Sony SZ power fault?

Hello everybody,

Last week I bough a Vaio SZ71N/C an today I noticed a weird sensation when I touch the palm rest. On a light touch it feels like there is a little bit of electrical current on the palm rest.

When I unplug the machine this effect stops, so it does seemto be related to the power connection. Maybe there is a fault in a power connection somewhere in the machine....

Has anyone experienced anything similar and do you think his could be a fault in the internal wiring?

Thanks for your advice!

 

I have an SZ and this was an issue for me about a year ago. If your AC adapter is the 3 prong sort....what i mean is the bit that goes into the actual brick(charger) not the plug that goes into the wall!....theres 2 types, the 3 prong and 2 prong, basically one is earthed and the other isn't. Mine was a US AC adapter with 2 prong and i got terrible static type shocks of the palmrest area.

I called sony and got a new AC adapter in 2 days....same thing again!! I finally purchased a UK 3 prong version that was grounded/earthed... and the problem for me was solved 100%

Both are universal 110v - 240v and 19.5v (4.7A)



left:UK/Euro 3 prong Right: US version 2 prong

Sony Vaio VGN-SZ670N

 

SSDVaio,

Many thanks for your swift reply. My adaptor (European mainland) has a cord that is fixed to the adaptor, so I can't really check the number of prongs, but I guess it is not grounded as the connection is fairly small.

My adaptor model looks like this:


All in all it is not a big inconvenience for me, no shocks just a weird sensation. But I'm a bit conerned about what happens with thehardware if the laptop is not properly grounded... ?

 

Check the other side of the adapter. not the side where a cable goes into a laptop, check the side where cable goes into the wall.

 

b|lly, many thanks for the reply.

The wall-side cord has three prongs, but I had it connected to a wall connection without ground, and apparently that was the problem (changing to a grounded connection also solves the issue).

OK, so now my question is: can it cause problems with my hardware if I use an ungrounded connection?

Thanks for all the help!

 

I used my SZ ungrounded for a few months with no problems before changing the adapter. I think sony would of recalled the 2 prong adapters if they were causing hardware issues...well you would hope so

 

My SZ is plugged via docking station into with adapter that have no ground and I have no issues with it. But maybe its docking station that is "protecting" it.

Anyhow, there is a thread somewhere in this forum where a personal is showing how to solve this issues, just a bit of isolated tape is needed around the touchpad - sorry, but I cannot find this thread now, perhaps you can search for it.

 

Dear SSDVaio and b|lly,

Thanks for your advice and information! I guess we can conclude that the issue is caused by using an unground power outlet, and that this is probably not a problem for hardware, because sony has used adapters without ground before.

I tried to search for that isolated tape post in the forums, without success. But as I am not really bothered with a little static electricity on the palmrest, I think I will keep things as they are.

Thanks again!