4 Laptops (+1 phone) probably dead - and no one knows why

[GrayTech]

Somehow 4 laptops broke. (And 1 phone)

 

#1

The first one broke at my brother's home. It was connected to a power strip as usual. There were other things connected to the power strip as well but it wasn't overloaded. Then suddenly the laptop was dead. No light, nothing.

 

#2

The second one was a replacement for the first one. It was connected to the same power strip like the first one and after a few days the same thing that happened to the first laptop happened to this one as well. For a short time a light worked again but now everything is dead. Recently my brother gave me this laptop because I wanted to open it up and check if I can find the problem. But everything looked normal except the input for the power adapter - it was dirty.

(On a sidenode: This laptop had one 4 GB RAM module and 4 GB soldered onto the motherboard???)

 

During the time these 2 laptops died my brothers phone died as well when he wanted to charge it but this happened where I live, not at his home. But he got it fixed for free.  

 

#3

Number 3 is my old laptop. I haven't used this PC in weeks. I installed the HDD of #2 in this one  to see if it still works but then #3 didn't want to turn on as well. I plugged in the power adapter and the charging light still worked. But after I tried to turn it on again, the only thing that happened was that not even the charging light works anymore. This happened at my house.

 

#4

This one was just an old laptop we had lying around. I connected the power adapter, turned it on and the fans start spinning but the screen didn't turn on. The next time I started the laptop, nothing happened. This happened at my house.

 

Yeah, now we probably have 4 dead laptops. The forth one was very old (it had Windows Vista on it) and no one used it anyways. I wanted to get a new battery and a new drive for my old laptop (number 3) so I can use it on the go but I guess this isn't happening now. The phone was replaced so this isn't a problem. Number 2 was actually a decent laptop, it was thin and had a dual core i5 with 8GB of RAM and a GTX 750M as far as I know. I'm a bit sad that this one doesn't work anymore. And I don't know much about #1 except that it was the one of my brother's girlfriend and she wanted to replace it soon. We got extreamly unlucky but since only #1 was used as a primary device and no important data was lost as far as I know, it could have been worse. At least we have lots of spare hard drives if any of those work.  I will do my best and try to find the problem. Maybe some of those laptops can be repaired.

 

I just wanted to share this story. What can you learn? Electronic devices can break at any time so at least keep backups of your important data.

 

Edit: The house that killed laptop 1 and 2 is rather old and I don't know much about it.

But the house that killed the phone and laptop 3 and 4 is rather new and there is nothing wrong with the electricity. Laptop 3 didn't turn on without it being connected to a wall outlet. So I'm pretty sure it was already broken before I plugged it in. And laptop 4 was lying around for a long time and got moved very often. It probably died before it was plugged in as well. So basically the house didn't kill laptop 3 and 4.

The phone was pretty new, maybe there was already a problem with it when it arrived. I don't know. So please stop calling my house the problem, it is nothing special that someone plugs in a phone here and handling multiple PCs, TVs and Ovens at the same time is no problem. And this house is well grounded.

As I said I can't give much information about the house that killed laptop 1 and 2 but many people live in this house and this never happened before to my brother. Maybe the grounding was the problem here but I don't know. Now my brother and his girlfriend are both using desktop PCs and they had no problem with the power delivery.

 

Update: Laptop 3 started working again for no reason. Don't ask any questions.  laptop 2 works again as well. The HDD was compleatly dead and after we pulled out the borken drive we plugged the laptop back in and it works again. I don't know why it wasn't able to turn on and boot into the bios but there is probably more I don't know and to be honest I'm glad that the laptop works again. No further investigation needed. I'll check laptop 1 if it can be fixed as well. But the sad story is that there is probably no hope for laptop 4.

[emosun]

well I learned when a power adapter keeps frying laptops stop plugging laptops into it or you'll end up like the guy who fried 4 laptops in a row without changing the testing methodology

[AvocadosGuac]

I would say, if they were all using a different power adaptor, that your house isn't properly grounded.

[GrayTech]

Just now, emosun said:

well I learned when a power adapter keeps frying laptops stop plugging laptops into it or you'll end up like the guy who fried 4 laptops in a row without changing the testing methodology

2 of the laptops were connected to the same power strip. I mean laptops sometimes break and since the laptop always worked fine on this power strip, my brother guessed that the laptop was probably the problem so he used the same outlet for the second laptop.

 

The phone was connected directly to a wall outlet at my house with the charger it came with. And the last two laptops were connected directly to a trustworthy power outlet at my house (but not the same one that killed the phone). I used the power brick that came with the laptop for those two. So actually 3 people (my brother, his girlfriend and me) killed 4 laptops and 1 phone with 3 different wall plugs in two houses. I'm sorry if that wasn't clear after reading my OP. So in your words, I changed the testing methadology.

[emosun]

same exact house though right?

Sounds like you need an electrician to test the transformer. let me guess , regular electric items that don't need a precise amount of power work fine , like light bulbs and fans and things with motors and appliances.

[GrayTech]

3 minutes ago, Jrock said:

I would say, if they were all using a different power adaptor, that your house isn't properly grounded.

This happened at 2 houses. And nothing else happened at my house for at least 10 years. But then suddenly 2 laptops and 1 phone dies here. And everything else works fine. This house is properly grounded as far as I know. And the part of the house I was in when I tested lapto 3 and 4 was build after 2000 and I use power outlets for stuff like my monitor, reciever, etc and everything works fine. Eveny my PC (which is direclty connected to an outlet is no problem).

I can't tell you much about my brother's house but nothing else died there in years as far as I know.

So I don't think this is the problem.

[GrayTech]

1 minute ago, emosun said:

same exact house though right?

Sounds like you need an electrician to test the transformer. let me guess , regular electric items that don't need a precise amount of power work fine , like light bulbs and fans and things with motors and appliances.

This happened at 2 houses like I said in my post above. And everything workes, our wall outlets handle multiple PCs, ovens, etc at the same time without a problem for years. But I guess laptop 3 and 4 were already half way dead before I tested them. They were pretty old as well.

[GrayTech]

I'll edit my post above to clear some things up. Please read it after I'm done!

[GrayTech]

@Jrock @emosun

I updated the OP to give more information. The electricity in house 2 isn't a problem, it is in a good condition.

[AvocadosGuac]

House 1 That killed laptops 1 and 2 probably has an issue with grounding power. Get an electrician to check it, i've seen many of them do free diagnostics and then will change you for the fix. The most common issue i've seen is the house has 3 prong outlets, but was built and wired on the 2 prong standards and nothing is actually grounded. 

[GrayTech]

Updated the OP!

I took some time to check laptop 2-4 with one of my friends to see if we can do something; laptop 2 and 3 work again! @Jrock @emosun