TV-OUT on laptop causes major damage, fire / shock
Tom Bruno
crweb at vwords.com
Sun Jan 23 01:02:47 CST 2005
Just going to let everyone know how this one ended.
Best buy replaced my TV due to the 2 year, total care plan i purchased
with the TV
I found that there was a problem, both with the Laptop, and house wireing.
My laptop was sent to dell, and 1 month later, i got 2 stories about
why I haddn't recieved it back.
I had emailed dell to ask them where my laptop was, they said it had
been repaired and shipped back to me and gave me the tracking number.
When I looked up the tracking number, i found that the address it was
sent to was in fact wrong, and the laptop went to Austin TX, where
someone I don't even know signed for it.
I contacted dell about what I had found. the first dell rep. told me
I would have to arrange pickup/delivery with the person whom it was
mis-shipped too, However he would not give me a full name, phone number,
or address. After many more hours on the phone, I finally got someone
to transfer me to the mis-shipped items department, they took the info
and said they would take care of it. another week goes by no laptop.
I call, and one-on-one chat with a dell tech online at the same time.
After many hours of research of both on the phone and chat people came
back, The chat person came up with a story about how Dell's saftey
inspection unit caught my laptop and that it would not be returned to me
and a replacement matching my exact system would be sent. Around the
same time, the man on the phone said he would call me back in about 2
hours when he can find out what's actually going on.
2 hours later, he says that the system was mis-shipped and that they
usually don't physically return a mis-shipped item instead the replace
it with a new item. Because my model was no longer in production, the
replacement would be a new system equal or better than my previous lost
item.
I told him to cancel what the guy from the one-on-one chat did,
becuase i trust him more, after all he did call me back, and was
offering a upgrade.
I've now recieved my system, and it is mighty nice:
Old Laptop Specs:
Dell Inspiron 8500
Pentium4-M 2.4ghz
512mb DDR233 ram
80 gig hard drive
802.11g wireless
DVD Readonly/CD-RW
15.4" Widescreen WUXGA screen
Nvidia Geforce Ti4200 Go video card
Battery life while compiling gentoo 45 minutes
New Laptop(replacement laptop specs):
Dell Inspiron 8600
Pentium-M 2.0ghz
1 gig DDR333 ram
80 gig hard drive
DVD+-RW/CD-RW
15.4" Widescreen WUXGA
Nvidia Geforce 5200 64mb
Battery life while compiling gentoo 2.8 hours
NO Wireless, Dell has been notified that the replacement is missing
wireless the old one had, and they have agreed to send me the wireless card.
This new pentium-m 2.0ghz, seems to outperform my 3.0ghz pentum4
northwood w/hyperthreading, and battery life is amazing.
Basically if you go to dells site, and hit customize and hit all the
highest options available for the 8600, you'll have my system. They
even gave me ALL the high cost software items. like XP pro, Office 2003
pro, etc...
I'm pretty happy with the resolution. even though dell had 2
stories as to where my laptop ended up.
Brian Densmore wrote:
>Don't know if this will help, but my brother
>(a retired EE with AT&T) thinks it's the adaptor.
>Probably a failed capacitor. So make sure they replace the
>darn adaptor.
>
>
>
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Tom Bruno
>>
>>My girlfriend today pointed out a time like 5-6 weeks ago
>>during a bible
>>study i was using my laptop with it on my lap, and i was
>>getting shocked
>>through my blue jeans. I had forgotten about this until now. That
>>seems a little wierd to me aswell. We are pretty certian it's the
>>laptop.
>>
>>On Sun, 2004-12-05 at 13:43 -0600, Jonathan Hutchins wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I hate to say it, given that we all love to express our
>>>
>>>
>>opinions on these
>>
>>
>>>matters, but you're talking to the wrong people.
>>>
>>>You REALLY, REALLY need to at least talk with a real,
>>>
>>>
>>honest-to-goodnes,
>>
>>
>>>listed-in-the-yellow-pages Product Liability Lawyer.
>>>
>>>At the minimum, you deserve to have a working laptop, a
>>>
>>>
>>fixed TV, and a new
>>
>>
>>>cable. You've been injured, and you can probably argue
>>>
>>>
>>quite successfully
>>
>>
>>>for compensation for that. Shock and trauma are a little
>>>
>>>
>>bit more difficult
>>
>>
>>>to prove, but getting knocked unconcious is pretty clearly
>>>
>>>
>>not something you
>>
>>
>>>should expect from a consumer product that's being used correctly.
>>>
>>>If you don't talk to a lawyer, what's the worst that could
>>>
>>>
>>happen? Well, I
>>
>>
>>>suppose Dell could say "it was the TV, not the laptop", and
>>>
>>>
>>you'd be out a
>>
>>
>>>computer and a TV. Maybe you're cool with that. I don't
>>>
>>>
>>think I would be.
>>
>>
>>>If you do work with a lawyer, he should be willing to do
>>>
>>>
>>this on a contingency
>>
>>
>>>basis - his fees come out of any potential settlement. You
>>>
>>>
>>may still loose
>>
>>
>>>the laptop and the TV - they become evidence. Your expense
>>>
>>>
>>in replacing
>>
>>
>>>them, though, becomes part of your claim.
>>>
>>>We are not talking about suing someone because the coffee
>>>
>>>
>>you shouldn't have
>>
>>
>>>poured in your lap was too hot. We're talking about
>>>
>>>
>>serious injury and
>>
>>
>>>damage from normal use of ordinary consumer appliances.
>>>
>>>Think about this: What if you'd been alone? What if that
>>>
>>>
>>fire had caught on
>>
>>
>>>something else, and kept burning, while you were knocked
>>>
>>>
>>out on the floor?
>>
>>
>>>_______________________________________________
>>>Kclug mailing list
>>>Kclug at kclug.org
>>>http://kclug.org/mailman/listinfo/kclug
>>>
>>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Kclug mailing list
>>Kclug at kclug.org
>>http://kclug.org/mailman/listinfo/kclug
>>
>>
>>
>_______________________________________________
>Kclug mailing list
>Kclug at kclug.org
>http://kclug.org/mailman/listinfo/kclug
>
>
>
More information about the Kclug
mailing list