AC Adapter Warranty

Hi Marc,

I replaced several AC adapters under the "Next Business Day" warranty and what they do is send you a new AC adapter by mail and you have to ship back the faulty one, at no charge, within 10 business days.

You just have to contact tech support by phone.

Hope this information helps,

Rick.

(Edited for spelling and additional info)

Message Edited by RichardLusignan on 08-26-2004 09:18 AM

This type of thing has been posted many times on other models. Personally I have had a i8200 for over a year and a half and us it every day with the same AC adapter and never had this problem.

As to the warranty it is the same for the AC adapter as it is for the rest of the parts. Now that does not mean Dell will replace it for nothing because what you are discribing is normal wear and tear, at least the way you are using the adapter. The only thing to do is call Dell tech support and see what they say.

Well, if you took "Complete Care", they won't ask much questions and will replace it immediatly.

Good point EdC, I don't know if this goes under wear and tear if you don't have Complete Care....

Wishing you luck,

Rick.

I'm not trying to tell you how to use your notebook but the worst thing you can do with the newer faster hot running CPU notebook is use it on a soft surface. You should always have the notebook on a board or table, of some type, so air can get to the bottom of it. In that case you use a board or table that is wider/deeper then the notebook and that extra length/depth is what supports the AC cable instead of it hanging straight down at the plug you connect to the notebook. But hey do what you like.

I wish they would design a better laptop A/C adapter! A lot of people say that they never experience this problem but unfortunately everyone doesn't use their laptop the same way :/ For the most part I'll be using my laptop sitting on the sofa, or sitting in a chair or be outside on the front porch doing some work or even using it on the carpet, it's a home use laptop, it's not always going to be sitting on a desk or table in that perfect environment usage designed by an engineer.

This is my 4th laptop, I've had IBM/toshiba/dell and only one got it right, making the A/C adapter at a complete 90 degree angle to the laptop so it would be straight down so if gravity was pulling on  the laptop it wouldn't put stress on the wiring, it would just pivot left to right inside the laptop power connector or yank out extremely easily if too much stress was applied. This was my IBM laptop, and I had it for 2-3 years, and sold it to my friend and he had it for another 2, when it was finally sold off on Ebay it still had it's original AC adapter in mint condition.

Worse designed AC adapter I ever had was a Toshiba, they made the connection with absolutely no bend or angle to the laptop, so just after a couple months the AC went right between where it connected with the laptop and the nob that filtered the power going into the laptop, bought a 3rd party one  and sold that laptop to the same friend, within the same time span it went the same way as it was designed the same way. Stop calling them laptops if they can't hold up to being used on your lap!

Another gripe I have about newer laptops is the rubber feet!!! Go back to the old design that used to be in use, where there were small circular holes in the bottom of the laptop and the rubber feet had small plugs that you could push into said holes and there was no usage of peel and stick tranfer tape. My 1100 has lost all but one rubber foot on the bottom, if it had this design mentioned above I would still have all my rubber feet, I would see the rubber foot on the table or on the carpet and I would try to put it back but fuzz/dust was on that cheap adhesive tape so it would no longer stick.

Well after three calls and almost an hour on the phone I received my new adapter 2 days later. Lucky considering yesterday the adapter shorted out where it was pulling away and the adapter just made a high pitched chirping sound.

I'm impressed with the lack of downtime I had, was not impressed with one department sending me to another department with another phone number, one said tech support, called them and they said returns/replacement, was on hold for quite awhile on the last phone number. I swear they try to trick you into admitting you somehow broke it doing something stupid, like asking me if there were gashes in the cord or any other really obvious damage I would have done to cause this. When I exclaimed that gravity simply made the wire pull away and stress away from the thumb part, he kinda was reluctant until I exclaimed I use this laptop mostly on the sofa and on the bed or on the floor while watching tv and it was truely a lap use laptop that the cord draped over and down to the adapter on the floor he sent me my replacement.

Now to send the old one back in today and call back in a few days for rubber feet replacements :) Wish there was something to better affix them to the bottom than double sided tape. :p