The DC adapter for the Dell Laptop started to go wonky about a month ago. The cable near the plug was breaking internally from all the hanging it does off the back of the computer. I worked around it for a while, but it got tiring trying to prop it just so that the wires inside touched and it didn’t run down the battery.
I checked the Dell site for a replacement and they wanted $69.99 + S&H for the adapter. Yikes! Hunted around the web for a generic replacement. I found a few places and decided on Ebatts.com. They had a unit, the AC-C10, for $39.47 with the shipping included (must have been on special as they want $52.95 for it tonight.) Ordered it on the 31st of October and got it November 6th, UPS ground from California.
The cords were as long as the OEM unit, but the whole thing was a lot lighter, probably mostly in the wall cord. The Dell unit has a 3-prong plug and the Ebatts unit has only two, which is an advantage in my 50 year-old house with almost zero grounded outlets. Another nice feature is it has a 90-degree angled plug for the back of the laptop which should eliminate the broken cord syndrome I had from repeated bending in between the plug and fuse block thingie.
Things were all wine and roses until last night when the battery stopped charging and the task tray icon reported time remaining as 100 times longer than it should be for my then dwindling battery power (98% 2830.57 hours remaining.) Huh? Unplugged the adapter and re-plugged it in, still the same. Ran the computer on battery for a while before shutting it off and going to bed.
Tonight when I got home from work, I started up the laptop, it said I had 53% battery with 1430.66 hours remaining. Went into the garage and got out my old Radio Shack Multimeter (it still has a needle and several scales to read from) to check the adapter. Fifteen volts. Returned to the garage and got the old AC adapter to check it, 19 volts, that’s probably the problem. Wonder if the voltage was higher when I first got the generic unit and it went bad in 9 days?
Logged onto Ebatts.com and filled out the form to return the unit for a refund. There was a place to select Check and Replace, but opted for a refund because I’m sure they think that the unit is OK as it is listed as a 15-20v part and it is putting out 15v.
With the new cord no good, I decided to try and repair the old cord. Cut, trimmed, spliced and soldered, not very pretty like, then wrapped it in duct tape. Hey, dont’ laugh, it works (for now.
Might as well break down and buy the Dell branded unit, after all, that $69.99 doesn’t look too bad compared to the $52.95 for the who knows if it’ll work Ebatts part.
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