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Compaq Recalls Notebook AC Adapters
rotifer writes: "Compaq is recalling 1.4 million power adapters as fire hazards. I have one of these sitting on my living room floor right now. Compaq says in their FAQ on the subject "Compaq urges customers to discontinue use of the recalled AC adapter and to order a replacement adapter immediately." and that "We expect customers to receive their adapters within 5-10 days". Which means, of course, 5-10 days of not being able to use the computer. Has anyone had one of these things blow up on them? How dangerous is it to keep using it while waiting for the replacement part?" Only you can prevent notebook fires.
Isn't it possible to just use another power cord from another manufacturer? Is there some kind of reason these are not swappable?
anyone else noticing a trend of recalls on laptop power supplies? Dell had one.. now compaq.
There's no "I" in Linux.. err..
They weren't kidding when the said 'blazing fast'... little did they know they were talking about the users themselves after having used the computer...
---
Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
Where am I supposed to send the faulty keyboard that came with the laptop?
I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
All your power adapters are belong to Compaq.
ok. now these AC adapters cant come on airplanes. worse than box openers.
Compaq. Leaders in quality explosiveWare (tm)
--donabal
Safety First Day?
That was fun to explain to tech support....
Techie: "What do the lights do when it turns on"
Me: nothing, it won't turn on... all the smoke came out of it and I can't get it back in.
I guess I know why it was so cheap :)
(dss-5+ old style POS.. v2.0 is much better, smaller power brick and no fan in the unit)
-paul
... who are going to keep using your AC adapters, please read up on your fire safety. /. poll next week around how many reader's homes burned down.
I don't want there to be a new
"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." - Jack Nicholson
...talk about a new meaning to the phrase "Crash and burn"...
Does this mean I have to stop posting?
What if I use my desktop machine?
I have an Armada E500s with the adaptor in question (mine says PPP003), and I have noticed that it gets really hot while I'm using it.
I think I'm going to keep using it until I get my new one in, tho. I'll just make sure the adaptor isn't sitting on my collection of oily rags.
Brant
Argle. Bargle.
...an update to the classic teacher-pupil conversation - "Miss, miss, I can't hand in my homework because my computer caught fire"...
Anyway, what makes these babies that bad, and yet let them past standard testing? Most laptops+accessories get hot, but something of this magnitude really ought to have been caught.
Well, if 1.4 million of these things are in use by people who *haven't* started fires, I'd imagine it'd be safe enough to use if you kept a close eye on it.
To put it another way, just because Compaq has issued a recall does not make them any *less* dangerous than they were yesterday...
Apple had to do the same thing a little while ago. They couldn't get their crap together though. The first few hundred thousand plugs they sent out didn't fit the machines. People had to reapply and wait another eight weeks to get a replacement for their replacement.
I think slashdot would be a better place if more AC's spontaneously combusted.
And what is Compaq writing in their notbooks about this? Why do they care?
first my quantum fireball harddrive, now this.
compaq should just introduce an athlon with a quantum fireball, firewire, and no cooling devices ever.
if it doesnt catch fire, at least it will make you sterile.
--donabal
Safety First Day?
of Wintel systems copying Apple "features"!!!! At least Compaq was careful to make it the adapter, rather than the battery, that ignites, thus avoiding more infringement lawsuits from Apple.
Of the 1.4 million they shipped out, Compaq said that FIVE of them actually caught on fire. Compaq uses (and I may be mistaken on the number) 5 different suppliers for these particular AC adapters, and the ones they are recalling are only from one particular supplier.
While statistically speaking this is rather small, I'd still hate to be one of the 5 people in 1.4 million whose laptop is toast because my AC adapter decided it wanted to play 'campfire'. Is not having it for 5 days not worth the risk of this happening? I say send it in. I don't have one, so I guess I don't have to worry.
... to get my laptop serviced, I guess. What's scary is that I have, on many occasions, left my laptop plugged in and in "Standby" mode while I was away. I noticed the thing getting hot, but not THAT hot. I thought.
Anyway, now I can get that pesky external floppy fixed... it never did work quite right...
If I recall from one of the myriad of articles, there have been 5 fires linked to those brands. While waiting for the replacement, I recommend only plugging in the power supply while you are present - that way you can notice the smoke/flame before it gets out of hand.
