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Lenovo Recalls LS-15 Power Cords
jones_supa writes US Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that Lenovo is recalling a batch of laptop AC power cords due to fire hazard. The power cords have been bundled with IdeaPad brand B-, G-, S-, U-, V- and Z-series laptop computers and Lenovo brand B-, G- and V-series laptop computers. The recalled power cords are black in color and have the "LS-15" molded mark on the base of the IEC 60320 connector. The company seems to have been bitten by the exact same problem that HP faced this summer. Lenovo has set up an info page for affected customers.
Not a long time ago, I was just a normal internet user that surfed various news sites like Sladshdot, reddit, or wsj.com. I read a story, perhaps clicked onto some links it contained, and I was mostly happy with my life.
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Read on below for the rest what Bennett has to say.
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Frequent contributor Bennett Haselton writes
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The power cords are black?
and here I was, all happy and shit from having deployed a few hundred of those laptops in record time / efficiency. Thanks.
I have an LS-16.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
I had 2 Thinkpad adaptor replacements because of their bad cords back in 2000. It stopped when I started using a Dell replacement adaptor, but the best replacement that didn't keep breaking was laptops that weren't branded Thinkpads.
I confess to being a bit baffled at how these power cord defects keep happening. Your basic AC power cord is ancient by the standards of electronic gizmos and by far the simplest thing going into a modern laptop. Does that simplicity attract a tendency to live dangerously with the low bidder? Is strain relief just ugly enough that people who don't know better keep trying to cut it out of the design?
http://www.recalls.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/1066502
Really Lenovo, is it that complicated to make a proper adapter?
If you work in computer repair then you're thinking what I am. The LS-15 HP (and lenovo) power supplies light on fire...and everything else HP makes. I bet their ink cartridges spontaneously combust. I've had 5 HPs light on fire at my shop in 2 years.
Your basic AC power cord is ancient by the standards of electronic gizmos and by far the simplest thing going into a modern laptop.
Simple is it? How many different countries around the world use how many different plugs? How many different standards do they need to be manufactured to? How many different power loads, how much over-design, which chemicals need to be used, and what design needs to be applied?
A power cord is simple device to look at. Producing power cords for a wide variety of countries to meet a wide variety of standards is not so easy. Then there's the quality control issue. Some 40000 houses in Australia need to be rewired due to the recent use of a powercord by a specific company which failed to meet Australian standards due to a specific component missing the plastic insulation. This same manufacturer has produced power cords for the local market for years and has other product lines that didn't have this problem.
The issue is there is no single power cord, there's only a standard, one for each country, and it's up to a designer to design and specify all components of this in order to meet the standards.
...with huge-ass grounded plug for an SMPS appliance that takes 60W tops and *still* manage to underspec it. Whoa.
My desk light taking the same 60W (an old one, with incandescent bulb) lacks grounding, has a cable that's about half as thick as those from laptops, and it's been working for years.
How in hell can you screw up a power cord. The copper wire has to be a certain diameter to carry the correct amount of current. Given a certain length, it has to have a larger diameter for a longer length to compensate for i squared r loss. Then you have to have a certain diameter of plastic/rubber around it to insulate it from the other wire and anything else. Usually you give a larger than needed diameter so that it is safe against pulling/bending etc. Its not hard to get right.
While there are a tiny fraction of Dells and HPs (not to mention Apple had at least one flaming MacBook recall just last year) that fail and burn, the vast majority of the real issues seem to occur due to cheap knock-off batteries. And if you've had "5 HPs light on fire" in your shop, you're clearly either doing something exceptionally wrong, or you work on thousands of HP products (and likely a smaller number of other brands). As illustrated by this very FA, most of these problems tend to hit multiple brands. The same was true of the dying NVIDIA chips in laptops several years ago. It affected pretty much everyone, including Apple, but HP took much of the flack because they happened to have the highest market share among affected products.
That's not to say HP is without problems, heck their last few CEOs have been absolute disasters, but I think they're actually turning toward the right direction these days and investing back in meaningful R&D and support which should produce positive changes if they don't screw it up by firing yet another CEO and bringing in another hatchet man/woman to "increase efficiency" and drive up short-term profits at the expense of long-term viability so they can jump out of the plane with their golden parachutes.
Well that explains a lot, a few months ago I discovered that my laptop had started to trip the mains when i took it into the office which had a more modern fuse box than at home. Figured out through trial and error that it was the cable from the wall to the psu, and application of a multimeter showed a measurably small resistance between live and earth when the cable was disconnected. I put it down to wear and tear, chucked it away and bought a replacement. Sounds like i was lucky to spot it early before it caused a fire, as that cable was usually left plugged in at home.
HP had the same problem. So some subcontractor had a lot of inventory they could no longer sell to HP. Guess what they did. . .
Seems to me these types of recalls could be avoided if PC makers stopped skimping on quality of adaptor? I bought a new HP notebook the other day and the cord between the notebook and adaptor was so stiff and non flexible. Of course HP wont do nothing much about it because its not defective? Guess I will wait until the tension breaks the connector and get a warranty repair. But when the electrical plug melts on a minor amp draw for a notebook. You know stuff is not made well.
Catch on fire and whatnot.
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