Fire hazard?

So about a year and some change ago (I'm almost certain it was a year ago, but there's a slim chance it was 2 years ago), my dad bought me an Acer 3680 for like, 400 bucks at Best Buy. My faithful HP had finally kicked the bucket, so my dad was looking for a low-cost replacement for my birthday. The Acer was the cheapest of the cheap, which didn't really matter because it had a keyboard and an internet connection, and I wasn't using it for anything fancy.

Fast forward to about an hour ago. I'm sitting in the living room and when I stand up to grab something off of the coffee table, I hear a... sizzle. What the hell? Why would anything in my living room be sizzling? I had the cord draped across the back of the couch to reach a power outlet, and about halfway between the black box and my computer, there was a gash in the cord, exposed wiring, and tiny sparks *flying* out of the exposed area. I could see the plastic melting, exposing more even more wiring, and got the thing unplugged immediately.

What the HELL could've caused that to happen?? I take care of my power cables. I haven't pinched it or moved it or done anything to damage either the internal wires or external coating. I had just checked it maybe 30 minutes prior when I moved my laptop out of our office and it was fine--no tears, no snags, no cuts or pinches. My mom's an electrical sign contractor who deals with high-voltage signs and all of that stuff, and she says it looks like it was melted from the inside. Has this happened before? Is it a freak occurrence or just a really good lesson in why you shouldn't buy a $400 laptop? Or is it an Acer quality-of-hardware thing? Because I can't really imagine "Acer--now with extra fiery death!" being something that would go over well with, well, anyone.

I ordered my new HP tx2000z last week and it's being delivered tomorrow morning. My mom says the Acer got homicidally jealous, but somehow, I don't think that's the answer either, haha.

 

I work in fire prevention and I suspect that the cord did have unseen damage on the inside of the cord from some type of incident during it's life.
Someone else other than you may have damaged the cord at some time.
Not aware of this being an Acer problem.

It is great that you noticed the problem before there was a fire. Buy a new power cord or call Acer and see if they might send a replacement.

If there was a fire, do you have extinguishers in the house and do you know how to use one?

 

If its less than a year old, chances are that Acer will replace it as a defective unit.

Btw, people have died from this sort of thing, and injured by exploding batteries. I just wanted to make you feel better.

 

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more inclined I am to agree with you. The whole thing freaked me out--the cord was right next to my mom the entire time. The only reason I even saw what had happened to the cord is because I had it draped over the couch back instead of underneath it--something I do about 50% of the time. If it had been out of sight, it would've caught the carpet or bottom of the couch on fire before I could even process what was happening. Lord only knows what would've happened if I wasn't home. God, that's a scary thought. Anyway, I'd figured I'd ask, just on the off chance it was something that had happened before. =)

Someone else told me to call Acer about it too, but I don't know if it's still under warranty. My HP is coming in tomorrow morning and I'm using my mom's Gateway tonight. I don't know how urgently I need one, but I'll probably end up ordering one eventually.

My mom's been an electrical contractor for almost 25 years. We have one in every service truck, her home office, and in the kitchen & back porch of our house. Thanks for asking--not a lot of people would think to ask that, and fortunately, we do (and I do know how to use them, too. =) ).

 

call acer tech,, tell them the D@MN thing caught your couch on fire,, the least they can do is send you a new power cord/charger.... it may just work... offer to send pics of your burnt couch to them..... and tell them if it hadn't been for the fire extinguisher you had,,, it could have burned the house down....

play it for all it's worth

 

Ha. I wanted to use the Acer as a field unit once the HP came in. I'm a killer actress when it comes to tech support calls, but something tells me I'd seriously piss off the laptop gods if I lied. A very firm "This is NOT ACCEPTABLE. FIX IT." might work, though, right? =) I'll just have to remind our crew to be careful with the new adapter.

 

acer tend to have the weirdest random problems, call support and tell them the truth. Say that, there would have been a fire and a lawsuit had you not been home... and that there still might be... they should get the clue.

 

I seen this before with other laptop makers power socket come lose cause by bad plug design or bad solder joints

and start to arc till the will burn the pin or wire on cable it not just acer It happens ecs laptop power plug come to mind also some hp and even some older toshiba mobiles

I seen lot dog damage cords I Agree with
Oberkano they was problay damge to cord you did,nt see