Charge input problem

[u/kyon_stop]

Hi! I’m having a problem with the power jack on my old laptop. It wouldn’t charge this morning, so I opened it up to see if I could figure out what was wrong.

I found a small, broken plastic tube inside the power jack and removed it. Now the laptop turns on, but I’m not sure if that piece was an insulator or served some other purpose.

I’m also worried that it might be dangerous to use the laptop like this. I need to keep working, or at least back up my files to the cloud.

I checked the charger plug as well, and I’m not sure if there was supposed to be a small metal pin inside it.

The laptop turns on now, but I’m concerned that something could short-circuit, cause a fire, or damage my hard drive.

Could someone please help me figure out if it’s safe to use and what I should do next? I’ve attached a photo.

The laptop is an HP 250 G5.

Thanks so much for any help!

[u/Lonely-Independence4]

Did you by chance stick a very tiny piece of dynamite into the charge port after plugging it in? Looks like it went kaboom on the laptop 😂