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

[Thomas Bruno]

I got the following e-mail reply from dell:


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Thank you for contacting Dell Technical Support.

Ronnie, if I have understood it correctly, you are concerned about the 
smoke coming from the Laptop while trying to connect TV through TV Out 
connector and also the RCA cable melted because of this.

I apologize and truly regret any inconvenience this matter may have 
caused.

Please provide the information requested below so I can setup the 
service to arrange for the system to be replaced.


-----CUT-----------

This proves dell e-mail techs can't read, i posted the same story to
them, word for word here, I never said the laptop smoked.  I said the TV
caught on fire. and the wire melted

On Fri, 2004-12-03 at 15:47 -0600, Brian Densmore wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Duane Attaway
> > 
> > OK, I recreated the laptop video out to television experiment.
> Dude! You are seriously twisted. ;')
> 
> > 
> > The first video was connecting the RCA cable to house 
> > current.  It was 
> > uneventful and promptly blew the 20A house breaker each time.  So I 
> > started up the generator and was able to use unfused power.
> > 
> > Here is a frame by frame of the video of the outer (ground) 
> > conductor of 
> > the video cable melting under 120 volts at 7500 VA:
> > 
> > http://dattaway.org/whitewire.jpg
> > 
> > Closeup of melted RCA cable:
> > 
> > http://dattaway.org/whitewire2.jpg
> > 
> > Other side:
> > 
> > http://dattaway.org/whitewire3.jpg
> > 
> > It took about two seconds of short current to melt the wire 
> > and break the 
> > circuit.  It flashed when it broke.
> > 
> > So what does that mean?  It takes a lot of current from a 120 
> > volt feed to 
> > blow the tiny stranded wires of a RCA video cable.  I believe 
> > each one of 
> > the copper strands alone, seperated in air, should take 5 
> > amps each.  I 
> > counted 15 strands.
> > 
> > Could a capacitor do it as someone suggested?  Well it could, 
> > but it would 
> > have to be instantaneous.  I have some capacitors up to 8KV 
> > if you want to 
> > see more video and pictures.
> Well it depends on the type of capacitor. It would have to be 
> a polarized capacitor. I remember when I used to test power 
> supplies for a company I worked at. We would buy them for
> our products, but they needed to be tested before being installed in
> our equipment. Every once in a while a PS would have the capacitor in
> reverse polarity. Quite a show when a big capacitor blows.
> Less frequently the capacitor would take too much voltage with 
> the same end result, explosion. why do you say it would have to
> be instantaneous? Although from the description of the event it was 
> instantaneous.
> 
> > 
> > I'd say his power supply had a minor meltdown inside, causing 
> > the AC to 
> > couple with the DC side.  This allowed current to flow from 
> > the AC mains, 
> > through his laptop, and return through the television back 
> > into the wall. 
> > Televisions are designed with a neutral grounded chassis and 
> > this may have 
> > allowed a possibly defective power supply to complete a current loop.
> I'd tend to agree he's got a current/voltage leak in the PS, which
> of course could lead to a capacitor explosion. Haven't heard whether
> the laptop is usable now or if the adaptor is usable. If a cap went the PC
> or adaptor wouldn't work anymore. He's lucky the TV still works.
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