Advice Laptop fusing house!

[DaGaffer]

Ever heard of a laptop suddenly starting to trip the mains fuse? Woke up this morning to no power, the mains had tripped. Reset and it went again and the kitchen went as well, so I went around checking switches etc. and somehow seemed to fix it (but couldn't work out why). Then when I was at work, mains trips again, missus can't point to anything she'd done, failing to remember she'd plugged in the laptop to charge a few minutes earlier. Eventually when I get home, quite by accident we realise its tripping only when the laptop plugs in.

I've never seen a laptop do that, and I don't why its doing it now all of a sudden; we've had it nearly two years. Thoughts?

 

[TdC]

I trust it has some kind of adapter? Does the fuse trip with just the adapter plugged in? If you take the laptop's battery out, and power it directly via the adapter, does that also trip the fuse?

 

[DaGaffer]

I'll have a go in the morning. Doesn't seem to be the adapter on its own...

 

[Jupitus]

Change the socket too as a test.

 

[DaGaffer]

Change the socket too as a test.

Done that already; that's how we realised it was the laptop

 

[soze]

It might be my rather limited understanding but I do not think it can be the laptop. The power adapter should filter out anything coming the other way? I would be tempted to try a different kettle lead / adapter if possible. Are you connecting direct to the wall or via a surge protector socket? I wonder if they work both ways.

 

[Trem]

It's a first for me if it is the laptop. Like sozebacon says, try another kettle/figure of 8 lead (unless it's a Dell AIDS lead). Having said that we don't know how your house is wired and if you have uber sensitive protection.

My dad used to put Benson and Hedges fag packet foil around a blown fuse to make it work again when I was a boy, none of this safety bollocks

 

[Tom]

Tripping as in blowing a fuse, or tripping an RCD? The fuse in the plug should protect against excess current draw long before the fusebox becomes involved. But if it's an RCD tripping then chances are you have a small amount of current leaking to earth. That might be the laptop power supply, but it also might be a more serious problem with the wiring in your house.

Either way, it's worth getting an electrician in to check the earth continuity throughout your house. It won't take long and won't cost much.

 

[caLLous]

We had an oil-filled radiator that was doing the same thing. In multiple sockets. I plugged it in and boom. The electrician came to look at it and said it was causing a current leakage of the tiniest amount but it was enough to trip everything (that's a proper layman's terms explanation of what he actually said as I don't remember and I know approximately bollocks all about the workings of electricity).

 

[DaGaffer]

Tripping as in blowing a fuse, or tripping an RCD? The fuse in the plug should protect against excess current draw long before the fusebox becomes involved. But if it's an RCD tripping then chances are you have a small amount of current leaking to earth. That might be the laptop power supply, but it also might be a more serious problem with the wiring in your house.

Either way, it's worth getting an electrician in to check the earth continuity throughout your house. It won't take long and won't cost much.

Tripping the RCD, but not one of the room switches, the main switch. The wiring is only about seven years old, and we had an electrician in yesterday (he didn't see the laptop issue because my missus had unplugged it and put it out of the way while he was testing stuff - d'oh!), and if it was a mains issue, chances are, more power-intensive appliances would be tripping the switch, but they're not. I've been doing some googling and there are instances of laptop power supplies doing this, but not many at all. One interesting thing that came up in searches is that HP had to do a recall of power supplies for the US spec version of this particular laptop in 2014...

 

[old.user4556]

My money is on leakage as Tom says.

My circuit breaker is effectively brand new (moved into a brand new build last December) and it has a warning light on it to notify of earth leakage.

 

[Trem]

Take laptop to another house maybe? But HP have form in this area iirc. They really are a shit laptop manufacturer, normally dodgy motherboard wiring/connections.

New PSU cheaper than a sparky?

 

[leggy]

Neutral fault in the adapter or charger (it's unlikely to be the laptop as an RCD trip is an AC issue). Power intensiveness has little to do with an RCD trip.

Typically only the main breaker has RCD protection anyway so it wouldn't trip individual room breakers. Same goes for if the room and mains breakers do BOTH have RCD protection and aren't graded properly (i.e. Set to trip for the same value of residual current or time)

 

[Tom]

Tripping the RCD, but not one of the room switches, the main switch. The wiring is only about seven years old, and we had an electrician in yesterday (he didn't see the laptop issue because my missus had unplugged it and put it out of the way while he was testing stuff - d'oh!), and if it was a mains issue, chances are, more power-intensive appliances would be tripping the switch, but they're not. I've been doing some googling and there are instances of laptop power supplies doing this, but not many at all. One interesting thing that came up in searches is that HP had to do a recall of power supplies for the US spec version of this particular laptop in 2014...

Sorry I missed this. Your RCD looks at current flow in the live and neutral wires. If it detects a difference (ie some current going where it shouldn't), it shuts everything down. So either your PSU is electrocuting you, which is unlikely because you'd now be dead, or it's leaking to earth.

tl;dr - your PSU is faulty. Do not continue to use it.

 

[DaGaffer]

Sorry I missed this. Your RCD looks at current flow in the live and neutral wires. If it detects a difference (ie some current going where it shouldn't), it shuts everything down. So either your PSU is electrocuting you, which is unlikely because you'd now be dead, or it's leaking to earth.

tl;dr - your PSU is faulty. Do not continue to use it.

Yeah, already replaced it.

 

[Wij]

New laptop? It's two years old ffs.

 

[DaGaffer]

New laptop? It's two years old ffs.

No, just the adaptor. Having said that, I'd replace the laptop tomorrow; it has a really irritating touchpad and the onboard wifi is flaky as fuck. But apparently we have to feed our children every day or somesuch nonsense. Political correctness gone mad.

 

[Wij]

Kids are resourceful. Starve them for long enough and they'll start to steal instead. Or rifle through bins. Whatever.