Microsoft's 'Replacement' Surface Pro Charger Cable Is an Off-Brand, and Short (theinquirer.net)

Carly Page writes with a story from The Inquirer, where: As part of its Surface Pro charger recall, Microsoft has chosen to replace the sleek, shapely matt[e] plastic original with a cable approximately half the length and ordered from an off-brand manufacturer, in our case China's I-Sheng Electric Wire and Cable Company. Writer Peter Gothard points out a plausible reason for the length, though: "The extraordinarily short length of the cord is presumably to discourage behaviour that resulted in the "tightly wrapped" or "repeatedly bent" cables catching fire in at least 56 separate incidents."

Comments

And, it cheaper

[Overzeetop]

It's cheaper than providing a high-quality cable which isn't as affected by wrapping, or providing a built in wrapping mechanism, or some other inventive technical fix.

It's not like this is for some super-premium flagship device that they're...oh, whoops.

Re:And, it cheaper

[macs4all]

It's cheaper than providing a high-quality cable which isn't as affected by wrapping

You mean like Apple does with it's silicone-rubber cables that resist cracking...

or providing a built in wrapping mechanism

You mean like Apple does on many chargers.

Now cue all the people who yank their charger cables out "by the roots" repeatedly, then complain that the cables eventually fail at the junction of the connector and cable.

Everything has a breaking-point; but obviously Microsoft paid absolutely ZERO attention to both the problem, and what's worse, to the supposed "solution".

Re:And, it cheaper

[Maxwell]

SP3 owner here. They could have made the power adapter a wall wart - it isn't that big. Wallwart---cable--connector. Simple Instead they went wall--cable--brick---cable---connector. This just begs to have both cables wrapped around the brick when travelling. It's that first cable that breaks open. The second cable is much more robust, has the flexy thing at the joint and is permanently attached to the brick. the first cable is a standard type used in electric razors, old toshiba laptops etc. Very common part. And from the pic the replacement does not look anymore robust than the original...so will have exactly same issue....people will wrap it around the brick..and it will fail.

Re:And, it cheaper

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean like Apple does with it's silicone-rubber cables that resist cracking...

You forgot to include the obligatory "/s". The rubber shielding on Apple's power cables is anything but crack-resistant.

(Not that I'm suggesting Microsoft's choices don't suck, but don't hold up Apple as an example to aspire to in this instance.)

Re:And, it cheaper

[Niddix]

Don't know what happened with the cord in the article. I just received 15 of them. They are the exact same cord that came with the surface, except they now have a strain relief boot at the brick end. Same length, same look just the added boot.

Re:And, it cheaper

[Anonymous Coward]

No, this can't be true, my $50 Apple cable is PERFECT! Just like I'm the smartest person in the world for having an Apple!

Re:And, it cheaper

[number6x]

This is why we have sugru!

Re:And, it cheaper

[fustakrakich]

The person who invented the wall wart should be taken out and shot. I can only use two of the six outlets on the power strip. Some are so heavy they fall out of the wall socket. "cable--brick--cable" eliminates that problem. Flexing the cable when you're packing the thing two or three times a day, every day, is going to break it pretty quick, no matter how well it is made.

Re:And, it cheaper

[roc97007]

You mean like Apple does with it's silicone-rubber cables that resist cracking...

You forgot to include the obligatory "/s". The rubber shielding on Apple's power cables is anything but crack-resistant.

(Not that I'm suggesting Microsoft's choices don't suck, but don't hold up Apple as an example to aspire to in this instance.)

I think the design goal was to look and feel expensive and trendy. How it wears is a different discussion.

Re:And, it cheaper

[BronsCon]

Or cue all the people who treat their chargers with some respect and yet still have these issues. I don't wrap my MacBook charger cables around the provided wrap tines because even those are too tight, with sharp 90 degree corners at the inner wrapping; I loop the cord slightly larger than the charger itself and use a proper velcro wrap to hold it together and have never had an issue with cable breakage. However, though I also always unplug the charger by the connector, and never by the cable, between my wife and I we've bought 5 chargers, just to have 4 for our 3 MacBooks (when you add in the ones that were included with the MacBooks themselves, you'll note that we've had 4 failures out of 8 chargers).

