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Comment by UnoriginalGuy | Hacker News Reader

I'm impressed that Dell have created a laptop aimed at developers, but I've stopped buying Dells completely as I've had an endless string of issues going back ten years with their power supplies.

And it isn't just me either, everyone I know has had similar issues with the power supplies splitting (and eventually failing) right at the bend as it enters the laptop... Then the replacements are $100.

I'm buying laptops to last. Dells simply do not. Even their "high end" Latitudes and XPS laptops are cheaply made.

I won't buy another Dell until I see an improvement in the quality of the power supplies and ideally a single universal power supply across their entire range (why does one range have two new incompatible PSUs a year?).

Apple and Thinkpad/Lenovo both have much higher quality power blocks and both have universal power supplies within the same range. I buy two Thinkpad Txxx or Macbook Pros I can interchange the power supplies!

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Every macbook power supply (cable) will split and fray within two-three years (depending on use). However, here in Norway they have a 5 year (goverment mandated) warranty, so no problems just bringing it in and going back out with a brand new adapter.

Damn you Norwegians have it good! :D

Don't think for a second they don't charge them for the privilege. Fortunately, the need for AppleCare is somewhat diminished.

If that is true, that is pretty disappointing.

I will say though that even if that is the case, at least I can buy a Macbook power supply "anywhere." I can drive down to BestBuy and buy one today.

With Dell's PSUs you can essentially only buy them from Dell's online store. I mean there are some HK sellers but they don't get certified as safe by any reputable agency. So either way, you'll be laptop-less for a week or more.

Universality is within itself a massive perk. It means the power blocks are more common, easier to obtain, and sometimes cheaper. It also means that if I buy two laptops from the same manufacturer I have a backup power brick for "free."

To give you another perspective: I bought a Dell Latitude including 3 year extended warranty for less that a similar powerful Macbook that has 1 year warranty. I had a problem with the motherboard after a couple of months and a Dell technican came to my house and fixed it the next day for free. I dont have to drag it into their shop and give it away for days/weeks like in Apples case. Lenovo has similar offerings for business customers.

On Dells (and Lenovos of course) i can actually replace the battery if its broken (on their business laptops atleast, the Ultrabook Designtrend which Apple invoked doesnt allow this), on any modern Macbook i cant.

My Latitude from 2009 is now still used by my mother and she didnt have any problems with it since i gave to her, power brick is fine, while my current Macbook Air of 1 1/2 years needed a new one recently because the old one had died.

That being said the built quality of Dells Business grinders isnt really that great, but i heared the more "Apple-like" machines are better in that regard.

You can't use "every" and "depending on use" in the same sentence, as that could be said of anything. I have a four year old cable of said type which, except for a little dust, is looking as good as new.

Were you to say that it occurs during average usage however, I agree that it would be an issue.

I read "depending on use" as a modifier to 2-3 years not on every. That is to say the cable will break sometime between 2-3 years with heavy use being sooner rather than later.

Still think it is an unnecessary dig at Apple. My brothers MacBook charger only died at 4 years old due to him spiling a drink on it.

That's what I meant yes. Although I guess if you are really careful it would probably last longer. However the heat from the adapter (and the magsafe plug) will slowly degrade the rubber and glue.

The one I'm currently using is 6 years old. My boss had to replace his within a couple years and they showed him how to properly wrap the cable. He taught us and it's been fine.

Tautologies are so much fun.

And no one should take an "every" literally in an online comment.

Essentially it means: "almost all my friends have frayed or split cables" and "the guy at the repair shop said it was a known and frequent issue".

It's kinda like saying "every lg retina screen has retention issues".

Hey more anecdotes! I love my Air, it will be replaced with Airs until the patent on MagSafe runs out. That having been said, Apple's fray-prevention on all of their cords is nothing more than "pretty design". It certainly isn't functional or it would look like the same component on other cables... that... actually prevent the fraying in question.

Me too. I've owned several and without exception the cords turn brownish, get soft, and then ultimately fray. I've tried all sorts of ways to gently wind/pack them, all sorts of preventative tapes/heatshrink tubing, but eventually (2 years, tops) they all fail. I like the (relatively) light weight and decent design, but they simply don't last.

I've owned Mac laptops now for over a decade and have never had a problem. My 7 year old MacBook's power supply still works good as new.

Really, that's pretty amazing. Is it a mag-safe adapter?

Are there really no cracks in the cord around where it enters the adapter or where it connects to the magsafe? No brown or yellow plastic?

Yeah, it's completely fine: [0]

Up until about 6 months ago it was my main computer, used constantly and taken everywhere. It's the original PS too. Maybe the way I wind up the cords has something to do with it? Most people I see don't do it this way: [1]

[0] -- http://i.imgur.com/IxlZPWH.jpg [1] -- http://i.imgur.com/TEzfDx4.jpg

Yeah. That is really fancy. I'll have to start doing that too.

As another data point, me too.

I've owned various MBP's and Airs since they switched to Intel processors (whenever that was). I travel heavily, and port my laptops between the office and two houses when I'm not traveling. I don't recall any problems with any of my power adapters ever, other than 1 which apparently just up and quit one day. I have a couple of MagSafe adapters that are 6+ years old and going strong.

> Every macbook power supply (cable) will split and fray within two-three years (depending on use)

While there was at least one iteration where this seemed to be the case, it was less of an issue after the first couple of generations.

My old Macbook unibody from 2008 had this issue with the power supply. My wive has a 2010 Macbook Pro and its power supply died just like mine did.

Something I really like with this Asus laptop is a thing called strain relief in the power cord.

