is my laptop messed up?

MrHelpSeeker · September 7, 2019

Hi,
So I've got an MSI GT80 I bought for cheap at the beginning of the year. About 4 months ago, I let a "friend" of mine use my laptop and told him to plug it in as the gpus run at extremely low clock speeds when on battery.
I was a couple feet away from him, watching him, when I caught a whiff of that horrible burning smell.
I stepped over to my laptop and inspected the power jack. The charging cable was halfway in and I couldn't push it all the way in, as though something was stopping it. Get this, the cable was forced in the wrong way
I took the charging cable out and inspected it to find some debris, stuck inside one of the four "cavities" (proper terminology?).
The power jack has 4 prongs in a, I guess, isosceles trapezoidal shape.
Anyway, one of the prongs on the power jack was/still is messed up. It's like it's missing the bit of metal (or whatever it is) around the tip of actual prong. I'm assuming that the debris stuck in the charging cable is that metal tip.
So, ever since then, I've been using that broken charging cable and it's always sticking halfway out of the jack and I've had no issues, apart from it getting quite hot on rare occasions, which I believe is due to a lack of total contact between prongs. However, I decided to load up BO2 today and I began to smell that horrid burning again. I checked the jack and the end of the charging cable seems to have melted a bit more to the point where two of the holes of the cable's end are just about forming one large hole.
I'm hesitant to continue using this cable. Worried that it may mess up the power jack even more if the cables melts again.
Now, about 1 month after the first melting incident with my friend, I received a replacement power adapter from Aliexpress. I immediately put my old adapter away tried the new one. What I noticed was that when I began to play certain games such as Warframe, Elite Dangerous, COD, the laptop would stop charging and the power adapter would switch off. The laptop would start charging again after I would disconnect and reconnect the power to the adapter itself.
This represents why I've been using the damaged power adapter since.
It melting a bit more tonight made me question how satisfied I was with the old cable and it's got me worried that that one prong in the jack missing its tip is preventing the laptop from getting enough power from the new adapter.
I have no idea why the new adapter does not work properly. I feel as though the debris in other cable should prevent necessary power output, but obviously this is not the case.
I was also thinking of attempting to swap the ends of the adapters to see if that would fix anything. Maybe it's a fault with the new adapter. This is a last resort as I do not trust my wiring skills.
Any help/explanation/recommendations are appreciated.
Cheers.

This is what the adapter looks like: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FDV11XY/ref=psdc_11041841_t3_B00CGA5JQM

EDIT: just tried old adapter again playing Warframe. End in power jack is getting extremely hot but performance is as expected.

Edited September 7, 2019 by MrHelpSeeker

Nord · September 7, 2019

Hard to tell w/o seeing & smelling it in person but as a rule of thumb which should be applicable here to 99%:

If something broke, melts or can not be plugged in properly - even if it still does work - it needs to be replaced sooner than later. As it will continue to break and with a high chance even damage something else after it's ultimate failure.

Power Bricks from reputable sources are usually not that expensive and Aliexpress can easily have delivered you a broken brick. There is a reason why people are hesitant to buy from aliexpress as sellers there are not exactly known to be “legit”.
If you fail to find a MSI branded power brick for your laptop, try 3rd party “universal” ones. Which you can most likely pick up in some local PC store - and with some luck even test there as well.

Also not to forget, if the “metal parts” or “connectors” inside the hole of the laptop, where you plug in the power brick, are damaged the laptop NEEDS to be repaired - no ifs and buts - as it can literally turn out to be a fire hazard or maybe even a life threatening hazard. 330~ watts unsafely & improperly passing through is nothing to laugh at.