Of the 4 failed chargers, 3 were due to cable deterioration and one was due to the charger finally giving up the ghost due to the cable having been mangled in the workings of a recliner, then repaired, several times. Note that this charger is the only one that we had at the same time as the recliner, so the others were not possibly exposed to that abuse. Something tells me that charger, which predates the other by at least a year, was build with some quality, while the current crop are not. It's also worth noting that, of the 4 chargers we currently have, the one on my desk sits, unplugged, because the insulation near the connector is browning, the one I'm using currently is developing a crack near the connector, the one my wife is currently using has a flake of insulation that cracked right out next to the connector, and our other spare has several layers of shrink-wrap holding the insulation together at the connector.

I might be inclined to say that, perhaps, my wife is not as careful with the chargers as I am, if not for the fact that the failing one on my desk is MagSafe 2, which she can't use, the one I'm using now is the one that I, and only I, use for both my 17" MBP and my Retina (via Apple-supplied MS->MS2 adapter), and the one with the shrink wrap on it is the one that resided at my desk prior to getting the Retina and, thus, was only used by me. That rules out abuse by her that I am not aware of.

For reference, I also use a few PC laptops, which require significantly more force to unplug, some of which aren't as easy to grip and do get pulled out by the roots. I keep a spare charger for each, so one can stay at my desk and the other can be used elsewhere in the house, or when traveling, and have literally never (in 20 years of laptop ownership) had a cable failure except with Apple products. Likewise with USB cables; I think I might have had one fail when I used it as a tie-down when I couldn't find any rope, bot aside from that, I've had a handful of lightning (both Apple and 3rd-party) fail, though the 3rd party failures were due to abuse and being stepped on in the car I can't say the same about the Apple cable failures. I've also had a few 30-pin cables fail, all Apple cables, my aftermarket cables are still holding up for my 1st-gen iPad, iPod Classic, and 1st-gen Nano.

TL;DR: I hope you were being facetious when you implied that Apple got their cables and chargers right. Also, charger plug recall.

Re:And, it cheaper

[BronsCon]

Flexing the cable when you're packing the thing two or three times a day, every day, is going to break it pretty quick, no matter how well it is made.

This. And, since the cables in question can be had for $2/dozen, give or take, it makes sense to leave one plugged in wherever you're likely to need it and just unplug it from the charger.

Re:And, it cheaper

[macs4all]

You mean like Apple does with it's silicone-rubber cables that resist cracking...

You forgot to include the obligatory "/s". The rubber shielding on Apple's power cables is anything but crack-resistant.

(Not that I'm suggesting Microsoft's choices don't suck, but don't hold up Apple as an example to aspire to in this instance.)

I think the design goal was to look and feel expensive and trendy. How it wears is a different discussion.

No, the Design Goal was to provide increased flexibility over the typical PVC-jacketed cables, under more environmental conditions (particularly cold).

It was likely inspired by the cables on the soldering stations in the engineering labs at Apple. The base-to-pen cable is often silicone rubber-jacketed, and in my personal experience, they are unusually flexible and supple, tend not to kink nor tangle, and stay that way over time. The exact same characteristics that are exhibited by my MacBook Pro's silicone-rubber (or EDPM)-jacketed AC adapter cables.

Re:And, it cheaper

[bondsbw]

It seems that which replacement you get largely depends on the outlet type, which of course depends on your location. Plenty of people are saying their replacement cord looks identical or nearly identical while having different part numbers.

Re:And, it cheaper

[AmiMoJo]

TFA is bullshit anyway. This cable is probably fine, they are just snobs about things with Chinese names on them. The original was probably made in China too, it's just got different branding on it.

There are issues, like the length, but complaining that it's a Chinese "off-brand" (meaning not American) is just racist.

Re:And, it cheaper

[dkman]

What you need are some of these cord extensions

Re:And, it cheaper

[Anonymous Coward]

And yet, every single damn apple cable I have is cracked, but I have very few cracked micro-usb cables. Replacement cables are one of the approaches Apple takes to tax you for refusing to buy a new upgrade every year. To quote Ratchet from Robots "Upgrades, people, upgrades!" Fuck apple and their deliberately flawed proprietary cables.

