[Ti] Electricity "leak"

[cheshirekat]

On Sat, Dec 27, 2003, the following words from Robert Nicholson
robert at elastica.com, emerged from a plethora of SPAM ...

>Well I've accidently brushed my tongue on the top of the screen area 
>before and it provided a bit of a shock.

Hmmm. I guess I'll refrain from asking how your tongue happened to be in
the vicinity of the screen area - must be something personal.

I haven't noticed electricity leaking from my PowerBook. However, I
recently had to rely on AppleCare once more (my Ti was purchased in
February 2003.) for a problem that was electrical in nature. I have my Ti
arranged on the left side of a small desk. On the right side, I set the
white "brick" part of the adapter. Since I've always found the brick
would get very hot, I tried to be careful to keep any papers away from
it. Several weeks ago, I had lifted up the cord that goes from the brick
to the back of my Ti so that I could dust underneath. When I lifted the
cord there was suddenly sparks shooting out at me from the brick. I
quickly twisted around and unplugged the cord from my PowerBook because I
was afraid my Ti would be damaged. The sparks were shooting so far, that
I was afraid it would catch my Ti on fire as it was only about a foot
away from the brick. Fortunately, the sparks quit as soon as I unplugged
it from my Ti, but I unplugged it from the surge protector also. The AC
adapter cord was melted at the point where it comes out of the brick.

When I called Apple, they quickly agreed to replace the AC adapter as it
was the one that was included with my Ti when I purchased it back in
February because it was a safety issue. I had hoped to pick up the
replacement from the nearby Apple Store, but the tech said they would
call me back shortly once the authorization was approved. It was a week
before they called back. Then I was told they had to ship it. They sent
the power cord and AC adapter separately for some strange reason, so when
I called to inquire about it, they told me to wait a couple more days for
the second part to arrive. Well, several days later I had to call back
since it hadn't arrived. I don't know how many techs I spoke with getting
information (At first they told me it was shipped by Fedex.) about the
shipment order before they realized their error - it had actually been
shipped Airborne Express. Airborne Express could not find the package and
claimed they left it at my door, though I had been home for a couple of
weeks and was home on the day they claim to have left it at my door. (I
have 4 dogs that love to bark when anyone approaches the house and I had
personally checked the door several times since I was expecting the package.)

Apple finally agreed to allow me to pick up the part at my nearby Apple
Store while they filed a lost package claim with Airborne Express. I
didn't realize that Apple only used Airborne Express (according to the
Apple tech) but because of this situation, I doubt I will ever again
trust them to deliver my package if I need to send in my Ti for repair.

I think there had always been a problem with my previous adapter because
the brick of this one never gets as warm as the other one did. But I had
read on the Apple discussion forum that it was normal for the brick to be
warm. Compared to this one, my original one was too warm to touch after
being used without letting it cool for a few minutes. The design of this
replacement is also different than the original. This one has rubber that
grips the cord from where it exits the brick and the cord itself seems
slightly thicker.

Anyhow. Apple was very concerned about whether I had suffered any injury
or property damage when the sparks were shooting out. At the time, I was
more concerned about injury to my Ti than myself. I'm sure they would
take their customers seriously if a concern was voiced about electricity
leaking from their products. I've never felt any electricity leaks from
my Ti, but it is very dry here in Denver.

-- 
Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca, writer and philosopher

* 867 PowerBook G4 * OS X 10.2.6 * 768 MB Ram *