help: broke the ground prong off laptop charger

any way as the title says i broke the ground prong off my laptop charger, im just wondering what would happen if i used it with out the ground plug as there are chargers that dont even have ground plugs, would it make any difference if its there or not

 

You can potentially shock/kill yourself by touching the computer.

 

now i do believe thats only if there is water or some thing like that around it or on you that that would happen. im just wondering if it can be used for a week or so till i can fix it

 

Considering it runs AC (alternating current) it's much closer to your heartbeat and will potentially be fatal and stop your heart.

 

Stick your finger into the power socket. I don't think you need water to feel a nice zap.

 

its not like i would be touching any electrical parts on it well its running plus it does not have that ground when its running on the battery and we dont die every time are laptops run on there batterys or even get shocked XD

 

Seriously...its a really bad idea to use an electrical part that is known to be broken. Stupid, too.

 

its just the ground prong, every thing else is fine, and when the laptop is running on battery it does not have that grounding prong so i dont think there would be any really bad that would happen if its missing, heck ive used tons of power cords that have the ground missing, i just dont want any thing to happen to the laptop so im just checking, from what i learned in high school it was just to protect from shock incase there is water or some thing along those lines. also all the replacement chargers im seeing dont have grounds so how is it that they dont need a ground but this one would KILL ME if i used it

not trying to fight any thing any one is saying im just used to people giving me the facts about things not just saying dont use it you will die, just right now im having trouble getting in touch with the people i normaly talk with about this kinda stuff

also greg nice ultra portable, was thinking about the D430 but by the time i will be able to afford that it will probley almost be time for intel to bring out the next gen CPUs (witch im hoping will use less power)

any way i will probley fix the cord on the laptop in like a week but my buddys so going to kill me if he cant use his laptop for a week

 

While it's not going to fry you in an instant unlike some of the posts suggest, Greg's statement is the general wise idea in such things, "Seriously...its a really bad idea to use an electrical part that is known to be broken.".

Be it that it may harm you or harm your laptop, just get it fixed.

If you have a GFCI outlet plug it into that if you must.

 

See if you can replace your 3 wire with a 2 wire adapter like on HP, Dell and some others. I still see 3 wire(AC) adapters in use which is so third world engineering. If you have a house wiring ground problem or power strip problem, you could be at risk or pick up noise when sending audio out to receivers.

 

Okay, it doesnt seem that you guys understand electrical components very well.
The ground cable which connects from the plug to the adaptor, does not run into the power supply. The ground instead runs into a large chunk of rubber/plastic, where the charge is deffered. I have many power tools, where I have broken the plugs off of. I simply replaced with a standard 2 prong, and they have been working fine for years.
I wouldnt worry about it too much
You can always get a new head for your power supply at a hardware store. It will take about 10 minutes to install.
Remember to slice the end of the adaptor open, so that you know which wire goes to which part of the plug.

K-TRON

 

Guess what K-TRON, my DC shield, outside of barrel, is attached directly to ground plug on my Gateway, verified with my Fluke meter! 0 Ohms. This is on my Gateway 120 watt brick. I have single grounded DC supplies at work that grounds are not tied as this.

I caught on to mine when running down a ground loop in audio. On this particular laptop, with all the plastic, you would have to work hard to get a shock with a faulty supply, unless you get it wet..