Does anyone here actually read the link before they start yammering away about fires, etc.?
Compaq received 5 reports of fire that were contained to the cases of the AC adapters. None of these reported incidents involved personal injury. Compaq and its AC adapter manufacturer consider this a potential risk due to the possibility of fire, and are taking these proactive measures to ensure the safety of our customers.
5 cases of fire out of 1.4 million units, and none of them were really all that bad. So don't worry about the fire too much. If it really pains you to go without power to your laptop for several days, which is entirely probable, just don't return it. Then if it does catch fire, you're still pretty safe because Compaq already admitted to a defect.
(As an aside, I could almost have one of these, but it's not the correct series. Woo hoo!)
Where the wind blows, the tumbleweed goes.
When this happened to the adapter for my powerbook, I never even bothered to get it replaced. The chances of it actually catching on fire are remote, so long as you don't leave it sitting next to your box of oily rags...
Really all this means is that notebooks today use quite a bit of power, and in the push to miniturize AC-DC converters they've been sacrificing efficiency and heat distribution to size. All the more reason the companies should be focusing more on making notebooks more efficient rather than just more powerful.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
I mean, sure AC's can be annoying at times given their propensity to flame but please. Packing them in boxes and shipping them somewhere just isn't the answer.
"Slashdot is about legos and staplers." -Cmdr. Taco
Perhaps the trend of power supply failures which tend to be in a somewhat "flammable" failure-mode should indicate that better standards should be set by the certification angencies. Maybe UL should start denying seal rights to designs not able to function under rated load at a lower temperature.
:) The other two really didn't last very long. I don't think they were meant for continuous duty for some reason. Maybe they expect the laptop to be used in more than one location..
I wonder if there is a trend that would show up if we looked at all the 3rd party manufacturers of these adapters. I know that the AC adapter for my Thinkpad was proudly made in China by Astec electronics. Well, at least the third adapter I received from IBM.
For those of you who wish to keep using your adapters, I would suggest using a fused power strip, with an easily accessable switch. Oh yeah, and seal the rectifier in a large concrete bunker.
I apparently forgot that sig != uptime...
And I had a hell of a time having it fixed, it worked fine for a couple months and then started "blinking" on the output, after a few days of this the smell was there again and I had it replaced.
It didn't melt or catch fire anyway.... I sold it and got me a Vaio, whose magnesium is loosing paint.
I wish they'd make things to last.
Joe
A recall on power adapters is front page news? Furrfu.
Serves Compaq and their user base for attempting to adapt to the ways of an Anonymous Coward!
It makes me sick to think of thousands of people changing their ways to speak of Hot Grits, Sporks, Natalie Portman, Penis Birds, First Posts,imagining themselves possessing Beowulf Clusters of any type of hardware and just general flame baiting everything in sight.
Hopefully they'll recall these things and never replace them!
[Connection closed by foreign host]
Until the new one arrives go ahead and use the one you have. As a precaution you'd better keep it submerged in a bucket of water, though. Then you won't have to worry about it bursting into flames! :-)
And if you keep the water cold you can store some brew in it for easy access while computing!
(He he)
at least, as far as my linear algebra class was concerned... you see, the professor happened to have one of those toasty Dell laptops... well one day the computer actually did catch fire, and happened to take out a good bit of the bookshelf , along with a stack of linear quizzes for that week... didn't really affect me personally, since this was fairly early in the quarter and the quiz wasn't all that difficult... it did end up delaying the next quiz though ;)
09
We have about 1000 Compaq portables, about 1/4 of them have suspect adapters, and we did have a small fire last year started by an AC adapter from one of these computers. (the public safety officer disposed of the charred remains of the adapter before we could identify it, though.)
-- Of course I'm paranoid. I'm a sysadmin.
Not nearly first, and isn't LiteStep borderline dead?
What with merges with other shells, loss of all its relevant (theme-pushing) domains, internal squabbling, etc.?
137 unfunny "AC means Anonymous Coward" posts on this thread. The only halfway original comment gets moderated down.
I'll see your asses in metamod.
-- In the future, everyone will code Perl for 15 minutes. --
http://exchange.info.apple.com/exchange/
Thing is, the replaced the old black slim adapter with the one that now ships with the PBG4 and iBook.... a huge silver UFO-looking thing. I want my old adapter back.
