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Lenovo Recalls LS-15 Power Cords

Posted by samzenpus on from the take-it-back dept.

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.

8 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. Why? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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?

    1. Re:Why? by msauve · · Score: 2

      CCC = Cheap Chinese Crap.

      China seems to be like 1950's Japan - some signs of innovation and quality, but mostly tin toys.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    2. Re:Why? by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No China shows a slightly different pattern. Even in 1950s Japan wasn't a simple outsourcer with no local products. They were local producers with local products sold internationally. The only problem is the products were crap. China on the other hand produces very little in the way of local stuff. Much of the engineering is not done in China, much of the design is not done in China, much of what is done in China is simply copied from other international manufacturers like Cisco.

      The difference is in Japan nearly all products were poor at the time. China on the other hand the products can be as good as you're willing to pay for. You want a $0.50 power cord with no quality control, with no list of chemicals that went into the plastic manufacture? We got that. You want a beautifully milled piece of aluminium with incredibly tight tolerances? We got that too. You want a highly precisely machined piece of optical glass for a telescope? Yep got that too complete with test certificate, but that will cost you.

      China doesn't produce cheap crap. China just produces. The West places orders for cheap crap and then cry about it when something doesn't go quite right.

    3. Re:Why? by Gordo_1 · · Score: 2

      I know it's a feel good story and all to bash Capitalist car manufacturers and all, and there are probably some examples where what you're saying is true, but GM seatbelts are pretty standard across all models and get small updates about once a decade. Defects are very rare in this area. Notice that when stuff gets recalled, it's usually recalled against many models over a number of years... That's not the hallmark of things getting updated just for the sake of it. It's also inevitably expensive for the manufacturer to create new parts where none is needed and existing parts are already in the parts bin.

      Important stuff generally gets updated when new functionality is needed (like ignition disabling circuitry to make cars harder to steal). It's not like there's a group of Engineers sitting around thinking of ways to redesign basic things that work. They won't win new customers by redesigning seat-belts and ignition switches.

    4. Re:Why? by kinko · · Score: 4, Informative

      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.

      recently we had a power cord melt and nearly start a fire in our server room while power maintenance was occurring (so power was only going to 1 PSU instead of both PSUs). Turns out the cables don't meet the appropriate standards (IEC 60950) despite being stamped with "10A".

      The cross-section of the copper strands in the failed cable was smaller than that of a 'proper' cable. These cables were illegal, but are being imported from cheap manufacturers in China (obviously without testing to Western standards) and being sold at somewhat reputable stores. Beware of cables marked "PVC YOUZHI DIANXIAN 3x0.75mm2" :)

  2. Re:.__. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sounds like you got burned...

  3. Re:Material Science. by Firethorn · · Score: 2

    While there's a number of different plugs, all this stuff is modular today. Since the cables need to be rated from 100V-240V(plus safety margin) for a constant wattage draw due to universal power supplies, they can use the same cable for all of them.

    Then you just contract for the appropriate number of plugs for the various standards, of the appropriate amperage capacity, all with the same wire-side interface.

    You screw that interface up, and it's the most logical spot, you're going to screw a lot of cables for a lot of different companies up.

    --
    I don't read AC A human right
  4. Found this by accident a few months ago by POPE+Mad+Mitch · · Score: 2

    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.