The chargers we have for our Dell laptops at work don't spontaneously combust. Then again, they're OEM chargers, not $1.99 Alibaba specials or free garage sale finds 😉
This WAS a 90 Watt OEM Charger..........
$10 sounds like the easiest solution. I've never heard of Dell chargers burning up so commonly, or at all. If it was an issue there would have to be a recall. Perhaps you incorrectly rewired your house 😉
Call Dell and report the issue so they are aware. Otherwise they won't know to issue a recall.
It's not uncommon for the AC Plug to come off the carger with the way I have my laptop setup. Today when I noticed the laptop had the battery icon, so i plugged it back in and not even 1 second (almost instantainouslly) after smoke came out (how since it's a sealed unit im not sure) but then I unplugged it IMMEDIETELY and smelled burning, Thinking maybe it was a A/C cord issue i tried a new cord, this time no smoke, but the LED went out and I smelled burning. I unplugged it again and pried it open. Not able to see anything, I took the laptop and charger over to my grandpa (A retired TV-Repair Man) for him to look at. It's wasn't the capacitor as it sparked when he accidently shorted the contacts of it clearing white glue-like substance out of the way. It worked fine over at his place so i put it back together, taped the case back on and took it back home HOPING it was fixed. Plugged it in at home AGAIN and 2 seconds later it was shooting smoke out of both ends of the charger AND shooting smoke out the end the plugs into the laptop. took it back over and he says it's most likely a resistor, rectifier or something in the area of the load Cap shorting out. No burn or scorch marks on the boad no visual signs of melting or burning ANYWHERE.
EDIT: I am not surprised it happened. I've worked on DELLs before (My ex had a XPS M1530 when i met her) which I fixed several times. Mind you it wasn't even a year old when I 1st worked on it and it died when it was 1.5 years old.
I was given a Optiplex GX260 by my Uncle which was nothing but problems, I was given a Optiplex GX270 by a friend for fixing his Acer Aspire One for the 4th time, its unusable as a computer and now functions as the Internet sharing server running Linux Lite. too many problems with DELLs even my laptop needed repairs.
Just dead short the capacitor and put it back together. It'll be fine...
I don't believe the cap is the issue nor would I think that's safe. I tried taking an IBM charger and put the end for DELL onto it and using that until i could buy a new charger (need my laptop early next month probably long before the replacement charger arrives (have to wait until I am paid next month before I can buy it).
Since the charger is under $7 I will also buy some DDR400 RAM (2x1GB) to max out the eMac (also under $7)
