poles can never touch each other again

Step 7

Test that the adapter is working again before closing the connector. The white LED should turn on when plugged in your Surface Pro

Conclusion

To reassemble your device, slide on again the protective outer casing

19 comments

Nice guide for fixing the Surface Pro charger that I’ve used to fix SP6 charger that was intermittently charging at first and not charging at all later.

Andres Attemann -

Was, wenn das Kabel beschädigt ist? Kann man das selbst reparieren? Danke, Oskar

oscargogl -

I don't think so, unfortunately! You can cut some sections and resolder it to the end connector, but that is an advanced repair, and only works if the damaged end is on the connector side

Valerio Nappi -

I've replaced my charger 3 times, twice with cheap off-brand replacements. These instructions let me avoid a 4th! My cheap replacement charger had even less insulation than the original. Yikes!! But now it's working great again! Thanks so much! I will check this site before replacing my stuff in the future. :D

Libby -

Thank you, thank you, thank you for this tutorial! It worked perfectly and saved me quite a few bucks for a new charger, much appreciated!!

Amber G - 29/08/22

Thank you! This is the only solution that works for me! All the other official solutions posted on the Microsoft site were useless.

Li Z - 12/09/22

Instructions working perfectly with a surface laptop 4 charger as well. Thank you very much.

Mike Pikurni -

Very good, thanks so much!!!

D B -

Thank you so much! I manage to fix the %#*@ charger and the problem was exactly what you pointed! You're guide is excellent, even if I'm really bad at sewing and I managed to use some tape, but now it works! Thank you!!!

maxxvolta -

This is brilliant! It worked. Thanks so much

Paul A Skinner -

I listened to a podcast recently where the founder of this website was interviewed and I thought, huh, I didn't know this community existed. And after two failed chargers and going no where with the Microsoft customer service to try to have my laptop repaired I thought I give this a try. I wasn't expecting anything as repairing something when it's broken has never registered in my millennial brain. BUT! This worked like a charm!! I cannot express how grateful I am for people in this community who advocate for repairs rather than replacement. I was so ready to fork out another $1000 for a new laptop and raise a complaint ( even thought about legal action against Microsoft) with ACCC on Microsoft's refusal to have this repaired even though a defect like this should have been covered under Australian Consumer Law. To be honest, I probably still should raise a complaint. It's outrageous how big companies just blatantly ignore the law and tell me that I am not entitled for repair.

Yachee Tang -

Why do you use a cotton wire to insulate? It could absorbs humidity from hair, and becoming conductor

roberto.danzo -

I did not have any problems with that, but of course you're free to use whatever you prefer. If you find that something that is readily available works better, you can update the guide to include also that option

Valerio Nappi -

What a good solution!

Using a needle and thread to insulate is very simple, although I'm a bit afraid that it will short-circuit again and spark (I don't think it will catch fire because being strongly encapsulated it won't be able to burn).

The definitive solution would be to unsolder the cable and reassemble it, leaving more of the inside insulation, but that is much more complex and risky.

It is incredible that Microsoft manufactures a power supply with such good quality (and high price), having such a weak point. Knowing that the cable causes problems, I have treated it with the utmost care from the first day, but I have not gotten rid of it stopping working.

German Bordel -

This was a life saver! I was ready buy a new adapter when I found this. Hard to believe that design flaw exists. Thanks for a great guide!

rbolling -

Hi, Thanks for the tutorial. I had 2 power supplies with this issue. One with a short as described on the tutorial and other with a short 1 cm down the connector due an internal broken isolation caused by the metallic washer holding the cables.

Instead of a cotton line, I cut the isolation of another cable and inserted it between the positive and negative cables, then encapsulated everything with a self fusing tape. It is trick to get the right diameter to fits the casing back. So far it has worked well. Thanks again for pointing to the right direction.

Cheers

Silvino Almeida -

I could but believe it but this actually worked! Thanks so much!!!!

Michaela Pagel -

Works perfect, really appreciate your support!

Kind regards

Heinz (Germany)

HeinzS AusT -

Thank you so much ! Well, I did a little differently, de-soldered all the wires, cut them clean, protected them with shrink-wrap. But without you showing how to open the connector without butchering it to shreds, I wouldn't even have attempted it. You're the best.

Edit: I killed the LED, oh well, as long as it charges I'm good.

Veloce - 01/08/24