Dell laptops in electric shock shocker

CartmanThu 17 January, 2008 4:09pm

I measured 100volts of my red XPS m1530. Dell promptly replaced my charger so problem sorted and I have a spare charger to boot. To be honest if Dell hadn't of replaced my charger I'd of found it difficult to send back my beloved notebook as it exceeded expectations and it's red! oh and did I mention - it's red!

AnonymousThu 17 January, 2008 5:37pm

Damn! I was going to order an XPS M1330 tonight, I'm a little worried now though...

AnonymousThu 17 January, 2008 7:25pm

I have an XPS m1330 and was sulpied with a fully earthed adaptor as standard.

AnonymousThu 17 January, 2008 11:28pm

Both my 17" MacBook Pro and my wife's 15" MacBook Pro both deliver slight electrical shocks while they are plugged in as well. Poor grounding?

AnonymousThu 17 January, 2008 11:30pm

I think this is probably a more common problem; I get a jolt from my 5 year old Toshiba Satellite 3000, if I touch the firewire port. Not sure if the source is the cold cathode for the TFT display, static built up by the spinning disc, or something else.

AnonymousThu 17 January, 2008 11:30pm

Doubles as hot dog cooker!
Connect an earthed wire to a nail. Insert nail in hot dog. Place hot dog on metal laptop case. Upon generation of appropriate aroma and temperature place dog in bun with condiments. Metal case makes for easy cleanup too!

Seriously, it''s a design flaw and a damn idiotic one at that.

AnonymousThu 17 January, 2008 11:35pm

oh, i love it. I think we need more laptops like this. It will be great for fighting piracy. Every time you are using pirated software or stealing a stream, the owner reserves the right to send "mild electrical shock" Awesome.

AnonymousThu 17 January, 2008 11:55pm

My M1330 shocks me when I'm using it my lay-z-boy (suede). It's static electricity generated between the clothing and the chair, and varies with humidity levels. I used some anti-static spray on the chair and the problem goes away for a few weeks.

Also, this happened on all previous laptop models I've owned, albeit it was when I was touching a grounded connector on the chassis. I've noticed it more with the M1330, obviously due to the materials used for the finish.

AnonymousThu 17 January, 2008 11:57pm

It also happens when I walk across carpet with sock feet and then brush across a lightswitch. Usually the screws on the lightswitch get me. It can be surprising.

AnonymousFri 18 January, 2008 12:23am

I had a Sony VGN-S5M/S (late 2005 13.3" model) which did the same thing, plus more! Basically if you had the metal bits of the laptop in contact with your skin while it was plugged in, you when someone else touched you they would feel a vibrating sensation (where I was - Ireland - it was a 50Hz vibration in line with the 50Hz line power). The real problem with this was that it confused the touchpad and sometimes caused it to go completely nuts! I've also noticed shocks from the screws on the bottoms of my old Gateway laptop when I take it to the can with me. This isn't such an uncommon phenonemon - which, like the Vaio and the Dell in the above ad, had an non-grounded/earthed power supply - but it is annoying!

AnonymousFri 18 January, 2008 12:39am

I've been having this happen frequently on my XPS1210. Always enough to make me react. A tingle I can live with. This also explains why the external USB hard disk bites as well ("grounded" through the usb cable). Love the machine as long as it doesn't bite. I'll be asking for a 3 pin.

AnonymousFri 18 January, 2008 12:56am

Received an XPS1530 just before Christmas for my Wife. We both have been getting large zaps when picking up the laptop. Might be able to use the wall cord from an old Inspiron power adapter, it has 3 plugs

AnonymousFri 18 January, 2008 1:34am

This is old news and has been happening for quite some time with all dell laptops in the past few years. The only difference is that before the charge just built up and discharged only when you connected something else to it with a ground. (As the case was plastic.) Now, with brushed aluminum this is shocking not only devices, but users too.

AnonymousFri 18 January, 2008 2:58am

It's not only Dell, I have the similar issues with my MacBook Pro when I connect a printer.

AnonymousFri 18 January, 2008 6:21am

I have a Dell Inspiron 1720.
Living in Australia it sometimes get's hot. So when I was sitting down working with my shirt off - my belly touched the laptop media buttons at the front and I got a VERY unpleasent surprize!!!

Nice to know that it was not just me. Have not measured the voltage as such but its a definate tingle!!!

AnonymousFri 18 January, 2008 7:23am

I live in Aus and I own a XPS 1330. I am supplied with a 3 pin power cable and I do not experience any shocks. However, this is true while I was visiting Vietnam. The power adaptor/converter over there did not have an earth pin and yes I did experience the electricity buzzing on the brass finish.

