Dell AC adapter can kill

4.4 million Dell laptop power adapters is to be recalled because it could overheat and cause fire or shock. These adapters were issued between 1998 and 2002.

Why so late Dell? I bought a Dell Inspiron laptop back in 1998 and the adapter was as hot as hell. I complained but was told that it was within spec'ed. Now I found out that all these time I risked being killed for using their lousy laptop. Luckily I do not use Dell laptops anymore (or any laptops or Dell PCs although it is my wish to own a Sony X505).

Dell might sell cheap laptops, desktops, printers and PDAs but are the quality good? In my opinion - no. While the service is excellent in Malaysia (they sent a guy out on a bike to journey 100km to our home to replace the keyboard's key - which fell out another 5 times within the year), Dell products is often pronounced in the same tune as garbage.

And the service in the UK is crap. I had a friend who bought his Dell in China and had a World Wide warranty. Seven months on his laptop's screen would not power up. He spent hundreds calling Dell UK and China. From what he told me - Dell UK would not fix his laptop under warranty unless he transfered his service tag from China to UK. What a load of toss!

Remember, Dell is just another PC clone. They do not even make their own PC. You can get similarly priced and probably better spec'ed laptops from Hewlett-Packard or Toshiba. And you get a piece of mind as these manufacturers hardly screw their customers.

As for desktop - just build your own PC. It is dead easy and takes less than an hour.

I do not like to attack manufacturers for making faulty products and then recalling them. What I am concern is it took them six years to finally recall a potentially dangerous product. Did it took a couple of house fires and death of their customers to finally bring them to their senses? Was it cheaper to recall rather than face a lawsuit?

Source: ZDNet