Re:And, it cheaper

[mrchaotica]

No, the person who decided to use a "cable-brick-cable" instead should be taken out and shot. First of all, nothing stops you from simply adding an extension cord to the wall wart if necessary, but doing the opposite is not possible. Second, there's no reason the transformer can't be the same size as the outlet in the X and Y directions, and as long or short as it needs to be in the Z direction. Third, if plugs are falling out of your wall sockets, then your wall sockets are worn out and need to be replaced.

Re:And, it cheaper

[macs4all]

And yet, every single damn apple cable I have is cracked, but I have very few cracked micro-usb cables. Replacement cables are one of the approaches Apple takes to tax you for refusing to buy a new upgrade every year. To quote Ratchet from Robots "Upgrades, people, upgrades!" Fuck apple and their deliberately flawed proprietary cables.

I only have one cracked Apple cable: An absolutely ancient 30 pin iPod charging/syncing cable that was pretty beat up when I came by it in a box of stuff.

YMMV; but seriously, in my experience, Apple cables are at least as good, if not better, than my other, PVC-jacketed, cables.

Re:And, it cheaper

[Anonymous Coward]

I've had the charging cable for my Macbook Pro replaced twice by Apple because it frays and fails.

Not sure if you were intending to be sarcastic when you said it resisted cracking.

Luckily, Apple replaced them both times without charge. I was particularly disappointed in how quickly the first replacement failed.

Re:And, it cheaper

[Anonymous Coward]

Those cracks you experienced with your Apple cables are likely temperature related.

Re:And, it cheaper

[Anonymous Coward]

When something sets the trend, how is it trendy?

Re:And, it cheaper

[swb]

There are issues, like the length, but complaining that it's a Chinese "off-brand" (meaning not American) is just racist.

That's a bit of a leap, isn't it?

I mean, I generally love generally high quality and extremely low cost made in China stuff, but the fact of the matter is there is there is some really crappy, off-brand Chinese made stuff, like the dual port 2.1A USB car adapters I bought that are undersized by several mm and won't make contact well enough to even work.

How exactly does it disparage the race of the makers if I describe it as off-brand Chinese parts? It indicates where it came from and that it is not even a brand you've heard from, even only on Amazon, like Anker?

Re:And, it cheaper

[roc97007]

When something sets the trend, how is it trendy?

If they set the previous trend, is it not trendy when they follow it? If they set a standard that has characteristics considered trendy, is that not trendy?

Re:And, it cheaper

[roc97007]

I actually don't know. I've owned Apple desktop machines but never a laptop, (I consider them overpriced, and I hate machines that prevent me from working on them) so don't have experience either way. Attempting to make a joke on Apple's expense, and apparently it wasn't funny enough.

Re:And, it cheaper

[macs4all]

I've had the charging cable for my Macbook Pro replaced twice by Apple because it frays and fails.

Not sure if you were intending to be sarcastic when you said it resisted cracking.

Luckily, Apple replaced them both times without charge. I was particularly disappointed in how quickly the first replacement failed.

They only "fray" if the jacket is pulled out of the connector-body.

The jacket only gets pulled out of the connector-body if you yank the cable out like a weed, or if you repeatedly twist the connector instead of figuring out which way it "wants" to plug in.

Unfortunately, the people that think they keep getting defective cables are the same people that don't realize they are abusing them in the first place. The charging cable for my 2013 MacBook Pro is pristine. That's because I know how to treat cables nicely. When I was a sound engineer for a few years, I never had a failure of a microphone cable, either, even though they were plugged and unplugged, walked on, rolled-over, and coiled and un-coiled hundreds of times per year.

It all comes down to paying attention to the cable, and especially the junction of cable and connector (where nearly ALL failures occur).

You're just lucky that Apple values customer relations more than most companies.

Re:And, it cheaper

[fustakrakich]

Yo dawg! I got a cable for your cable! Only a dollah! Buy three and I guarantee at least two of them will work. Such a deal!

Sorry, I shouldn't have to buy and carry an extra extension cable... The damn charger is already one too many.

