Dell Inspiron chargers

IrishHomer

Just lettingh people know to be wary of Dell laptop chargers on Ebay.

I have bought two at different times over past few months and they are bloody useless.

They each cost almost €30 which i think is approx half of the cost of the Dell ones from the Dell store but i think you are far better off forking out for the original from Dell.

The Ebay ones are very plasticy and the cable gets loose and frays very quickly. :mad:

Alanstrainor

If i was buying one, i'd buy Dell branded ones on Ebay. I bought one for €25 quid-ish, and it was perfect, but it was a dell branded charger, for an inspiron. I wouldn't trust non branded cheapo ones, for the simple reason that it could mess up a laptop worth 15 or so times the cost of the charger

ttm

Agree there with Alanstrainor as I've had no problem with genuine Dell laptop PSU's bought on eBay . Last couple I got were $20 (dollars) and $10 postage from the US - ebay.com. Any no problems with either but have seen "Genuine" Dell laptops PSU's form HK and China fall to bits very quickly.

stick-dan

Well to me there seems to be no difference because i bought a dell inspirion 6400 last september and i am currently on my third charger, all official dell chargers, obtained from dell. The chargers are of extremely cheap make in my opinion. I got quite a shock when i looked at the first charger that broke and saw that at the connection to the unit there was a fray on the plastic coating of the cable near where its moulded to the unit and the wires inside were exposed.I brought it to the attention of dell who sent out a new one and the same thing happened again. They seem to be extremely faulty. I am waiting now for this third one to break. Dell must think i'm beginning to stock-pile charging units.

Voodu Child

Ebay is riddled with 'genuine' fake laptop PSUs, and not just from China.

From an electrical point of view, some of them are extremely dangerous items to have plugged into a mains supply. Do yourself a favour and buy from a reputable supplier.

http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/acadapter.html

ttm

stick-dan wrote: »

Well to me there seems to be no difference because i bought a dell inspirion 6400 last september and i am currently on my third charger, all official dell chargers, obtained from dell. The chargers are of extremely cheap make in my opinion. I got quite a shock when i looked at the first charger that broke and saw that at the connection to the unit there was a fray on the plastic coating of the cable near where its moulded to the unit and the wires inside were exposed.I brought it to the attention of dell who sent out a new one and the same thing happened again. They seem to be extremely faulty. I am waiting now for this third one to break. Dell must think i'm beginning to stock-pile charging units.

A part from cheap under powerd chargers form HK and China the only problem I've had with chargers are to do with users. Some just manage to mangle anything. The area that you are refering to often gets damaged so if it happened twice before why didn't you take a bit more care with the third? If you wind the cable up tightly the same way each time and don't unwind it carefully the same thing will keep happening time and time again. The area where the strain releif ends gets bent the most when the cable is wound up so gets the most ware. The real manglers also manage to add a bit of twist to the cable every time its wound up and unwound which compounds the problem.

OK Sorry but honestly I've seen the problem you refer to and there isn't much Dell or anyone else can do about it? OK armoured cable would help but that does tend to make the laptop PSU a bit heavy I don't know exactly what PSU your laptop takes but I have found the Dell PA10 and PA12 series used on some of their D series Inspiron laptops to be about as tough by design in this area as any I have used. On the other hand I have seen some other otherwise good PSU's (from a power point of view) that need extra special care if they are to last more than a few months of regular on the move use.

@ voodo child - great link, and I've just checked two of my fleabay Dell psu's and I'm sure they are the real thing