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Comment by klmadfejno | Hacker News Reader

I was bit by this issue once. I was still using the original charger. The issue wasn't anything wrong with the pin, but the power port had been slightly pushed inward. Had to crack it open and solder it to the frame.

I don't buy dell laptops for this exact hardware flaw.

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Similar issue about 2 months ago. When plugging the power in, it seems I introduced the cable at an angle and the pins inside the port caused a short. Fortunately, nothing was irreparably damaged. Had to dissasemble the port, unbend the pins into their correct position, and plugged them in again. Didn't realize that was the problem until I had dissasembled the port and thoroughly checked it, so those were quite a few minutes of panic!

I can second that, it really turned me off to Dell's I switched from a high end Dell to a Sager for this exact issue.

Newer Dell laptops charge via USB-C PD, and work with any compliant charger you'd like. Actually that's not quite true - I believe they require 20V support, and like most things USB C, just because its "USB C PD" compliant, doesn't mean it supports 20V (most OEM phone chargers dont, for example).

What's funny is MacBooks don't require 20V. I've never tried with an iPhone charger, but I've definitely charged MacBooks overnight with a common 12W iPad charger (using one of those USB-A-to-C cables).

Yeah, I think MacBooks work fine via even via 5V chargers (albeit slowly). Would be nice if Dell followed their lead.

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