LOL

It is not far from the truth However, I suspect with Dell's recent major recall of batteries, they will want to handle this long before it hits the news.

Bah!!! Stupid Network

Tell me about it, I was getting partially tazered last night, I had my laptop on my legs and I could definatly feel the hair sticking up on my legs....it was definatly not a good sign, good thing Dell will be issuing me a new laptop, so I can get a 3-prong from ebay or whatever and start over fresh without having to worry about my computer dieing from stray voltage leaks....

Guys, Looks like engadget has picked up on your "problem"...perhaps this "notoriety"...will pressure dell for a fix:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/06/d...acking-a-jolt/

HOLY CRAP!

ViriiGuy is FAMOUS!!!

YEAH!! Now that's what I like to hear! Public support other places! Now I hope that it spreads like wildfire!!! That's awesome! I sure hope that encourages a longer warranty or something like that for those who own these "ligthing rods" lol, and hopefully that'll help push the 3-prong adapters...i still have no idea why dell hadn't sent those out in the first place....grounding has been a very important fact, and required for many many years! *shakes head*

What number would one call for USA to get a 3 pronged adapter for there laptop mine is only 2 pronged e1705. Please Help thanks.

that's strange. the 9300 came with 3 prong adapters.

I noticed the change from the three to the two prong adapters. However, this does not necesarily fix the issue. I have talked about this for months and here is a recent post on another forum:
http://www.shacknews.com/ja.zz?id=13577828

My Wife's 9300 does the same thing. My eMachines A64 notebook does the same thing.

From what I can tell, a lot of notebook manufactures are using some kind of non-conductive coating/paint on their laptops. When this paint becomes chipped or exposed by a screw that isn't covered in the same material, current can flow.


So still beware that even with a three prong adapter, you may be exposed to some shocking, and not the good Wichita State kind.

Well I'll be jiggered

I took my E1705 up to the Senior Design EE lab here. The two seniors that were there glanced over at my oscilloscope and realized what was going on, most likely assuming that I did not ground properly. When we took it over to the new, more advanced scope, the measurements reported were of a 60Hz periodic function with a peak-to-peak voltage of ~150V.

Being curious EE's, the next natural step that the seniors suggested was to see if we could pull any current out of the screws. A few moments later, we had a circuit with a laptop screw connecting to an LED in series with a 1K Ohm resistor connected to the ground node of a power supply (connected directly to the ground of a wall socket). I am happy to report that the LED turned on and there was a measured current of about 1.4 (mille or micro, I forget which) Amps flowing from the screw to the resistor.

Remember, folks, there will never be current flowing out of the laptop without a load attached to the screws. So don't hook up any 1 Ohm resistors if this is happening to your laptop, you might fry a few things (due to the large current, remember V=IR).

I'm opening up a Dell chat now to see about getting this resolved.

Thanks for starting this thread ViriiGuy. It was quite interesting to play around with the testing for this.

EDIT: When I asked the dell chat support tech if she could send a 3 pronged power adapter (after I explained the issue), she replied "I cannot do that."

Yeah, you got the whole "like for a like" bid i'm assuming?? I'm thinking that tech hasn't a clue what's going on, and they never will until someone up in corporate finally gets that wild hair taken care of and issues a recall/tech sheet for the grounding issue using the 2pronged non grounding adapters.

THat is, of course, assuming the suits find this issue worth "known issue" status, it is entirely possible that they will continue to ignore it and tell us to "get bent" in a fashion.

At least a few folks have been succesful in their quests. That makes me get a warm and fuzzy about the coming conclusion of this drama.

I just have to remember the thread I started last week "Dell Support R0cKs", painful, but they came through in the end.

Laters

Not with me on their backs they won't

I got a response just a few moments ago. Quoted from my email....

My system is also sending out 65v from the screws under it.
Talked to support the other day and they said that they neverheard of the problem. After some discussion the came back to me and said tah this was normal and that it wouldn't hurt the Laptop.

Well, if ther will be any general policy issued by Dell regarding this problem i will call them back.