There was the class action suit: https://www.adaptersettlement.com/default.aspx

There is an instructable for how to fix your cable: http://www.instructables.com/id/MacBook-Mag-Safe-Charger-Bud...

Google images for "magsafe adapter" 10/56 images are of frayed cables.

For me this has been the case for the power supplies.

First one (came with the original intel macbook pro) actually caught fire due to a short caused by a break in the wires at the base of the brick.

A power supply bought last year is starting to split near the magsafe connector.

>>here in Norway they have a 5 year (goverment mandated) warranty

By any chance, are you talking about the same warranty that I get for 1 year in USA or in India when I buy an Apple product or any product at all?

The vanilla warranty that comes in the box without purchasing any extra warranty/care/support product?

If you don't buy a brand because of previous flaws, then you don't buy products of any brand out there. Remember the power supply of Macbook Pro taking fire? Guess that's even worse.

I remember Apple recalling all of them and apologising.

When people moaned at Dell on their community voting page (Dell IdeaStorm) Dell basically said "we aren't changing, this is a business decision."

And it is. Dell releasing several new incompatible PSUs every year and over-charging for them is very much a "business decision" therefore I choose to take my business elsewhere.

Point of fact: There are several companies I refuse to do business with because I don't like how they operate. Dell is one of them.

I ordered a Dell desktop online in 1999 to be shipped to my apartment. I filled out everything including an evening phone #, but not a daytime #. A week later no shipment so I call Dell and they say they need a daytime #, so I give them my company #. Another week goes by and no desktop. At this point I am needing to use the desktop. I call Dell and they say the company I worked for (the daytime # they demanded) was a little behind on payments so they decided to take my money in recompense and not ship me a computer. I had to go to the CTO of my company and have my company repay me. Incidentally, the Dell's we used as servers with Red Hat would freeze up all the time.

So yes, I have avoided Dell since then. I have been relatively happy with their competitors, so why go back? My only personal experience with them was a bad one. Other sysadmins I have worked with would go to the trouble of migrating from a Dell server environment to an HP one, when new machines were needed, because they felt HP servers were superior to Dell, and it certainly seemed that way. I don't know what their desktops are like as I was never shipped one. There is a reason their stock has sunk and they are going private. Yes the market has shifted, but they did not shift with it - Apple and other companies have.

I have a System76 Ubuntu laptop. As I have a tablet and desktop, I don't need to use it much. The one problem I have had is battery life. I have been too busy to really look into it, I don't know if that's normal or if I can tune something.

If this story is true you should contact your state attorney general or state consumer protection authority.

That is extremely illegal. I would have also immediately issued a chargeback.

I have my doubts about your story; but that's only natural. Did you have this statement by Dell support about "late payments" by your employer as cause for taking your funds illegally in writing?

I placed the order online, but I was told about the fund holding over the phone when I called support. One advantage they had over me was they had put me two weeks behind schedule so I was running around dealing with that instead of dealing with Dell.

The difference is that the problems are much, much worse with some brands. For instance, I have ordered three Dell computers for myself and I have never taken delivery of a single one. In every case Dell screwed up the order and I ended up canceling before the computer actually arrived.

At the same time, I used to buy Dell machines for my employer. We were a large customer, so we got relatively good service and I never experienced any significant problems.

So the moral of the story, to me, is that Dell is fine for corporate purchases, but I'll stick with Lenovo for my personal purchases until Lenovo screws me over and I go looking for a new vendor.

Never had issues with their power supplies.

I still use the power supply from my previous line on my current laptop.

Use the old one at home, and the new one while on the road.

When i get home, i just have to plug it in.

No complains there, every issue i had with their laptops (one per each model i had) were solved on next business day, no questions asked.

This is mainly why I chose Dell, next business day support is flawless.

My Dell Vostro 1500 is going strong 6 years later. I have replaced the charger once (50e in a local shop) but to be fair I spent 4 years cramming the charger into a bag so it isn't surprising it broke.

My experience: I have had a Dell XPS 13 since 2007. I had to replace the power supply last year (so after 5 years) because the connector had been broken (probably putting a foot over or pushing it with a chair). The way the connector broke made a shortcircuit in the motherboard and the laptop died but fortunately I still had an extended NBD warranty cover so they changed the mobo for free. I had used this warranty also in the past to change the display when it had some problem a couple of years before. The warranty didnt cover the powersupply (nor the various batteries I had to change in these 6 years, i think one every couple of years, the last one was a chinese compatible that was even bad and lasted probably 6 months).

In my previous company we had I think 5-6 XPS and 10 Latitude laptops and We had (i think) 1 motherboard problem, 1 or 2 power supply problems and dozens of batteries changed. We had also 70 or more desktops, very few failures.

I generally think Dell machines are good, but something has to be done for batteries (not only Dell ones...)

I've had a few non-Thinkpads, non-MBPs: Dell, HP, Toshiba, that i purchased from Costco. And i had problems with power supplies and hard drives, but I always got replacement parts within 2 business days by FedEx at $0.00 cost (prepaid shipping labels for defective drives).

Since i always carry an external keyboard (Matias or Apple, usually) and prop the screen up ata decent height, I can't speak to the ergonomic horrors that many laptops are, but the Dells (Latitutdes, if i remember correctly) weren't bad and didn't have any Ubuntu dual boot show-stoppers (like the recent HP's with the wireless card that's a linux compatibility horror)

So for pre-UEFI dual boots, the Toshibas and Dells were adequate. I won't be buying any more HPs, and I'll probably go to centOS or straight Debian.

Kahlon.com sells replacement parts at a fraction of the cost of manufacturers.

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