[Ti] bad luck with power adapter

[Justin R. Miller]

On Oct 22, 2003, at 11:13 AM, Kynan Shook wrote:

> Move your PowerBook to a different electrical circuit.  You're 
> probably on the same circuit as something like a refrigerator (or 
> power tools, or anything else that has a very large power draw when it 
> first turns on).  What happens is the refrigerator will draw so much 
> power that the voltage on the line drops, and then your power adapter 
> will shut itself off to prevent damaging the computer.  The best 
> solution is to use a different outlet.  Another option is to unplug 
> the power adapter from the wall every time it happens to regain the 
> power.  Installing a line conditioner or possibly a UPS that will 
> boost the voltage to compensate for the refrigerator should also work. 
>  If you want to try that, I'd recommend APC as one of the better 
> manufacturers; go to www.apcc.com and look for their Line-R 
> conditioner.
>
> The sparks are normal; probably just a capacitor or something that 
> still has a charge, or at least has a charge relative to whatever 
> phase the AC is in at the instant it's plugged in.  They happen on 
> pretty much every power adapter I've seen.  It's usually recommended 
> that you plug the power adapter into the wall before plugging it into 
> the computer, though I've never heard of any damage being done by 
> performing those actions in reverse.

Kynan,

I thank you for the information, but I think that in my case it might 
again be the actual adapter.  This happened both of the recent times at 
work, on a UPS with two Intel boxes and a monitor that are unchanged 
throughout the day.  The problem persisted even at home later that day 
(again on an UPS) until I wiggled the adapter wire at the computer end 
and plugged and unplugged it a couple of times.  Finally the glowing 
ring lit up again.

I will try plugging the wall end in first from now on and see if that 
makes a difference in the frequency of this happening.  But if I 
recall, both times the ring was fine in the morning and then later in 
the day I noticed the battery meter ticking and the ring off.

Thanks again.

--Justin