Dell PA-12 AC adaptor
My Inspiron 6000’s 65-watt “PA-12 family” AC adaptor died last week, after only 16 months of service. Its passing was not entirely unexpected; since about mid-December, it had become increasingly unreliable, sometimes requiring me to repeatedly plug and unplug it before beginning to charge. And the fact that it gets only 2 out of 5 stars on Dell’s spare parts page suggests that my problems were not unique. In any case, since my laptop is still under warranty, Dell promptly shipped me a replacement adaptor.
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| Old, broken (rev A00) adaptor | New (rev A05) |
Notice the difference? The PA-12 consists of a universal power brick and a detachable power cord, 
so as to easily adapt to various countries’ electric plug designs. 
The power cord on the old adaptor was an actual cord, half a meter long long, and quite convenient to use. The “power cord” on the new adaptor is simply a plug that combines with the adaptor to form a single rigid unit:
As you can imagine, such a design is extremely awkward to use — impossible to get into tight places, takes up a substantial part of a wall socket or power strip, etc.
Fortunately, the power cord connectors on the two adaptors were identical, and I was able to use the old power cord with the new power brick. However, this does lead to a question. Did Dell go insane and switch to the idiotic, unwieldly rigid design for their new AC adaptors? Or does it only ship the unusable cord-less power cord to those who ask for service under warranty?
January 22nd, 2007 at 16:10
Hello,
My name is Mike, I’m a Dell Technical Analyst located at Dell corporate headquarters in Round Rock, TX. I’m part of an internet outreach team developed to interact with the online community regarding technical questions and issues that customers face with Dell products. I’ve read your post and wanted to comment about your experience. The duck head adapter you received was more then likely shipped with the power brick by mistake. Since it was the power brick that went out, the technician you spoke with more then likely only shipped out the power brick and not the cord. As you found out, the cord from your original power brick adapts to the new power brick without a problem. I do apologize for the confusion, however, if you have any other questions or comments about this or any other Dell experience please just let me know and I’ll be happy to get back with you. You can contact me by emailing customer_advocate@dell.com, with my name in the subject line, ATTN: Mike B., and I’ll get back to you ASAP. I hope this helps clear this situation up for you a bit.
Thank you,
Mike B.
Dell customer advocate.