Well Scotman, You and I know this, but Dell will have to see it first hand.

I just updated to M1710 A05 BIOS, still waiting for my BSOD.

Another confirmed case here, 29.5v AC off the screws on the bottom while plugged in, and nothing if I unplug it.

I get 135 volts of AC on the screws. The normal voltage in the outlets here are 230 volts.
I have had this laptop for one year now, and not a single time have I gotten the NMI parity error or whatever everybody's talking about here...

I ruled out RAM and BIOS. I got the NMI error with the new A05 BIOS and with 2 different 2x1GB PC4200 RAM and 2x512MB PC5300 RAM and they all passed memtest and DELL diagnostics.

Ahhh so the plot thickens. We were supposed to mail one of the laptops giving off the voltage to Mike in Texas this morning. However, Friday afternoon my boss got a call from Dell Canada. They informed her she was NOT to send this laptop to Texas, that there would be problems at the border. So instead of sending it to the Dell engineers in Texas, we are to ship this laptop back to Dell Canada.

What does this mean for the rest of us? I am not sure, but more delays. You can be sure of that. Ah joy of joys.

ViriiGuy

*edit*
Mike is checking into it and says he already has the engineers in Red Rock looking into it as well.

I contacted Dell about this issue, they told me that this is the way it's supposed to be. So basicly they are telling me that it's completely normal to have a voltage of 135 volts AC flowing through the the grounded parts of the laptop. Great...

The Dell Engineers are looking into it right now. It is not listed as a hotfix with Dell at the moment. So if you call you will get told all kinds of stuff. Mike has assured me this will all be taken care of soon.

(sarcasm)

Just think of the LED case mods that are now possible! With all the extra juice flowing through those screws, we could turn our E1705's into externally lit M1710's!

(/sarcasm)</SARCASM>

*snicker*

have 6 month old Dell e1705, and I checked it today. With computer off but AC power plugged in, I got about 48-52V AC coming out of the screws. With the computer off and NO AC power, I got about 2.5V AC. I did not check it while the machine was running. This is NUTS! Dell's response seems lame at this point. I wonder (among other things) if the voltage is affecting bluetooth range, or if it is interferring with voice quality.

Yeah, I had an engineer check it out here today, and we hooked it up to one of his $4000 meters, to see if maybe it wasn't anything at all, and that the cheaper dmm were picking up some sort of harmonic voltage or something, but it showed up as being about 50 volts of 60hz ac single phase...

He wasn't wondering if it was something inside of these "worldly" ac adatpers, where they were cheaply made, and since they're sitting there constantly trying to lock into one voltage and frequency, that a little bit squeeks by thru a cheaper diode or scr or some kind of electronic component.

I did end up buying a PA-10 90W 3-pronged adapter off of ebay, (PN 9T703) but instead of getting 50-60 volts, i get 40-50 volts...so it might be an issue with the adapters themselves....BUT! I then checked my fiance's laptop, a HP zv6000, it's got a 3-pronged 120W adapter, it showed 0 V and i slapped one of those cheater plugs on there, to eliminate the ground, and I then got about 60 V out of the ground of the adapter...so it must be some sort of grounding issue with the components inside...

I then tested my friends power adatper from an I6000 laptop, it was the 3-pronged PA-12 65W (PN T7423) and this one seemed to be funtional, 0 volts to ground.

So, so far my results.

PN CF745 (pa-12 65W I6400 2 prong) 57 V
PN DF263 (pa-12 65W I6400 2 prong) 57 V
PN 9T703 (pa-10 90W ? 3 prong) 44 V
PN T7423 (pa-12 65W I6000 3 prong) 0 V

I thought I'd chime in with my own experience. I own two laptops based on this chassis--an E1705 and a Precision M90. The former has the 2-prong 90W adapter, the latter the 3-prong 130W model. Either laptop, using the 130W adapter, shows no stray voltage on any chassis screws. Using the 90W, both laptops exhibit some voltage. But how much is "some"? I'm not sure.

Let me explain. With one lead touching one of the chassis screws and the other against my stainless steel sink (or a couple of other grounds that I tried), the needle on my (cheap) multimeter reads the same degree of deflection whether it is on the 250V, 50V or 10V scale. So the voltage on the chassis reads either 50V, 10V or 2V depending on the scale chosen. I'm sure this has something to do with the way the meter works, but I'm not too knowledgeable about such things. (The reading is also the same with the leads reversed.)

Now for the subjective observations: The M90 has been rock solid for the 4-or-so months that I've had it. The E1705 was solid for a while (I've had it for the same amount of time), but more recently has tended to be a bit more unstable. Using a spare (3-prong) 130W adapter helps, but does not eliminate instability (but it's the difference between locking up constantly or on the order of once per day). When it does lock up, rarely is it the BSOD, but usually just a black screen.

I will be opening a support case with Dell for the E1705, but I am curious what the outcome of this saga will be. I'll stay tuned...

Cheers,
Jeremy

Thank you all for your continued research into this. Just more proof that this really is a problem. Jeremy, your findings back up my theory. The stray voltage with or without current can and WILL damage the hardware of the laptop.

Well, as I have already stated...Dell solved my issue within 2 days of me sending an email....they sent me a new adapter straight away, as they KNEW about the problem...

They sent me a 90W PA-10 Rev A02. It has solved the problem for me...case closed.