TV-OUT on laptop causes major damage, fire / shock

[Thomas Bruno]

Tonight, at roughly 10:30pm 12/02/04

 I proceeded to plug my tvout adapter into my laptop to watch a dvd on 
my tv.  I had just been a video from the cam corder, so the tv ports 
were ok and so was the rca cable.

  When I plugged it in, all I saw was a white flash. 3 of my friends in 
the room say that the RCA cable melted, the tv smoked inside with lots 
of white flashing inside of it, and the RCA cable was blown out of the 
laptop TV-OUT connector.  I with a numb arm, awoke laying on the floor.

  Looking at the rca cable, I see bare wire sticking out of where it 
melted about 2 inches melted at each end.

   I'm still in a state of panic/shock as to what just happened.  I will
be researching legal options now, as my laptop warranty ended because 
the dell wouldn't let me renew because of a mix up, and other things 
that have built up (like sending it in for fan swap to have it come back
not even turning it on),  now this.. a laptop I'm totally terrified of 
even turning on.

  Update to the little story,  I got a junk VCR that I have, and tried 
to plug the RCA tv out into it. it also proceeded to fry the vcr, and 
new rca cable.  This is a problem with the laptop.

The thing has worked with the same tv in the past, only thing different
is that the laptop and tv were plugged into the same powerstrip this
time.



Anyone have any recommendations/experiences?