I am fine today.
I helped to purchase a Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop for my niece, Nga Ming, who studied in UTem, Melaka on June 2007.
Nga Ming called me yesterday informing that the laptop’s power adapter exploded with a big explosion sound. Many came to his room to find out what had happened upon hearing it.
She was just about to pick up the adapter before it was exploded. Fortunately, it exploded before she touched the adapter; else she might be injured.
She called Dell support and was told that the laptop was out of warranty and furthermore, the adapter was exploded because of improper use. Therefore, she had to pay for a new one. She was also told that she could extend the warranty and the cost of extending warranty would now be higher because the adapter is faulty.
Dissatisfied with Dell’s explanation, I called Dell support and reminded them that this was a serious safety issue. I told them if my niece was holding the adapter when it exploded, she might get killed. I also told them I had ordered so many Dell laptops for company staff and also for friends and relatives. And with this incident, I have very good reason to worry about their safety.
The technical support transferred the line to her manager who apologized to me first regarding how the first technical support handled the case, and she promised that Dell would send a new adapter to Nga Ming the next day free of charge.
On my worry on the safety of the Dell power adaptor, she said that this was the first “explosion” that she came across, and she assured me that the device is safe.
Later I found out from Nga Ming that in fact there was sign of fault for quite some time already; the power indicator on the adaptor could go off suddenly and it would be on again once Nga Ming adjusted the position of the adaptor. I suspect there was some wiring problem within the adapter and after some adjusting and heat, the wires got short-circuited which result in an explosion.
If you found any adapter showing sign of glitches, please discontinue using it immediately. Never try to be as clever as Nga Ming – it could explode anytime!
This is how it looks like after explosion
See you next post :-)
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