The Power Vacuum

When my Dell 1525 laptop was first purchased, it came with a 6-cell "regular" battery and a 9-cell "extended" battery. The assumption was that the regular battery would provide somewhere between 2 to 3 hours of portability, and the extended would provide 3 to 4 hours, giving a sum total of nearly 7 hours of life.

That worked well for about two years, and then the regular battery began to lose its potency; the available time dropped to an hour, then thirty minutes. As for the extended battery, it began to fade as well, but its demise was a bit more rapid, dropping from 3 hours down to 30 minutes within a very short span of weeks.

About a year ago, I looked into purchasing a new set of batteries from Dell, but the price was a bit steep for my blood: $150 or thereabouts. So the purchase was put off, and I made do with the batteries as they were, spending most of my time tethered to the wall via the AC adapter instead of experiencing the freedom of portability.

Then this weekend, after allowing my daughters to borrow the laptop, the AC adapter died.

{Naturally, I'm not blaming them. These things happen.}

It took me a while to comprehend that it wasn't working. The computer screen indicated that it was running on battery when it was obviously plugged into the wall. I checked the cords to make sure they were plugged in tightly. {They were.} The little green LED on the power supply kinda looked dim; it was catching reflections off the overhead lights so that it was difficult to tell one way or the other. I checked Cheryl's AC adapter, and that monkey was nice and bright, so that was a big clue that something was really amiss.

So out came the ol' voltmeter, and it proved once and for all that there weren't nuthin comin outta that adapter. Zero. Zilch. Nada. One hundred and twenty volts of pure-D electricity going in, and nuthin comin out.

Now it occurred to me to wonder if there was some kinda fuse inside that adapter thingie. If there is, it's completely inaccessible, but I still wondered. Us old-time engineers are used to thinking of things like that; we always put fuses in our designs. But we usually make 'em so that the ordinary user can replace 'em if necessary. But these here made-in-China, all-embedded plastic doodads, they don't care for the niceties, I guess. Fuses cost money, and the name of the game is to reduce cost (and who gives a hoot for Quality?), so I wasn't expecting much on that score.

Especially when the only way to get inside the thing, was to cut it open with a saw-blade.

That's what I learned after looking it up on the World Wide Web. These newfangled adapters are put together inside of these two plastic halves, and then the plastic halves are kinda welded or melted together, so there really isn't much for the owner to do. Unless he happens to also own a Dremel.

Took me about five minutes to cut my way around the outside of the adapter, then another five to pry it apart and see what's inside. There's a yellow rectangle what looks kinda fuse-like. I'll take a look at it tomorrow. No time tonight. Too tired.

Meanwhile, we found a new adapter and a new 9-cell battery on Amazon for about fifty dollars, so Cheryl ordered it up for me. Should be here by Thursday, so they say. Can't wait to see what happens after that.