Dell laptop (almost) electrocutes young boy, his dog, potentially grandma

Friday, January 18th, 2008

Biggs is the editor of TechCrunch Gadgets. Biggs has written for the New York Times, InSync, USA Weekend, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Money and a number of other outlets on technology and wristwatches. He is the former editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.com and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet him here and G+ him here. Email him directly at john@techcrunch.com. → Learn More

scaledzap100.jpgA fascinating post in Dell Community support forums details the travails of a young man and is XPS m1530. It seems that his laptop is “crackling” and “sparking” when he touches it, suggesting a grounding issue. While we’ve all felt that weird “smoothness because we’re about to be electrocuted” feeling on laptops and even lamps, this sounds considerably more sinister.

When I connect the power supply my whole system tingles when I touch it and when someone touches me they can feel it too. When I remove the power supply and run off battery this stops.

The problem appears to be coming from the the brushed aluminium chasis.

Does anyone else have this problem?
Is this something to be worried about?

Apparently it’s the power supply but keep your eyes on this one in case someone brings to m1530s together and makes an arc welder.

Forums

Sponsored Ads

blog comments powered by Disqus

Sponsored Ads

Sponsored Ads