Kinda OT but that what's true HW hacker do in a pinch.

20 Jan 2002

...

  Ouch! What ever happened to user-replacable fuses
to handle such problems?  
 Yes *there is* SMD 500mA fuse and zener diode but that is AFTER that 
 darned ceramic capacitor.  That why wall wart died and capacitor   
 Brilliant!. This reminds me of a number of other safety features (and 
 also self-diagnostic features) that fail to work when a fairly common 
 problem occurs....

At your tip on cracking transformer open, I got it opened, 
transformer inside is undamaged in act of opening it up.  Phew,  
Stinky!

Turned out that wart is simple seperate primary and secondary side to 
side.  The core is not *welded*, only held in place by dipped 
whole thing in vat of vanish.

The plastic bobbin is not burned up or melted down.   The primary 
wires simply vaporized leaving copper balls on both wires, and one 
sooty spot.  These parted wires is where it exits the 
primary to the power prongs.

When that primary finally blew, it looked like both wires flew away 
...
 from coil. 
Cheers,

Wizard

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Kinda OT but that what's true HW hacker do in a pinch.