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Dell Laptops Have Shocking New Problem
dapsychous writes "A friend of one of my coworkers has noticed a problem in Dell notebook computers (also covered in this engadget article about a problem that has been popping up lately in Dell 17" notebook computers). It seems that these computers are putting out between 19 and 139 (65 according to article, 139 according to him) volts of AC power as measured from any chassis screw vs. earth ground. This has led to several problems including fried ram, blown video circuits, and a stout zap on his left hand.
According to him, Dell has tried to keep him quiet about the problem and has even gone so far as to have him banned from a few websites, and threatened him with legal action if he tells people about the problem."
I'm running an E1705 (manufactured in May of last year) and I'm not seeing this. Maybe his unit just sucks at grounding. (They're called manufacturing defects for a reason, and last I checked, they're covered by warranty and by law.)
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Sounds like someone broke their labtop and is pissed that Dell won't replace it for free.
Why are individual gripes making it to /.? What is the statistical significance of this observation?
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A single manufacuring defect (if that is the problem) isn't worthy of
Also, did the "friend" modify the laptop at all? Perhaps disassemble it or otherwise "improve" it?
We've all gotten a lemon at one time or the other.
Stop griping... get a life.
The articles are rather light on details, but I'm wondering if some of these people are using their laptops on a couch and sliding a bit when they sit down? I've had an Inspiron 6000 for a bit over a year now and I've learned in the winter to be careful to set it aside when I'm getting on or off of the couch, lest the static electricity give me a nice zap.
The fact that he's measuring AC (which is very surprising since the laptops don't have any ready access to AC outside of the power brick AFAIK) make it less likely though.
I read the internet for the articles.
i will be calling Dell ASAP to see if I am affected.
Um, and why would you expect them to give you a straight answer? They'll probably just play dumb and say they've never heard of the problem. (Which will probably be true, at least for the drone you'll be talking to.)
Get out a voltmeter and test it; that would seem to be the easiest solution, and less likely to lie to your face than some Customer Service rep. Probably faster, too.
Until a problem like this becomes terribly public -- and by this I mean more public than just being covered on some technology websites -- I suspect Dell will deny it, except in cases where people absolutely insist that they have a problem, and demand a replacement. In those cases, they'll get a replacement machine just to shut them up.
So I'd just get out the old multimeter, measure the AC voltage from one of the chassis screws to the nearest good ground, and if it's more than a few millivolts, call Dell and tell (not ask) them that you need a replacement unit.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
I know it's fashionable here to bash corporate America and all, but not all companies are big bad corps with a will to shaft you out of your hard-earned money. I trust many big companies because they provide quality products and never tried to screw me, and I trust even more small companies, and if you think about it, I'm sure you do too.
That said though, Dell isn't in my white list, that's for sure. Michael Dell is in for the money, period...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
How does static electricity get you an AC current?
Ummm....what?
Look, I was in charge of IT at this company. My job was to keep people running and give them the tools they needed to do their jobs. The user in question could not have cared less if I had given her a ThinkPad, an exact-same replacement Dell, or an OLPC. Really...it was used for email and looking at pr0n. At least that's what the majority of the people in her department did all day.
So she got a brand new laptop and I got to use one that was somewhat more powerful and useful than the ones most people there had at the time. So freakin' what? I didn't defraud anybody. I didn't put it on eBay. The only (admittedly misplaced) trust violated here was that I trusted the readers of this post to understand WTF I was talking about.
I know it must be hard to live in a world where everybody wants to give you a wedgie and makes fun of your lack of personal hygiene. But rather than just lash out randomly at people as a way to vent your frustration, maybe you need to look in a mirror and see if you can figure out what's wrong with you and try to do something about it.
See that? I just called you a goober and don't even know if you are. I just inferred it from your post. I expect I'm probably right, but it's still not an exact science.
So go back under your bridge or wherever trolls live these days and STFU until you have something constructive to say.