Re:And, it cheaper

[Lumpy]

Which is why the apple power supply is perfect. it comes as a wall wart that you can plug in a cable to to make it a cable-brick-cable. It's the best of all worlds.

I really like the 500ma charge port on my surface pro's power brick, it is handy!

Re:And, it cheaper

[BarbaraHudson]

So does a 1' extension cord.

Re:And, it cheaper

[retchdog]

Rubbish.

My cable yellowed and the length of the jacket started to crack and crumble within two years. This had nothing to do with the failure mode you mentioned, and it was not uncommon in my Ph.D. program, where MacBooks were used heavily for statistical analysis and other number crunching. I suspect that the heat of actually being used for long periods of intensive computing was enough to degrade the cable jacket. This is a failure, and probably a calculated trade-off based on the (arguably reasonable) assumption that most Apple users don't actually do real computing.

Apple replaced them quietly, except for mine because I was too lazy and didn't bring it in until the cable shielding was frayed. This set off the (totally arbitrary) biases of the Genius Bar, and they refused to replace it. When I pointed out that the cable jacket had cracked already anyway, and the fraying was just an inevitable side-effect, the guy got his supervisor. The supervisor came back and completely reversed the story, saying that they wouldn't replace the cable because the plug had a small, completely superficial, ding on it, which he counted as "abuse." The only abuse was from the Genius Bar, and directed at me. Assholes.

Apart from their weird small-minded bouts of vindictiveness, I still like Apple. But this was fucking ridiculous.

Re:And, it cheaper

[macs4all]

... probably a calculated trade-off based on the (arguably reasonable) assumption that most Apple users don't actually do real computing.>

See? There you go again. Macs, like in your experience, are actually quite often used in very compute-intensive applications.

Apple replaced them quietly, except for mine because I was too lazy and didn't bring it in until the cable shielding was frayed. This set off the (totally arbitrary) biases of the Genius Bar, and they refused to replace it.

So, you admit that you let the damage go on to the point that it probably crossed a "go/no-go" warranty replacement threshold (which you simply assumed was "arbitrary"). Every company that does this sort of "depot replacement" type of service trains their personnel on what the company considers "normal wear and tear", and what is considered "customer negligence". IMHO, you simply crossed that threshold by waiting for secondary failures to occur.

... completely superficial, ding on it, which he counted as "abuse." The only abuse was from the Genius Bar, and directed at me. Assholes.

If that story is indeed true (without pics of the "superficial ding", how is anyone to know?), then those Apple Store employees WERE assholes, and you should have complained up the chain. Apple doesn't have the customer satisfaction ratings that they have always enjoyed by being assholes. But people are people, and I would never suggest that there are some Apple Retail employees that could be assholes. But I would bet that "escalating" the issue a bit would have rendered a more satisfactory result.

Re:And, it cheaper

[gl4ss]

resist cracking?

look, do you know why there exists an entire product category of plastic connector protectors? BECAUSE EVERY SINGLE iphone 4/5/6 cable breaks at the stem in a year of normal use!

(seriously, apples cables are just as bad as any other, nokia used to make decent microusb cables but then they started ordering from the same places everyone else does and it's apple style copy shit)

Re:And, it cheaper

[Anonymous Coward]

You sir are the idiot. If your cord "yellowed"- it wasn't the "heat from running".
I worked at a Genius Bar for 9 years. People who abused cords had broken cords and those who did not didn't.
(Accept responsibility for your own actions ...Accept responsibility for your own actions ...Accept responsibility for your own actions ). Dum-ASS ALL CAPS

Re: And, it cheaper

[Anonymous Coward]

I know a lot of people who complely ignore any shortcomings.

For example, a Nexus7 she used had an unexplained power drain one day. Bam, it gets thrown in the trash.

Two i things that consistently have issues she ignores becuase she HAS to. Where else would you get trendy computing devices from?

Re:And, it cheaper

[macs4all]

resist cracking?

look, do you know why there exists an entire product category of plastic connector protectors? BECAUSE EVERY SINGLE iphone 4/5/6 cable breaks at the stem in a year of normal use!

(seriously, apples cables are just as bad as any other, nokia used to make decent microusb cables but then they started ordering from the same places everyone else does and it's apple style copy shit)

EVERY SINGLE ONE?!?

