A fascinating post in Dell Community support forums details the travails of a young man and is XPS m1530. It seems that his laptop is “crackling” and “sparking” when he touches it, suggesting a grounding issue. While we’ve all felt that weird “smoothness because we’re about to be electrocuted” feeling on laptops and even lamps, this sounds considerably more sinister.
When I connect the power supply my whole system tingles when I touch it and when someone touches me they can feel it too. When I remove the power supply and run off battery this stops.
The problem appears to be coming from the the brushed aluminium chasis.
Does anyone else have this problem?
Is this something to be worried about?
Apparently it’s the power supply but keep your eyes on this one in case someone brings to m1530s together and makes an arc welder.
Hey John:
We are folowing up directly with the customer you referenced your post, but I also want to encourage you and your readers to check out out latest post on http://www.direct2dell.com to make ure you have the latest and factually correct information regarding 2-wire power adapters on notebook PCs. http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2008/01/18/41538.aspx