Dell laptops packing a jolt, again

It looks like Dell didn't exactly learn from its past misadventures with electricity, as it now seems that a number of users (including some of the staff at Crave UK) have reported similar shocking behavior from some of the company's most recent laptops. Those problems, not surprisingly, are confined to models with a brushed-aluminum finish, including the XPS M1530 and XPS M1330, which also just so happen to have been shipped with a non-grounded two-prong connection between mains lead and the power adapter instead of a less shock-prone three-prong one. For its part, Dell finally seems to be on top of the problem and, according to users that have spoken with the company's support, they're now sending out replacement power supplies and cables.

[tekdroid @ Jan 17th 2008 6:22PM]

Rumour has it, something like this sits in Michael Dell's email inbox:

Dear Sirs
We have malfunction in design. We fix soon. Plz don't give more business to Wistron Corp.

Sincerely,
Mr Chan
Quality Assurance Officer
Quanta Computer

[Mr.Tech @ Jan 17th 2008 7:38PM]

When laptops fight back!

(Heck, laptops have feelings too you know?)

[NewJohnny @ Jan 17th 2008 9:17PM]

Yes, three prongs does make a difference-- it's the ground pin. without it, you become the ground pin.

[DarkLightConnection @ Jan 18th 2008 12:39AM]

And why the heck don't they just connect the third pin to the ground pin? Is that too hard to do?

I mean, behind the wall plug they turn into one anyway.... it doesn't matter where the joint is, as long as there are no components in the middle.. (wich there are not.. the case isn't the middle, is one end)

[DarkLightConnection @ Jan 18th 2008 12:40AM]

Err, sorry, brain fart

I mean, the case to the ground pin... not the third pin, the "classic" ground pin...

[AncientPC @ Jan 18th 2008 7:56AM]

How this dealt with in Japan where they don't have 3 prong outlets? All the laptop / PC power cords are two pronged . . .

[saq @ Jan 17th 2008 6:23PM]

Dell having quality control issues? Shocking!

[aacouch @ Jan 17th 2008 7:17PM]

I just got my XPS m1330 a couple days ago and it came with a 3-prong plug... ?
(PS: Best laptop ever)

[imacmatt09 @ Jan 17th 2008 7:58PM]

Ahhh pun.

I got a toshiba laptop 2 years ago and it had a 2 prong plug. I got shocked several times from it. Then the power adapter broke so I bought another off ebay. The one I bought had 3 prongs and I didn't get shocked by it ever again. 3 prongs make a big difference.

[Ellianth @ Jan 17th 2008 9:34PM]

Yeah all 4 of my m1330's came with 3 pronged plugs. But I do remember some guy on NBR complaining that his laptop was shocking him when he touched the palm rest, last week. I thought he was just feeling the hard drive vibrating ;D. Silly me.

But the m1330 has a whole lot more problems than the shocking. For instance.. the fucking annoying whine!!

[Mobius_1 @ Jan 17th 2008 10:09PM]

Help me I just got shocked by my Dell... Somebody call an ambulance...

[Mike P. @ Jan 17th 2008 6:26PM]

You'd think they'd have done their research. This was widespread on Sony's SZ notebooks when they shipped those with two-prong supplies.

[Rupert @ Jan 17th 2008 8:23PM]

I have a Sony Z1, I get shocked all the time.

My M1330 came with 3 prong, no problems.

This is the best laptop I have ever come across.

[Flashpoint @ Jan 17th 2008 6:26PM]

Don't TASE ME BRO !


[I'm sorry, I had to say it]

[Anthony @ Jan 17th 2008 6:28PM]

Mom!!! The laptop shocked me!!!

"Thats just Jesus telling you to stop looking at naked women on the internet."

[DarkLightConnection @ Jan 18th 2008 12:33AM]

Sadly, that's the very exact thing my mom would say...

Thankfully she never caught me looking @ pr0n lol

[Khris @ Jan 17th 2008 6:32PM]

My m1330 came with a 3-prong grounded plug. No shocking experiences here.

[stromm @ Jan 17th 2008 6:33PM]

My now dead Toshiba A70-S259 used to shock the crap outa me at least 5 times a week. Toshiba even supposedly fixed the problem with a recall (didn't fix the problem though). Felt like a really good static shock, you know the kind where the person standing beside you could see the arc.

Interesting that no one made a fuss about Toshiba over the past three years.

[Reader @ Jan 18th 2008 12:35AM]

Build a Faraday cage into it! Then you can get some internet cred and maybe show up on Engadget.

[kalieaire @ Jan 17th 2008 6:33PM]

Whatever dood. All Lenovos with Fingerprint readers will shock the sh*t out of you too. Be smart, ground your fat american *sses.

[Tachikomatic @ Jan 17th 2008 7:26PM]

May I point out that fat is an excellent insulator, both electrically and thermally?

[Emory Dunn @ Jan 17th 2008 6:38PM]

Well, I guess I'll be scratching Dell off my list of computers.