Tell that to my pristine 4 year old iPhone 4s Cable, and my pristine 1.25 year old iPhone 6+ Cable.

Sorry. You're full of shit, and obviously don't know how to not abuse a cable. Note that you have had problems with other cables, too. So perhaps it is time to place the blame where it REALLY lies: You.

No one can make an abuse-proof cable. Ask the people of Western Electric, who tried their level best for DECADES to make pay telephone handset cables that vandals couldn't destroy. How many of those have you seen in your lifetime that were ripped bodily out of the handset/base? And that was an ARMORED cable...

CAPTCHA: Shreds

Lies

[Anonymous Coward]

All lies. And this is a lie too.

Picture is misleading, so is affected system desc

[SuperKendall]

For the few of you that actually bothered to click on the article link, the picture shows some kind of really short cord with a plug at the end...

I don't know what the hell that is but it cannot be the cord the article is about, because the cord MS is sending is just the cord that goes between the power brick and Surface Pro, so it doesn't have a plug.

Also worth noting that the article summary might lad you to believe this was about the current Surface Pro, but it's not - Surface Pro 3 and older. Even then it does not apply to a Surface Pro 3 you'd buy new from Microsoft now, they ship with fixed cables already. It doesn't affect the Surface Pro 4 at all.

Cables aren't made for bending and wrapping!

[mnslinky]

It'd be nice if customers would figure this out. They're supposed to be kept flat and straight, or left in the packaging they shipped in. jeez.

Re:Cables aren't made for bending and wrapping!

[p0p0]

*Whoosh*

For uninformed, article title is disingenuous

[Cutriss]

The AC cable for the Surface Pro series is two pieces like most laptop cables. There's a simple AC cable without ground that goes from the wall to the transformer block, and then the transformer has a fixed DC wire that goes to the tablet itself.

This recall *only* affected the AC cable, and that cable was already pretty short (like two feet tops). The bulk of the cable length comes from the DC cable itself, and that did not shorten (because it wasn't replaced). Don't get me wrong, the DC cable has issues and needs a reinforced boot, but we're talking of a total cable length loss of maybe six inches.

Re:For uninformed, article title is disingenuous

[Anonymous Coward]

I just received 15 of them.

The new ones are exactly the same length as the cable they replaced.

Re:For uninformed, article title is disingenuous

[Khyber]

"There's a simple AC cable without ground"

In many, if not most USA electrical panels, neutral and ground are tied together at the bus. A separate ground is run (or tied to pre-existing metal plumbing going into earth) for the third prong. Even without the third prong, the general protection remains the same.

Still the same effect. This is essentially irrelevant unless some idiot wired hot/neutral backwards, and even then, the additional ground won't help much.

Re:For uninformed, article title is disingenuous

[Cutriss]

Yeah, I'm not an electrical guy, I should've just said "two prong", heh.

Re:For uninformed, article title is disingenuous

[Anonymous Coward]

But... but.... but..... Micro$$$$$$$$$$oft!!!1111!!!onehundredeleventhousandonehundredeleven!!!!!

Re:For uninformed, article title is disingenuous

[sexconker]

The ground line gives you a true ground, isolated from any shit that bad devices (or bad utility power) might shit out onto the neutral line, making it NOT a neutral line. And anyone who's ever dealt with audio equipment knows what hell it can be when you can't get a real ground. Do you like audible 60 Hz sine waves? Because improperly grounding shit is how you get them.

There are plenty of reasons we added the third prong, and it's not because Khyber is smarter than the dumb scientists, engineers, and electricians.

Re:For uninformed, article title is disingenuous

[Khyber]

"making it NOT a neutral line."

Until some dumbass (Like I've seen in Texas) puts tied neutral/grounds too close to separated grounds, and wet ground conditions cause problems when lighting hits.

But hey, I've actually bothered with having to install full-building electrical systems. You keep talking.

Re:For uninformed, article title is disingenuous

[Anonymous Coward]

It used to be (50 years ago) in Amsterdam that Neutral had 50V compared to ground.

Buildings in the Netherlands do not tie Ground to Neutral as you never know what the utilities are doing.

