Twice within just a few months I have been traveling abroad just to realize that my AC power cord from my laptop would not fit the national wall sockets.

Sadly this is especially a problem for Danes as our national standard for IT AC power plugs are slightly incompatible with many of our Europan neighbours, we apparently in Denmark use something called a “Type K” power plug – this is similar to a Type F/G but not quite.

(The Danish Type K – AC power cord).

Some may see the difference between the Type K and the Type E / F hybrid (used in many other EU countries).

as you can see the Type E/F hybrid will fit a Danish wall plug, but a Danish Type K cable will not be able to fit a Type E/F wall plug due to the round sides.

Anyhow, you can imagine me getting tired of this and trying to figure out a solution.  I came up with three or four, so here we go;

How to build an international AC Power cord for your pc.

one that will work in most European countries (I strongly suggest option three).

• The first and simplest solution is to buy a Type F/G hybrid C5 cable.  This will work in most European countries without problems (it will sadly not work in some IT versions of the Type K wall socket in Denmark as these IT sockets again are slightly different – but this is a minor problem as Danish offices often have both IT and regular wall sockets).
• The next solution is one many of my co-workers turned to, taking a Type K plug and filing it down (or using a knife) so it will fit international power sockets.  Well this is an OK solution but filing/cutting down a power plug can be dangerous to your fingers and to your general security – trust me 🙂  So if you have no better use of your time, and  don’t mind bloody fingers – go for it..
• Third solution actually came to me while rummaging through old cables, I stumbled across an old C7 cable and came to compare it to a C5 cable – and came to wonder – hey these two look somewhat similar (if you exclude the ground connector) – I wonder if a C7 cable will fit a C5 socket..  Sadly it would not 🙁  but then it came to me, what if I take a plier and cut down the middle of the C7 plug, well imagine what it was an instant success..  a C7 plug cut down the middle with a plier will fit a C5 socket (and still work in a C7 socket).  So what you do is buy a C7 cable, these are used for all sorts of equipment (radios, charges, shavers etc. etc.), cut it down the middle and insert it into your power supply for your laptop – and the really clever part is that C7 cables often come with a Type C plug which makes it even more compatible (it will fit virtually anywhere).
  
• Fourth solution is to take your C5 cable, cut it up and then buy and mount a Type C connector.  This will work, however it requires the most work.

This will of cause not help you with UK, US and the Asian wall sockets (although I was able to fit my Type C cable in some Chinese wall sockets).

Anyhow problem minimized.

Read all about the different plugs and wall sockets here;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power_plugs_and_sockets
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_connector