Now, on topic:
Dell had this problem with batteries, and it was a real issue. If I recal correctly, Gateway also had an adapter issue some years ago. Now Compaq does. I wanna know what these manufacturers are trying to accomplish. They all more or less seem to be making the same basic mistakes with their overall system designs. Might I suggest that instead of using transformers in the power packs instead use a capacitive power supply that produces much less heat and is more effiecient than the transformers of old. Folks in California might actually purchase one laptop over another if it was energy effiecent and didn't start fires.
Things you can say to your dog that you can't say to a girl: "How about a nice bone?"
We've got a million of the Armada M700s which have a poor cover for the ports in the back of the PC. They simply use a piece of rubber to seal these ports and its very easy to lose since it's not affixed to the PC. If you lose this item, the ports are always exposed. A girl at my place of business was unfortunate enough to turn on the PC after a piece of pencil lead (from the bottom of her carrying bag) became wedged in the replicator port. It caught fire and the entire building smelled like burned circuit board.
"You've let the smoke out - we'll have to order some more..."
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
My ATARI used to get so hot I couldn't pull the AC Adapter out of the wall. Thats only for playing it from my 4th birthday to my 8th. I never understood the kids who's parents always made them unplug the thing when we weren't playing it.
Give the powersupply to your ex as part of the divorce settlement (if applicable).
Here are some ideas for things to do with your old AC adapter after recieving a replacement...
-Keeping the coffee pot hot at your desk.
-A foot warmer that works even through the thickest of shoes.
-Use it to run a still... You don't have to keep adding wood to the fire!
-Play practical jokes on your office friends by placing it on their chairs.
-On a cool autumn evening, sit around it and roast marshmallows and sing kum-baya.
Finally...
-Let it sit on all day to see exactly what the response time of your local fire department is.
-ShelbyCobra
Living life in the right side of the s-plane
Whether or not you're without the use of your computer for a few days depends on the efficiency of Compaq's customer service department.
Apple has an ongoing recall program for the AC adapters for first-generation Power Mac G3 laptops, and the turnaround time was astonishingly short. I filled in the form on their website on a Sunday evening, and Monday morning at 8:30 am, there was a courier at my door with a new adapter (the snazzy yoyo-shaped translucent ones that they give out with newer laptops) and a prepaid courier envelope for returning the old one. There was no loss of productivity because they supplied the new adapter first. Now *that's* class.
It seems that companies often outsource recall programs such as this to firms that specialize in recalls in order to speed things up. The address on the courier envelope I got wasn't to Apple corp, it was some local firm in a nearby industrial park.
I hope Compaq owners are this lucky.
----- Trapped in time. Surrounded by evil. Low on gas. --Army of Darkness
At my old company, we purchased a whole slew of really damned cheap (but fast!) Toshiba laptops. The AC adapters were so hot that quite a few users were afraid to touch them. I even caught someone putting their coffee mug on top of the AC adapter to keep it warm.
And if you call within the next 15 minutes, we'll throw in a FREE coffee warmer!
Safe how? You seem to imply that if it catches fire it's compaq's fault.
This is wrong. If they issue a recall telling you that you should replace and you DON'T. Then it's YOUR fault if it causes a fire after the fact.
Their fault it breaks, but they have offered to replace them. If you refuse that offer, no one's going to help you if your house burns.
No unauthorized use. Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.
Well, we would have said something sooner, but our notebook caught fire.
Mine died the third time I used it.
I just ordered my replacement online. It's fast and the only information they need is the model number and the serial number of the computer. (oh .. .and the shipping adress)
Compaq says they take 48h to ship via UPS Ground in the US...
Way to go !
I love Slashdot, but I feel that this story is insignificant and this really should have gotten through. Linux is making inroads in production studios and that's a very big deal. So at the expense of my karma... http://cgw.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cf m?Section=Articles&Subsection=Display&ARTICLE_ID=1 18664
This Wiki Feeds You TV and Anime - vidwiki.org
.....http://exchange.info.apple.com/exchange/
I had one of those power supplies, but it only got warm when my laptop was charging. As a matter of fact, I believe my new one gets hotter imo.... =-P
Compaq (Score -1,Flamebait)
Ryan "NorseLord" Christiansen. Here's a big FUCK YOU to you, pal. Go suck a cock, asshole. I realize it's difficult for somebody like you to have a penis-shaped head, but you've always been fun to laugh at. I wish you a sub-par remainder of a life, turncoat.