AnonymousFri 18 January, 2008 1:33pm

Looks like I will have to turn the pace maker off when I use one of these.
From a developers point of view this sounds like it rocks and I and allot of my collegues have wanted this for years what a great feature. Does anyone know if there is a .net class library call or an API to make this shock users when required ?
It would be great for our support desk to be able to call this remotely.

AnonymousFri 18 January, 2008 1:58pm

To say that the problem is poor grounding is not necessarily the answer since good grounding can result in shocks due to charge movement from person to ground (built up due to environmental factors such as clothing, weather, footwear and carpets etc.)
Tingling sounds like a problem with the charger. If there is a problem with the charger such that it is passing non-DC through it (eg, 50Hz) then try reversing the mains connection if possible (if not; like in the UK check your socket is connected up correctly it is possible that the design of the charger makes it pass more non-DC when the connections are reversed) (Qualified and competent persons only should work on mains equipment)
The only real way to prevent shocks on metalised equipment is to provide a high resistance path to ground so that the charge dissipates slowly and doesn't zap you all at once.

AnonymousFri 18 January, 2008 2:07pm

only the long mainscable adapter for the powersupply is properly grounded for the macs... it is not for the small 3 pin adapter.. this used to drive me nuts as well until i noticed the small metal spring in the long cable and noted there wasn't one in the plug only adapter

AnonymousFri 18 January, 2008 2:15pm

I have an XPS M1330 and never experienced such issue.

AnonymousFri 18 January, 2008 3:04pm

I was fixing to order a M1530 too and now I think Im gonna wait.

AnonymousFri 18 January, 2008 3:47pm

By the way, it's not excessive voltage that causes bodily harm... it's electrical current. The voltage merely causes an unpleasant shock. If you ever touched the prongs of an electrical outlet and felt the tingle, that's current.

And one last thing:
"The electric current on all Dell products have been measured and proven to be well within the safety limits per safety standards -- IEC950, EN60950, UL1950, etc, even with an input voltage of 240 Volts"

An input voltage of 240 volts means the current is halved, not doubled, to obtain the same power requirements. P = I * V

AnonymousFri 18 January, 2008 4:49pm

jaja....well..then is just to change the charger? no big deal.........mine is black :)

AnonymousFri 18 January, 2008 4:53pm

I have a compaq R4000 laptop that has started giving me a tingling feeling. There is no fix for this is there?

AnonymousFri 18 January, 2008 5:09pm

This is not a dell specific problem since there are a lot of other computers that have the same type of adapters.

AnonymousFri 18 January, 2008 5:15pm

The EXACT SAME THING HAPPENS on any newer Macbook Pro when using the power brick two-prong plug instead of the the-prong adapter. Same thing.

AnonymousFri 18 January, 2008 5:19pm

I have an older Dell C610 currently that if you are sitting in a chair or walk across virtually any floor, when you go to pick up the laptop you get a nice little zap. The only way I've found around this is to take my shoes off so I'm "grounded". Does the same thing with the C600 and CPx laptop we have.

AnonymousFri 18 January, 2008 6:50pm

As someone already mentioned, the amount of voltage is really only a small aspect of electrocution. Even small voltages can cause harm, and large voltage don't always (hence folks who survive lightning strikes, etc). It's more the amps involved and the path that an electrical current takes through the body. If the current passes through the heart, no matter what the voltage, there's likely to be damage. If there are enough amps, the heart is likely to stop. So the idea of a "safe level" of voltage in electrocution is a bit of a misnomer.

Though, in the case of touching a laptop, typically there aren't going to be enough amps, and the current is unlikely to pass through the heart.

I do wonder, though, how many of these supposed electrical shocks people are getting are pure and simple static electricity (very common with metal objects, powered or not), rather than some design flaw that pipes electrical current from the laptop itself.

AnonymousFri 18 January, 2008 7:12pm

Yeah use a call to _CaseShockEX and pass an integer to it between 1 and 254. Turn it off with an integer set at 0.

Ha!

AnonymousSat 19 January, 2008 10:00pm

I was issued a Gateway notepad laptop at work. If I touched the base and the display at the same time or placed it on my lap while wearing shorts, it would deliver a shock akin to dozens of little pin-pricks. This phenommenon is not new nor exclusive to Dell.

