Power Adapters – The 1 year wear-out

I own a Toshiba Tecra M7. Today I noticed my power adapter was being a bit finicky. I had it plugged in, but after a while I noticed that my battery was draining again. I’d had this problem before with a Compaq M2000’s power adapter – wiggle the power wire connected to the computer, and it flickers from charging to battery draining. With the M2000, I eventually figured out that there was an internal break in the wire that goes from the power adapter to the computer (i.e., the wire that is not replaceable and is part of the brick itself) since there was a point in the wire where I could pinch it with my fingernails, and an indentation would be formed – one that it was quite apparent was only possible if there was no internal wire at that point – hence, the theory of a break.

This time, all I had to do was wiggle it near the end connected to the computer’s AC port, and the AC Power/charging light would flicker off on the M7. Bend it back to straight behind the computer, and it would come on again. It was quite apparent this is the same problem again.

Incidentally, both of these happened a little under a year since the purchase of the computer. My Tecra M7 was shipped on 10-09-2006 (which is the official “date of purchase”), and I just called Tech Support (1-800-457-7777) about five minutes before writing this post (today is 10-06-2007). I think this is one of those things about laptops that most people don’t know – the power adapter will almost certainly wear out within 1 year of use.

Fortunately, this is an item that is covered by most standard warranties, including the warranty of my previous M2000 and my current Tecra M7. Since I’ve run into the problem before, it was much easier to help the customer service representative (CSR) “diagnose” the problem. Granted, he had to go through the standard list of “Do you see any damage around the AC port, or the cord itself?”, “Is the power brick overheating?”, etc… The call was maybe 20 minutes from the time I dialed, through the process of navigating the number menus for an appropriate category, and getting a real person on the line. All this at about 7:30PM on a Saturday. I’d say that’s certainly acceptable service, and no more than I would expect. They’re shipping me a new power brick right to my door! And, since I bought the ServiceExpress Warranty package, it should be here within 2-3 business days.

[Update: 2007-10-09]

I received the replacement part today, however it is the *wrong* part. I was sent the detachable AC cord that plugs into the power-brick and the wall socket. What I *actually* needed was a new power brick. I’m not entirely surprised by this, since I suspect that the CSR I talked to was located in India, and it can be somewhat confusing which cord is being talked about sometimes. Or, maybe he was just ignorant about the product he’s supposed to be providing technical support for. Either way, I’ve had to make a call again tonight to tech support. I’ve spoken with another CSR at this point, and he’s doing whatever virtual paperwork has to be done to fill out another order for the correct part (I think he understood what I actually wanted this time). For a period of about 10 minutes the call-waiting music even went dead! The call took 45 minutes from start to finish this time (including navigating through the routing menus at the beginning).

I would note that this time the CSR actually said initially that he was going to charge my credit card for the replacement part. However, once I questioned him on this (since it should be covered considering I payed $200 for 3-year standard warranty + SystemGuard Accidental protection + ServiceExpress), he put me on hold for a minute and came back saying that I would not be charged. Yay! The customer triumphs for once…

[Update: 2007-10-10]

I just received the new power brick today! It was apparently overnighted – probably because part of my warranty is ServiceExpress. They also gave me another cable that goes from the wall socket to the power brick for some reason. I guess these are shipped as a kit. Either way, I’m happy!

~ by David on 2007 October 6, Saturday.