The AC adapter belonging to my 9 month old Dell Inspiron 1720 laptop had become dangerous in use due to the cable strain relief failing and exposing the power carrying cables. While the insulation around the individual power cables remained intact it's obviously a safety hazard with the potential of a fatal electric shock (for those interested it's covered by IEC 60950 -Second Edition, which calls for double insulation, a document I'm all too familiar with :-). I had noticed within the first couple of months that the strain relief was a design weak point (I am a genius Mechanical Design Engineer remember) and that it had already started to fail.
So off I trotted to Dell's UK support site to log a warranty claim (about 8pm). They have an online chat option but all the support staff were busy so I sent an e-mail quoting the machine's Dell service Tag, my mobile number and description of the problem. I received a reply at 7:15 the following morning from a nice Indian chap who "beseeched" me not to use the AC adapter until I had received a replacement. Nice to see they were taking the fault seriously, though looking at it I suspect this is a common fault as it is inherent to the poor design (I would have designed it much better).
After replying to his email confirming delivery address, contact number and answering a few questions about the condition of other parts of the laptop I received confirmation a replacement part would be shipped. The only fly in the ointment was the delivery had to be by courier as I must hand over the failed unit before the replacement was swapped (obviously for safety reasons to ensure I don't use it again, fair enough).
Three days later the courier arrived, gave Lesley the new one and left without asking for the old one. So..., I'll take it to my mate (former Electronic Engineer colleague) who "acquired" a lot of our old lab equipment last year ;-) so he can trim the old socket off, add a strain relief grommet, solder on a new socket, plonk on a bit of heat shrink tubing, a quick whoosh with the heat gun and result, we've got a spare (safe) adapter for the bedroom or such (I also bought Lesley an Inspiron 1520 last Christmas), very handy indeed.
Ten minutes after I got the text from Lesley saying the replacement had arrived I got a call on my mobile from an Indian wifey asking if everything went smoothly and checking I was happy with the support service from Dell. Can't really complain about the service I've received from Dell who seem to have a poor reputation for customer support but personally, through my dealings with them at both home and work, they've always been very good, so much so all the computers (one workstation and two laptops) in my house are Dell's. But, I would urge you to check the state of the AC cable from the power supply to your laptop as, chances are, it may be in a dangerous condition. If it is showing signs of wear, even if your machine is out of warranty, I'd demand a free replacement due to the potentially lethal nature of the failure.
I swear the time is coming to don the tin foil hat and retire to the newly dug bunker in the garden. A "
