AC Adapter just failed

Cheap, aftermarket AC Adapter for Dell L702x. the machine will neither charge not power on. (Battery in or out). I could get it to power on on the remains of the battery so I don't think it's the motherboard.
It's just not charging.

There is no light anywhere on the brick that should light up when it's charging, looks like it completely bricked itself.

Just noticed the LED module on the adapter, and no, it's not turning on.

How often do AC Adapters fail?

 

A full-bridge rectifier is converted from AC (plug) to DC (power jack). It must have been failed. Just replace the charger with first-party, it's a more safe bet.

 

I tried a not so cheap but non original charger for my Alienware M17x. It got so hot i could fry bacon on it, and after 2 weeks it popped while i was in a game. It was rated for 240W, I was barely using 160W at the time it failed. I wouldn't bother buying anything except a proper OEM one, it will be cheaper in the long run.

 

It's cheap and non OEM. Who knows what the design is, and even if they copied the dell oem, what quality of component they used.

If you have a multimeter and a couple of sturdy flathead screwdrivers you could troubleshoot it a bit, crack it open and see what might look dead or broken. I did it on a cheap charger I got and it turned out it was the wall plug cable that was the problem so the adapter was actually ok. Though it clearly had started life as something different - it had LG printed on the pcb and cut wire stubs at each end.

Our Vostro 1500 has gone through three chargers in its near decade life, the only one that died internally was the cheap non genuine. The genuines both failed on the cables from wear.

My oldest clevo 330W brick doesn't work well when joined with another. It still works fine on its own but the voltage output must be dropping a bit (this causes uneven load on the joiner and it would heat up and shut off in the 400's well below the combined 660W rated maximum)

I find cables, plugs and jacks fail way more often than the internals do

 

Dell outsources the manufacturing of their adapters to companies like LiteON and Delta. I would get an OEM one, but you could also get one from a reputable adapter manufacturer, there are a few others than the ones I could mention from the top of my head. Those will also work pretty well. I got a 2nd adapter for my M6700, it isn't Dell branded, but it is the same part# from Delta than the ones that were made for the M6600 (the predecessor to the M6700). It has been solid since 2012.

 

It was the adapter, I had the OEM one laying around, it works.

I got the aftermarket one thinking, naively they are all the same. It was half the weight of the original OEM and different design. Took about 1 year of infrequent use to fail.