We do have ground leak switches in every house. When Neutral and Line are out of balance by just a few milli amps (meaning there is leakage to ground) everything in the house switches off.

Not the same in my case

[Anonymous Coward]

Not sure if it is because I'm in the US, but my replacement cable for my Surface Pro 3 is pretty much identical to my original cable, same looks and the same length.

http://i.imgur.com/SWYoudk.jpg

Re:Picture is misleading, so is affected system de

[Maxwell]

For the few of you that actually bothered to click on the article link, the picture shows some kind of really short cord with a plug at the end...

I don't know what the hell that is but it cannot be the cord the article is about, because the cord MS is sending is just the cord that goes between the power brick and Surface Pro, so it doesn't have a plug.

Also worth noting that the article summary might lad you to believe this was about the current Surface Pro, but it's not - Surface Pro 3 and older. Even then it does not apply to a Surface Pro 3 you'd buy new from Microsoft now, they ship with fixed cables already. It doesn't affect the Surface Pro 4 at all.

?? the cord that goes from the Sp3 to the brick is permanently attached. That can only be replaced by swapping out the brick itself. The *other* cord is the one being replaced, as shown in the pic.

Re:Picture is misleading, so is affected system de

[SuperKendall]

Intersting, that goes against what the article was saying and what other link I read said.

Actual Image

[jklovanc]

This is the actual image of the cord being replaced by Microsoft.

My replacement didn't look like that

[Anonymous Coward]

... but it didn't have that awful UK plug on the end, either.

Re:My replacement didn't look like that

[Dunbal]

240V should be enough for anybody.

Re:My replacement didn't look like that

[Anonymous Coward]

240V should be enough for anybody.

Nah, 400V 3-phase should be the minimum.

Re:My replacement didn't look like that

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, it would save us lots of copper... and 3 phase, synchronous motors are highly efficient, their ability to correct power factor is simply amazing.

Inq is UK

[Anonymous Coward]

and UK has weird 50 cps power at double the sensible voltage. You have to go cheap when you have cheap power to handle.

Re:Inq is UK

[macs4all]

and UK has weird 50 cps power at double the sensible voltage. You have to go cheap when you have cheap power to handle.

Your power is 50 Candle-Power/Seconds?

1959 called, and wanted its abbreviation back.

It has been Hertz (Hz) for a LONG, LONG time (since 1960, in fact). At 59 yrs. old, I'm old enough to remember cps; but only as a small kid.

Re:Picture is misleading, so is affected system de

[Khyber]

Your article also goes against what has been common use for a decade-plus.

Every portable computer I've had comes with wall-cord-brick-cord-portable device charging scheme. Desktops still follow this convention once you decouple the idea of internal vs external.

Only my phones have wallwart-cord-device charging.

Hmmm ...

[gstoddart]

The extraordinarily short length of the cord is presumably to discourage behaviour that resulted in the "tightly wrapped" or "repeatedly bent" cables catching fire in at least 56 separate incidents.

Hmmm ... You're holding it wrong?

Sorry, but people wind cables, it's a use case. This sounds like a bit of bullshit to me.

There must be peace in the middle east...

[twotacocombo]

Seriously, this is what is considered news around here? A company sends out a free replacement power cord that prevents fires, and people bitch about the fact that it isn't four miles long and encrusted with diamonds? I got mine, swapped it, thought "one less thing to burn my house down" and moved on with life. I urge you all to do the same.

At least they didn't link to Forbes again, so they've got that going for them, which is nice.

Re:There must be peace in the middle east...

[Nkwe]

I got my replacement yesterday. It was about a half inch longer then the original. Seems like a non news event to me as well. I have the US version, perhaps other models changed; even if they did, I don't think a free replacement is much of a news event.

Re:There must be peace in the middle east...

[phayes]

So go wail about mid-east in a forum dedicated to it. This is /. where the subject is on topic and you are not.

Re:Picture is misleading, so is affected system de

[macs4all]

Only my phones have wallwart-cord-device charging.

Sorry, wrong!

Although this 65W Apple Wall-wart charger (yes, that's an ad for a generic rip-off, but it has the best pictures) for my 2013 MacBook Pro comes with a cable that snaps in, in place of the built-in plug (which also has retractable "blades"), it does indeed function in "Wall-wart" configuration, too.

