m1330 battery charger: heat issue

i recently worked on my laptop in the bedroom with the AC on; my laptop's battery was very low and so i plugged it in to charge while i worked. after about 40 minutes, i heard a slight noise like a smoke alarm. it was so faint that i thought it was coming from the next apartment or something. silence. more work. beep, beep, beep. again, i thought it was coming from somewhere else. to make a long story short, i decided to leave the room and shut down my laptop and that's when i touched my power adapter. ouch! it was REALLY hot and the sound, i guess, was coming from the charger! is that possible???

i was shocked as hell. i mean, i woudn't think in a million years that the charger (the rectangular piece) would get that hot.

a day later, i went to a public library and plugged my charger into a wall socket and into my laptop and i checked the heat level of the charger every 10 minutes. during the first 30 minutes or so, i was kinda hot but not very hot; after that, the heat level actually dropped to just warm.

is this normal??? are there known issues with the charger for m1330's??? is the heat level normally higher at the beginning of the charge?

thanks for any help or info you might have.

 

I've been having the same issue myself. Sometimes it'll keep on beeping and it wont charge. The green light from my charger doesn't come on either and everything is plugged in properly. It just keeps on beeping.

 

I would contact Dell about it. It could possibly be a malfunctioned charger? If necessary, just have Dell replace a new battery charger.

 

Yeah, get a new charger, though the charger does in fact get hot normally. Just... not hot enough to cause smoke, noises, and set off fire alarms.

 

thanks for the feedback. after being a little more observant, my conclusions are as follows:

* when my laptop has about a 40% charge, the battery becomes quite hot but

* as the charge increases, the battery becomes just warm

* it has never gotten so hot that it beeped (again); don't know if that first time was a fluke.

however, i think nero's right: i'll call dell support and politely ask for a replacement charger.

i never really thought about it but it is a real danger. IF i had left the apartment, who knows if it might not have started a fire! i mean, i could have been out all night and the battery could have become that hot. a very frightening thought!

 

Based on the observations you specified, it is normal. When more power is being sent through the charger, yes it does get quite hot. For me, as the charge increases, the battery still remains pretty hot. Though probably just a "very warm" though when it is asleep... it doesn't do anything.

Once the laptop is fully charged and if its asleep, the charger should be cool.

Word of advice, don't keep your computer awake and leave the charger in as it will remain hot. I agree, it would be very shocking to have a fire ensue.

Good decision in calling up Dell for a replacement charger. Its better safe than sorry.