SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Electrical shock / short

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20190510-3E594-2147381055. Severity: Injury, No First Aid or Medical Attention Received. Product: Alienware 17 R4 (Alienware 17 R4 Gaming Laptop). Incident: My laptop electrocuted me several times when I made contact with the screws in the bottom of it and was using a foot spa. I can also feel the electricity on the surface of the case at all times just by running my fingers on it without any water around me at all. It also discharges it's battery even when powered completely off and must remain plugged in near constantly or the battery will die after only 3hrs of use. Recently while on a trip I had my laptop in my case and was carrying it. It completely discharged the battery within just a few hours and all day I was having my hair stand on end and had static electricity issues from it constantly discharging on me. Along with this, it "fried" it's operating system after less than a week of ownership and has had continuous issues since - something that may be caused by it constantly short circuiting or something of that nature. I am a young adult and the shock caused me to lose feeling in the hand that touched the laptop. Luckily, I wasn't trying to move the laptop or I likely would have dropped it. I also have concerns about people who have pacemakers using a product like this, as I'm not sure if it would cause life threatening issues for them to be shocked.