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Re: [ OT ]: TV-OUT on laptop causes major damage, fire / shock



On Fri, 2004-12-03 at 10:46 -0600, Sean Jewett wrote:
> On Fri, 3 Dec 2004, Tom Bruno wrote:
> 
> > Tonight, at roughly 10:30pm 12/02/04
> > 
> >  I proceeded to plug my tvout adapter into my laptop to watch a dvd on 
> > my tv.  I had just been a video from the cam corder, so the tv ports 
> > were ok and so was the rca cable.
> > 
> >   When I plugged it in, all I saw was a white flash. 3 of my friends in 
> > the room say that the RCA cable melted, the tv smoked inside with lots 
> > of white flashing inside of it, and the RCA cable was blown out of the 
> > laptop TV-OUT connector.  I with a numb arm, awoke laying on the floor.
> > 
> >   Looking at the rca cable, I see bare wire sticking out of where it 
> > melted about 2 inches melted at each end.
> > 
> >    I'm still in a state of panic/shock as to what just happened.  I will
> > be researching legal options now, as my laptop warranty ended because 
> > the dell wouldn't let me renew because of a mix up, and other things 
> > that have built up (like sending it in for fan swap to have it come back
> > not even turning it on),  now this.. a laptop I'm totally terrified of 
> > even turning on.
> > 
> >   Update to the little story,  I got a junk VCR that I have, and tried 
> > to plug the RCA tv out into it. it also proceeded to fry the vcr, and 
> > new rca cable.  This is a problem with the laptop.
> 
> 
> Are you sure this is a problem with the laptop?  I'd like to get some
> facts before rendering a full opinion.  Was the laptop on and running when
> you attempted to plug the RCA cable into the laptop?  If the laptop was
> working before this then it's hard to see how the laptop could work given
> the voltages involved, especially since most if not all laptops have
> wallwarts.  It's entirely possible that there was a severe (read line)  
> voltage on ground but I'm still not sure how your laptop could operate in
> that condition.  I'd expect the wallwart to stop working before that.
> 
> The reason why I say this (in particular your line about the junk VCR) is
> that I have a friend that did cable modem installs that was working in the
> demarc and suddenly found himself on the other side of a yard.  Coming to
> find out the customers VCR was putting mains voltage on the shield of the
> coax (how it had not melted is a good question).  It could very well be
> there was a voltage on the TV/VCR and by hooking it to the laptop caused
> the situation you describe.  The laptop could very well be at fault.  

  Right,  these were two totally seperate instances though, the TV was
at 10:30pm, and the junk vcr i was just testing the laptop with, that
was at 3:00am.

   I've had a electrician come out and check the house wiring, he says
it's all good.

The laptop was running when it was being plugged in. The nvidia adapter
is hotswappable.

this was the electricians take on all of it:


---------------------------
your television uses the neutral line for chassis grounding

hopefully, hot and neutral are not switched around in your house or in
the television cable and laptop power supplies have an evil resistor or
some other part to bleed off static from the low voltage side to an
arbritrary wire of the incoming AC mains.
<B>
Your laptop power supply is to blame for this one</B>

 if you have a voltmeter, you can check your outlet to make sure the
large spade (nuetral) on the electrical outlet has no voltage going to
the ground (round) and the small spade on the outlet (hot) should have
120 volts going to both the ground and nuetral the chassis of the
television should have 0.0 volts from the chassis and any metal
connector to the ground and nuetral of your house your laptop power
supply with its evil design, will have voltage due to that 1 megaohm
resistor, or worse an MOV making a circuit from the high side to low
side.

 I'd check the laptop power supply to see if it could light up a 60 watt
light bulb from either positive or negative to the AC side but your
laptop is supposed to be electrically isolated from the mains its to
blame for this one.

They usually solder a resistor with long legs from the DC to AC side
inside the power supply and may have forgotten the mylar insulator
underneath, so it shorts on the board somewhere

They should all use a grounded connector and not do that stupid stuff
and none of this would happen threaten to write a letter to UL and CSA
if they don't replace your stuff.

<B>It should have never happened</B>
--------------

He later came and did the tests himself.
> 
> Sean...
> 
> --
> The punk rock will get you if the government don't get you first.
> 	--Old 97's
> _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
> KG4NRC  http://www.rimboy.com  Your source for the crap you know you need.
> 


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