AnonymousSun 20 January, 2008 3:55pm

Hi Rory - I guess you might as well change the line from "The problem <<ONLY>> seems to occur in Dell laptops that have a brushed-aluminium finish." to somethin else. The replies at the forum definitely indicates that any laptop with a conductive top or bottom can give you a TINGLING sensation. If you're hit is aimed at Dell, you can take that and throw it out the window. I get this sensation when i'm sitting in the hall but not in my bedroom (with a two-prong adapter). Shows that there's somethin wrong with the power socket rather than sending Dell to the do.gs... You might as well look for somethin else aimed at Dell that might be true... Kutty...

AnonymousSun 20 January, 2008 4:31pm

Dell actually replaced my XPS M170 due to electrical discharge.

I talked to them initially and they said it was normal (!). I escalated the issue, and the support manager apologized for the stupidity and immediately issued me an RMA for a replacement. The M1710 that showed up was a huge upgrade on top of it, so I'm happy.

AnonymousSun 20 January, 2008 6:21pm

This is rather funny. My laptop does this too. I have a macbook pro. Which is made of brushed aluminum also. Hmm, maybe I should contact apple about this.

AnonymousMon 21 January, 2008 2:46pm

The static charge involved cannot harm you, so relax and quit whining about it.

AnonymousMon 21 January, 2008 7:42pm

"The static charge involved cannot harm you, so relax and quit whining about it."

Umm, Your a moron and your flat out wrong...and possibly retarded.

AnonymousMon 21 January, 2008 7:59pm

(continued) Also it's not a static charge or even static as you put it. These people are being shocked. For the record I do not own a laptop at all nor any of Dell's garbage product line and I am quite thankful. I do however know something about electricity having some schooling in a field that requires knowledge in the subject.
I hope some of the smarter consumers of these and other shockingly pathetic (pun intended) laptop's, personally sue the pants of off Dell and others as well as a class action lawsuit (which won't net indivuals much money...just their lawyers.)
Another thought is a recall is in order ASAP by the manufacturer as a show of good faith and should include free cross-shipping and a free upgrade, as well as the initial fixes needed if they intend to keep any current and future costumers happy.

AnonymousThu 24 January, 2008 6:47pm

i have a m1530 and it shocks me and gives me static charge which other people can feel on my skin. i also taste of metal. yum.

AnonymousWed 20 February, 2008 8:04pm

Does anyone have the Dell Part Number? Dell says there is no grounded charger for the XPS machines

AnonymousTue 11 March, 2008 3:52pm

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has numerous complaints regarding electric shocks from laptops in thier files. The USCPSC has more than 660 incidents, more than 90 with human health effects in the files, the National Transportation Safety Board has more. See Sony recall regarding laptops getting shocked while on phone.

I was diagnosed with lithium toxicity, multipule chemical exposure, an enlarged heart (secondary to expsosure), neuropathy (fine motor, and autonomic), retinal degeneration (loss of sight), electrosensitivity, burnt, shocked, and more from a Dell / Sony laptop battery. See Messier v. Dell / Sony et al. 2004 VT, NH, Appeals and more.

See the Product Safety Data Sheets that are supposed to accompany these laptops which state in part 'keep away from children', 'skin', 'respritory', 'mucous membrane', 'eye', 'irritation', 'loss of sight'.

The Japanese government has even stated in part these laptops / batteries are 'dangerous'.

AnonymousFri 14 March, 2008 1:00am

I'd got the shock from Dell Inspiron 6000. I reported to the Dell, and they gave me another one, Inspiron 6400; however, it also gave me the shock, more powerful than ever! Dell sent me a three prong adapter, but got it again. I chatted with Dell technician about it, but the answer was that I am the only one who is complaining about it, and that if I want to complain again, I should hire an electrician to check the whole wire thing in my house. He was very agressive and rude. However, I got a big one again. So, despite my coward, I told them again, and they sent me a new one. I don't know whether the new one will solve this problem. It seems that there is a problem in the design of wire in the laptop which I really hope Dell courageously recall and save some lives like me.

AnonymousMon 7 April, 2008 7:04pm

I must admit I'm really surprised. I've had my beautiful red XPS M1530 since December, using virtually every day, and haven't had single shock. Lucky me I guess. I certainly wouldn't be put of buying anothe one.

AnonymousFri 18 April, 2008 5:52am

You are not alone I received a nasty shock as well from a dell laptop and was seriously injured!!!

AnonymousWed 23 April, 2008 10:01pm

bloody hell ! This is my 3rd day on a new XPS M1330 and it's giving a shock so badly that i can't work on the laptop with the power connected.

Someone tell me what can be done about this issue, as it's impossible to use this machine now.