And yes, it's nice to have the flexibility. At home, I can just plug it into the power strip on my desk, but sometimes it is nice to have the extra 6 ft. of cord that the AC cable provides. Yes, I could just pack an extension cord; but it is nice that Apple's engineers were thinking of the user, and also providing an easy way to "localize" the same adapter (which operates from 100 - 240V AC also) both in Wall-wart and "brick" modes.

Oh, as you can see from the above pics, the Adapter also has little flip-up "horns" that form a cord-winder for the captive output cable (which also has a built-in cable-clip).

Complain all you want about Apple being a "fashion accessory" company; but these little features are all about usability, not "fashion".

Re:Picture is misleading, so is affected system de

[sexconker]

Interesting, SuperKendall spouted off about some shit he knew nothing about and got caught, yet again.

Re:Picture is misleading, so is affected system de

[roc97007]

> I don't know what the hell that is but it cannot be the cord the article is about, because the cord MS is sending is just the cord that goes between the power brick and Surface Pro, so it doesn't have a plug.

Probably a stock photo. I bet if we use Google Images to search for it, we'd find it in some stock collection.

Re:Picture is misleading, so is affected system de

[Khyber]

"Sorry, wrong!"

Apparently your dumb ass forgot to read the *MY* part.

Re:Picture is misleading, so is affected system de

[macs4all]

"Sorry, wrong!"

Apparently your dumb ass forgot to read the *MY* part.

No I didn't. But apparently YOUR dumb ass forgot to parse the sentence correctly. The subject of your sentence was "phones", not "my". Meaning that only "phones" had Wall-wart chargers.

I was saying that my LAPTOP had a Wall-wart charger.

Errr short?

[thegarbz]

My replacement cable is the same length as the original. I ordered a European replacement for an Australian original.
My partner's replacement cable is also the same length as the original. She ordered an Australian replacement for an Australian original. That was we have both basis covered.

I don't give a crap what brand the cable is. It looks fine, well built, has stress relief in the proper places, and if it doesn't burn my house down then that's a bonus. It also comes with proper markings, certifications and material traceability and quite frankly is better built than some other cables I have lying around the house.

But don't let that get in the way of a Microsoft bashing session.

A better question is

[hypergreatthing]

What exactly is an on-brand power to converter cable manufacturer?

Reinforce what I say for years.

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft is poop.
Profit has overwhelmed common sense.

Short cables suck

[Snotnose]

For xmas I got a bluetooth speaker. Like it quite a bit, except the damned USB cable it came with is 18" long. Which makes it a serious pain to charge, I can either put it on the floor to charge, or charge it in the kitchen or bathroom. Why don't I just buy another USB cable, you ask? Because the damned thing is a different sized micro USB connector. Neither my PS3 cable nor my phone cable will fit. So I don't know that I can buy a longer cable.

Which brings up the question, Why are all crockpot power cords so damned short?

Re:Short cables suck

[Anonymous Coward]

Just get an USB extension cable that plugs in the "common usb" end.

Re:Picture is misleading, so is affected system de

[RailRide]

SP2 owner here.

When I got my recall notice (via Amazon, where I bought it), my first thought was "good thing I don't keep mine plugged in all the time" (it sees very light usage, and the battery holds up nicely for weeks on end while powered down)

Then I clicked on the actual notice and was puzzled for a bit. The charger pictured in the notice didn't look anything like the one that came with my Surface. Mine was a compact wall wart with folding prongs. More searching led me to a listing for a Surface 24-watt charger that looked just like the one packed with my SP2, and taking another look at the logo on mine, it says "Surface RT". I'd been using the thing on-and-off for almost a year and never noticed. Turns out the RT and Pro could use each other's chargers.

Anyone else get an RT charger bundled with their Surface Pro 2 or 3?

---PCJ

I think this generic cord may only be true in UK

[Anonymous Coward]

The site that posted the picture is based in London. Maybe this is true in UK and not the US.

We've received several replacements here at work and they look almost exactly the same as the original just a reinforced double jacket on the end that goes into the power brick.