Have a sony notebook and the power supply went bad cause rabbits bit the cord. Yes rabbits, so i cut the damaged pieces off and then connected the middle wires together and then the outer wire shielding together. Didnt work, i removed the outer shielding connection and it worked. Put them together and it didnt. By working i mean the led on the brick turned on, i have not connected it to the pc yet.

I have done some minor electronics i assume the outer wires are the ground.

First thought is that it's damaged on an other place further down the line. But then you'd have a shortcircuit and probably more to tell than a led that stays off, like a bit of smoke or a little "pffff" un less ther's a protection against shortcircuit.

Use a volt meter to check it when it 'works'

i'm much more careless than you with my equipment, I've been fixing, and re-fixing my powerbooks power brick for the past month or so because i don't have the money for a new one (but i've got the time to fix the old one).

basically, the battery needs charging, and i can't wait until tomorrow (with college and all in the way).

The ground is probably touching another wire somewhere else which causes it to prevent the power brick from turning on. If you're not too worried about how it looks, you could always just crack open the power brick, and replace most of the power cable wire. It was simply for me with only two wires (so i made it longer as well). If your brick uses a 3 conductor or something, easily bought at home depot, or some other hardware/electronics store, just make sure the wires all match up. color isn't important, but + to + and - to -.

The outer part is just shielding or ground. The 2 wires on the inside is all you need to get it work. It is shielded to meet the standards of all countries .

And like the other said, the shielding must make a short with the positive wire somewhere else.