--Your enemy.
FWIW, I have two of these things - one at work and one at home - for my company-issued Armada M300. I leave both plugged in all the time, and they're barely even lukewarm. The bottom of the laptop itself can get pretty damn hot if I'm doing something CPU-intensive like playing games, but the AC units have never given me any cause to worry.
Slashdot - News for Herds. Stuff that Splatters.
Power Supply modules are made with components that can easily overheat, and although they may have met UL and CE requirements, construction variations can lead to failure. (Consider a stamped heatsink that is not flat, so the transistor cannot dissipate its heat well or a feedback circuit whose component variations leave it unstable and it "rings" as it switches.) Although power supplies have fewer percent failures than mainboards (last I heard) the are in the power line and failure can more easily cause overheating. As an analog/digital/power design engineer, I do not leave devices on that get hot (not just warm) to the touch, and since I do not trust cooling fans, my computers get turned off when I am not there. (Note that most new AT-X desktop power supplies go into sleep mode and are not using power after a while. Laptop "bricks" and plug-in power line modules are always on, so they may remain hot even under no-load conditions.)
Surprisingly enough, this comes only 1 day after Cisco's similar announcement, recalling power supplies for their 826, 827, 827-4V and SOHO 77 routers.
I've had an Armada V300 for 5 months (happily running Mandrake 8.0), and I have had the AC adaptor get hot enough to be uncomfortable to hold a few times. It only seems to be a problem when it's charging the battery. I'll be swiftly replacing the thing so I can sleep. (The inside of my house was destroyed by an electrical fire a year ago, I still am bothered tremensly by my cats playing with plastic bags)
I lost my Compaq adapter in a hotel a week ago today. Perhaps its a blessing that I did. I was thinking of getting the multiadpter made by targus has anyone used it?
Everybody knows that water conducts electricity very well, crazy man!
You should use something less conductive, like isopropyl alcohol or gasoline.
I had one go up on me... it was sitting in my lap.. I had hot pants.
I opened the thing up and it looked like it was a short. When it died I saw big sparks and some somke coming out of it. then it took compaq 2 weeks to get my new one to me!
They lost my biz for good after that.
Wonder if submitter is still with us to see repiles? Or perhaps he can't as he discontinued using it thus he has no power to use his computer?
Winter 2010: With Glowing Hearts
don't know whether they're getting slashdotted or what, but their multiple entry form doesn't work.
got 30 of these suckers to get exchanged.
stored on computers from birth to the grave
All Canadian MSFT employees are using the M700, and most US employees too. There are also a lot of E500s in there too
this is really good stuff...whats the story on Ryan? Google doesn't have much to say expect about some BeOS stuff..
you're not supposed to have open ports on your compuer. I wonder if she blamed a virus.
This really isn't an uncommon problem with switching power supplies. The company I worked for had this problem at least three times, and we always "solved" it by switching vendors. This seems to be the case with Apple, IBM, and Compaq, all of whom have hit this problem in the recent past.
I'm just wondering how they know that this new vendor's supplies are any better than the old ones. Remember that we're talking about a 0.003% failure rate here. What possible QA tests could you use to verify that the new supplies don't have the problem?
-Zandr
You have violated Robot's Rules of Order and will be asked to leave the future immediately.
My compaq AC adapter (presario 1700 series) isn't one of the ones recalled, but i wish it was. 1/2 the time it doesn't make solid contact with the notebook, and the battery runs down while it appears to be plugged in. You have to wiggle it to get it to work.
~William Dunn
sig?
Never been laid, huh? Anyone who has knows that really good blow jobs involve LICKING, BITING, and BENDING, but not much SUCKING. The only thing that sucks around here is you.
I have the Presario 1700. I ordered it custom. The computer is actually at Compaq's repair center right now because the AC adapter turns on and off when using the computer and it has fried my battery, completly so it won't hold a charge. System board is shot as well. Odd coincindence to see this on /. Thank god for the warranty.
BTW- its been 2 weeks and they still haven't fixed the comp. to and mailed it back.
Never buy a COMPAQ!!
Bobuhabu
How dangerous is it to keep using it while waiting for the replacement part?"
