Q: Hi, I've gone through two charger already on my Inspiron 1420. At the moment I'm using my brothers, and another is on it's way. They both make whistling noises when I plug them in. I'm starting to think it's just the computer that keeps on messing them up. I use the laptop a lot, for awhile each day. I'm not sure if it's overheating or what... help??
A: Whistling sounds sound like a capacitor problem (Sorry for the pun) I'm guessing dell got a batch of bad components for the power supplies... Even though you are buying them at different times, it's likely they were manufactured at about the same time. Companies like Dell and other large manufacturers estimate the number of "accessories" like power supplies that will be needed during the "life cycle" of a particular model and will often order a good portion (or all) of those estimated needs at the time that the product line is being manufactured. It's cheaper to make and stock an extra 5000 power supplies (just throwing a number out there.) and end up not selling 1000 of them, than it is to have to go back and do a limited production run of 200 to fill customer needs. Hopefully the next one will be from a good batch. If it is your laptop causing the problem, you should notice something, somewhere, on the machine getting a LOT hotter than it should be. Compare the feel of your battery when charging to your brother's machine.