SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Electrical shock / short

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20150828-F6C8F-2147428905. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: DELL Model No. LA130PM121 (Dell Power Supply Cord from Inspiron 7720 Dell Lab Top KTL. SU10462-12004 I.T.E Power Supply Level 3). Incident: Sometime after April 2015, I was going to do some homework on my Dell Inspiron Lab Top and went to plug in my power supply to the wall and felt an electric shock near my palm. I had quickly notified my dad about this and he instantly came over to look at what I was shocked from. He had noticed that the copper wires were exposed on the male plug end of my power supply; the end that you would plug into the 120 volt residential receptacle. At that point my dad had to locate the circuit breaker to shut off the power. He then removed the plug from the wall and noticed the insulation over the copper wires where they meet the male plug end of my power supply, the insulation was cracked allowing the bare copper wire meaning the hot and neutral wire were exposed without any protection. My dad told me to no longer use that cord; I told him that I had to finish my work, which at that time he had an older lab top that he was not using, therefore we swapped out that part of the power supply. My dad had said to contact Dell to see if there is an exchange or warranty being that the item itself is only 2years old. My sister and I received our lab tops as graduation gifts around September 2012 but Dell tells us they are out of warranty to just buy new ones. My sister too, we found a crack in the insulation on her power supply also on the 120 volt side. My sister is currently using one of my mom's old cords that appear to be much heavier as I am using one of my dad's. My main complaint here is my sister's and my lab top computer and power supply's were received on around September 2012 and h