If an electrical apparatus consumes 10W of power, then that's about the amount of "heat" that it will produce (unless it moves stuff in the real world).
Normally that would require say 20 degrees heat-difference between the adapter and the room. So, the adapter will become 40 degrees if your room-temperature is 20.
If you thermally isolate the adapter, then still that 10W of heat will have to leave the adapter+isolation. If the isolation is good it will increase the thermal resistance by a factor of ten, and by that time the temperature of the adapter will become 220 degrees centigrade. At that point, some components will give up, and they might start a fire.
Thus: DO NOT use the adapter while thermally isolated. Keep it cool. Ventilate well. Don't put it on the couch, especially not with a cushion on top. Put it on a table.
Roger.
At least they're being honest here, and not waiting for ten people to die in fires like Apple did with it's exploding laptops.
While we're on the subject of AC adapters, here is how one works (I just had a lab practical yesterday in which I was required to build a 120 VAC -> 9 VDC converter):
The AC line is connected to two ends, one positive and one negative, of a transformer. Optionally, if the transformer is center-tapped, the center tap will go to the ground wire in the AC outlet. The transformer merely drops the AC voltage from 120 Vrms to a more manageable value, which is still AC.
On the other side of the transformer, both the positive and the negative terminals of the transformer are connected to diodes (I'm not particularly certain if the type is important, but I used 1N4007 diodes yesterday), which are then connected to the same point. This end of the transformer, which is nearly always center-tapped, has the center tap grounded. It is used as the ground reference on the DC supply.
A resistor is connected in series with where the diodes. For a 9V power supply, this resistance will be around 500 ohms.
What I have described so far is known as a full-wave rectifier. Think of its output as a sine wave with absolute values applied, and the peaks around the target voltage, 9V in this case. The effective voltage at this point is only 9/sqrt(2) = ~6.3 volts due to this.
To smooth out the waveform and keep the voltage constant, we add a capacitor in parallel with the output terminals. For an unregulated 9V DC power supply, a 10 uF capacitor will do the trick. We now have an *unregulated* 9V DC power supply, obtained from a wall socket.
I pledge allegiance to the flag...
of the Corporate States of America...
This is just yet another example of the Wintel world copying Apple's lead in technology. They had explosive notebook components all the way back in 1996! This does have an overall impact on sales, that little incident pretty much sank the Powerbook 5300...
We have around a dozen of these (M700s) all with the recalled power adaptors. We also bought several extra adaptors so we could have one at home and one at work. We bought them directly from Compaq's factory outlet.
The problem is that they only want to replace ONE adaptor per laptop, rather than replace every adaptor. They're coding the returns to your laptop's serial number. This is just dumb, if they actually think these adaptors are fire hazards. They don't seem to get this logic, though.
Personally, I have not had any problems with Compaq power supplies (I have two Compaq laptops). I admit that they are not the best laptops, but I find them good for the money when they are on sale. Save them though as Compaq is almost no more. That is kind of sad. Remember, every PC after IBM's 286 is not an IBM clone, it is a Compaq clone. Compaq was cloning away but always after IBM released. IBM stalled on the 386 and Compaq couldn't wait so they made the gamble and released first.
icksnay on hacking my boxsnay.
hey people.. i work for compaq in australia.. there were NOT 5 fires, as many people would believe.. some adapters DID get very hot and the plastic softened, but there was only ONE instance of an adapter catching alight, after it was covered with crap, not allowing it to get proper ventilation.
the new ones have new charging algorithms to reduce heat generation, and will not heat up as much as the old ones.
note that you don't have to return the adapter. duh - keep using it untill your new one arrives. cunt.
I have a Compaq power supply, though not one of the ones listed. There's a fundamental design flaw in mine - the connection to the computer is made in such a way that the end that connects to computer can easily short (the process is caused by wire breakage due to inserting and removing the connector) causing the rubber to melt/burn, and then burning anything nearby.
Luckily, when mine shorted, I was there, so I disconnected it and soldered it back together with a MUCH more secure connection, and a good insulating supply of duct tape.
I'm pretty certain that all of the Compaq computers use the same cheap connector, making them all susceptable to this fire hazard - something which could be completely avoided if an extra $.50 had been spent on a higher gauge wire. Cheapskates...
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