Reddit reviews DC Power Jack Socket in Cable with Wire Harness for Dell XPS 15 9550 P56F Precision 5510 Series 64TM0 064TM0 AAM00 DC30100X300 DC30100X200

The charging port on most laptops is a cabled port, which means tiny plug that mounts to the side, and plugs into the board. It is one of the most commonly broken items, and made to be easily replaceable.

Shopping around, you can usually buy replacements for most still-manufactured laptops for about $10, if it's out of production, maybe $30. For good measure, and just in case, you may need the DC jack bracket as well (which holds it in place) and you can find for $1-$5.

If you can provide a brand and model, I can find you exact parts and steps.

Not counting opening the case up, which can be anywhere from 2 to 20 screws, the DC jack itself is usually held in place by 1 screw.

Repair normally takes about 5 minutes if you know what you're doing (even watching a youtube how to works), or 30 if you know computers a little bit and have to guess your way through.

If you have no idea what you're doing, and don't want to watch a how to, and it's a Dell laptop, you can call support, pay for parts, and pay for an onsite technician to come out and do the repair for less than $250.. even out of warranty. I don't know prices for other manufacturers' service calls. Most of the cost in this is the onsite tech.

To be full and complete here, on a very few new motherboards, CPU and RAM are built onto the board in a way they cannot be removed (think like macbook air... the extemely-ultra-thins). Since she's asking $600, it's likely not one of these, motherboards are usually more than that for these types, on board on one of these you're also replacing RAM and CPU, so it can get pricey. If she's asking $600 for a replacement, odds of it being this type AND not cabled are very very small.

EDIT: TLDR: If it's an in production laptop, repair parts will cost about $10-$15 shipped, and if it's old enough to be out of production, then generally about $35 shipped. Once parts are in hand, it'll take 5 to 30 minutes to fix. Even hiring a professional onsite tech to come to her place and fix it is cheaper than replacement. There's a few outliers, but likelyhood of outlier is small.

Source: Dell badged technician who does this sort of thing as a side project for a little extra cash myself for other brands as well.

EDIT2: If it's in warranty at Dell then it's significantly cheaper. If it's got ProSupport, then it's free to repair, with onsite tech. If you want to see if this is a possible avenue, then ask your friend for the laptop's service tag (all dell machines have them), which should be 7 alpha-numeric characters. With that, head to support.dell.com and put in the service tag, then on the service tag's page, click on the warranty information. Active warranties will be displayed there. With warranty, its next to nothing to repair, and she's scamming you.

EDIT3: If you're near central FL, we can arrange something if you need an onsite tech to handle this for cheaper.

The idea about USB-C charger is very nice. If you're not afraid to open the laptop up (needs torx t5 and philips ph1 screwdrivers), I'd find a working USB-C charger among friends, and if it indeed is working, I'd try replacing a charging port for the charger as it's only 10 bucks - https://amazon.com/gp/product/B06X15K6YG

The USB-C charger you need is the one rated for 19 volts and at least 60 watts. MacBook Pro and older Google Pixel chargers should work, as well as some Thunderbolt 3 docks.

Getting the USB-C charger as a main means of charging is not recommended for 9550 as it's not charging when sleeping or turned off from USB-C (at least mine 9550 doesn't).