I'm with Scott on this one, and to take it further, I don't see it as a
design fault so much as a poor choice of behavior on the part of the
user. When given the opportunity, I teach users to take the entire
length of cord, fold it in half, then in half again, and a third time.
You end up with a cord loosely folded, never so tightly that it would
break anywhere, with a good 6 inches or so of straight line coming off
that "sensitive" end of the adapter. It's quicker to fold and unfold
this way, fits in the laptop case easily, doesn't tangle up, and doesn't
break the cord off. Every time I can remember replacing a DC power
supply, it was due to the failure you describe, and caused by a "cord
winding" user. To be fair, some Dell adapters have been designed to
come out of the AC-to-DC adapter box on the edge rather than out the end
in such a way that it shouldn't cause the failure. Still, I tend to
blame the user's method of folding and see it as a training opportunity
rather than a design failure or as poor quality on the part of the
manufacturer.
Brian Hoort
-----Original Message-----
From: MSU Network Administrators Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Scott Cassaday
Sent: Monday, June 22, 2009 2:35 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] Life expectancy of Laptop AC Adaptors?
In the Media services pool we see that issue time and again..... but I
have
to say that out of the 80 laptops that get used and abused all the time
the
majority of them have there original cords. I think its really just how
they
get wrapped, I think some people believe they need to wrap them like
they
were mooring the titanic to the power brick.... other just cram the
whole
mess in the bag and don't re-wrap them at all. I think the more often
they
are tightly wrapped equals the sooner they will fail on those ends. My
.02
on the subject
-----Original Message-----
From: MSU Network Administrators Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Al Puzzuoli
Sent: Monday, June 22, 2009 1:27 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MSUNAG] Life expectancy of Laptop AC Adaptors?
Just wondering what others have experienced in terms of the robustness
of Laptop AC Adaptors?
Our department has 15 Toshiba Tecra M5 machines, which were purchased
almost four years ago. At the time, we got two identical adaptors per
computer, one with each unit, and another with the dock.
I'm still in the process of figuring out the numbers, but we seem to be
experiencing a serious failure rate. Over the past few weeks, several
users have shown me their adaptors and in each instance, there is a
break right at the root of the fixed portion of the cord coming out of
the power brick. Until now, users hadn't taken the time to report the
issue- they had either swapped the adaptor with the one on their dock,
or just put tape on the break to hold it together. I think now, I'm
dealing with a case of the "me toos". People are talking, realizing
they have the same problem, and bringing it to my attention. I wouldn't
be surprised if 50% of these are broken.
I spoke with Jeff Mikosz from Toshiba. Although we have a full onsite
warranty for these machines ending in 2010, the power supplies are not
part of that and are only covered for 1 year. Okay, fine. I wouldn't
have a problem with that, I think it's fairly standard in the industry;
However, at what point does a typical failure rate end, and concern
about a flawed product begin?
Thanks,
Al Puzzuoli
Michigan State University
Information Technologist
http://www.rcpd.msu.edu
Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities
120 Bessey Hall East Lansing, MI 48824-1033
517-884-1915
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