[austin @ Jan 17th 2008 6:56PM]

you havent done that already?

[ethana2 @ Jan 17th 2008 9:22PM]

I recently scrawled them /on/ to my list... you know, alongside system76, emperor, zareason, etc...

They seemed to have learned from this mistake and fixed it. That's worth something.

[imec @ Jan 17th 2008 6:40PM]

Oops, that's too bad, Dell should just hand out one-hundred of their first laptops to the hardware designers. If one of them explodes or shocks the crap out of someone, then they will catch the problem before they start shipping.

[Kizorblade @ Jan 17th 2008 6:52PM]

Absolutely shocking quality issues.

[Flashpoint @ Jan 17th 2008 6:56PM]

One time I took a Hewlett Packard Jornada 525 to China and didn't realize that it came with a step transfmorer from 220V ~110V. I plugged the damn thing in to a travel transformer and its metal case kept electrifying me.

[eflyersteve @ Jan 17th 2008 6:57PM]

It's probably not a quality issue - it's a design issue. My guess is that the power supplies are capacitively coupled and have some ac voltage floating on the + and - of the power supply. It's limited to a very low current level - in fact you can drop it to zero volts by grounding the conductive case.

I'd imagine the problem to be mostly with touching the case with a sensitive part of one's arm (or other sensitive body part? Yikes!)

Still, not a good idea to go around giving your customer that kind of tingle.

[Brendan @ Jan 17th 2008 6:58PM]

I used to get shocked by the underside of my Inspiron 9100 all the time. Of course, I was an idiot for buying one in the first place...

still get shocked on the wrists when using my Compaq, which gets annoying very quickly.

[tony @ Jan 17th 2008 7:04PM]

Hmm... my old aluminum PowerBook and my new aluminum MacBook Pro both have two prong power supplies. Neither of which have ever shocked me. I'm not even trying to act superior here, just sayin.

[Zeus.:God @ Jan 17th 2008 7:24PM]

The only computer I've ever been shocked by is my friend's MacBook Pro. I guess its just how you use the computer, or the environment your in at the time...

[Reid @ Jan 17th 2008 7:38PM]

I have heard of the aluminum Mac laptops shocking people on rare occasions, but it seemed more widespread with that one Sony model. I don't really understand why it doesn't seem to matter if computers have 2-pronged or 3-pronged cords. You'd think that would be pretty important. Who knows.

[BigD145 @ Jan 17th 2008 7:05PM]

Dell cutting corners again.

[Oscar @ Jan 17th 2008 7:42PM]

I have an M1530 and it doesn't really shock me. It's more of an irritating tingling feeling.

[euclid @ Jan 17th 2008 9:24PM]

I can just imagine a conversation that would ensue between someone who received a shock from a malfunctioning laptop and Sanjay of Dell Technical support.

[Seth Porter @ Jan 17th 2008 10:30PM]

I got a m1530 and it hasn't had any problems, but I would like to avoid my laptop exploding into a ball of fire and melting half my couch like that macbook pro that was on engadget a while ago. Anyone remember that one?

[z @ Jan 17th 2008 11:54PM]

I got my m1330 way back in July of last year (when there were massive delays) and got a 3prong plug and never had any shocks.
Not sure what happened here.

[DarkLightConnection @ Jan 18th 2008 12:50AM]

My Palm LifeDrive shocks me when it's charging.. and I don't whine about it.. I mean, it's not that bad, you just feel it kinda "strange", but nothing bad..

Heck, some engineers I've worked with check if there's voltage on something by touching it.. they intentionally put their fingers on 127VAC lines lol... I prefer to use the ol' multimeter.. sometimes it's wrong to assume it's a 127 volter.. what if it's a 440 or 880v industrial power line :-S

[imec @ Jan 18th 2008 3:51AM]

I hope they take their left leg off of the ground and use their right hand. Also, both amperage and voltage must be considered, an 8,000V power line won't kill you if it's only running at 2 milliamps.

[Dude @ Jan 18th 2008 3:15AM]

Macbookpro with two prongs has this problem. Nothing big. So this ain't a schocker

[Greg @ Jan 18th 2008 10:04AM]

It's less painful than using Windows... so who's complaining?

[Anne Camden (Dell) @ Jan 18th 2008 10:59PM]

What Dell has to say can be found in this post over at the Direct2Dell blog.
http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2008/01/18/41538.aspx

[John Porra @ Jan 21st 2008 9:57PM]

I bought an Inspiron 1520 last august, the speakers metal cover and the screws shock me on the belly, it has a 2-prong plug. I named her "Trifasica".

[Michael B @ Jan 31st 2008 11:11AM]

Inspiron e1505 from 2006 with a 2 prong plug here. Shocked like crazy and often. Power button, side panels, picking it up, etc... My wife nearly drops it when it happens it is so strong. Called Dell and the rep explained to me that I picked the 2 prong plug when I ordered so I need to go buy my own 3 prong to solve it since I am out of warranty. Nice work Dell - we know there is a problem but we only care that we shock customers under warranty.