Customer Snap Technology - Connectors
It's about proprietaryity. But not software, and not even hardware, but just connectors. It seems to me that this information may be useful to someone. In any case, if I knew about these rakes in advance, everything would be easier.
A year and a half ago, I became the proud owner of a DELL Inspiron 1720 laptop. I purchased it in the USA (I sometimes go there on a business trip) and ordered directly to DELL.
One of the important moments for me was the availability of the S-Video output - I was still used to watching movies on TV with my old computer (I have a normal TV without HD). Seeing in the specification for a laptop that the video card is equipped with an S-Video output, I didn’t go into particular details before the purchase. As it turned out - in vain. My adapter did not fit the connector.
Breaking the mountain of information on the Internet and having run around all the local IT shops, I realized that the problem was serious. The fact is that the output of S-Video is not standardized, so each manufacturer interprets it in its own way. And despite the same name, such connectors are similar only in appearance - a 5-millimeter circle with holes for contacts inside. But the contacts of these (pins) there can be from 4 to 10 (in fact, there are all! Combinations). The most common we have is a 4-pin connector (which, apparently, and most standardized).
In my laptop, the connector was 7-pin. The information that 4 of these 7 pins fully correspond to the 4-pin connector (for example, radeon.ru here) turned out to be incorrect. First, the 4-pin plug is simply impossible to plug into my 7-pin socket due to the different size of the plastic “tongue”. Secondly, the maximum that I managed to achieve by connecting these 4 contacts with wires and the corresponding contacts on a 4-pin plug is a black and white image on the TV.
I tried pieces of 20 different plugs and connectors. I found the same adapter with (as it were, the standard) 7-pin connector to 4-pin, but this did not help. So, the conclusion: the DELL 7-pin S-Video connector is not standard, and only the branded DELL adapter is suitable for it: accessories.us.dell.com .
Understand me correctly - I was ready to buy it immediately, even before the start of these experiments, if it was available at least in one store in our city or was sold at an adequate price in some online store.
In the end, in my regular visit to the states I ordered from DELL and bought this adapter, which still works fine.
')
A few months ago, my power supply unit died (the light is off, the battery is not charging). Knowing that the shops are full of all kinds of power supplies, incl. universal, I'm not really upset. Again, as it turned out - in vain. There was no suitable power supply unit for my laptop in the whole city (although in many stores unscrupulous managers tried to fool me with various obviously unsuitable power supplies, claiming that this was exactly what was needed). Even an authorized DELL dealer can buy a branded power supply unit only with a laptop, since they do not deliver power supplies separately.
It would seem - it is enough to take any suitable power supply unit on the voltage and amperage and solder the plug from the burned one. However, it turned out not so simple. In the connector of the branded power supply unit DELL there is another contact - the so-called Data Line. And inside the power supply there is a chip that transmits some data. What is the data, only DELL knows.
What happens if there is no such chip, I was lucky to check it out. I ordered a new power supply through eBay, choosing the cheapest. After 3 weeks (3 weeks without a computer!) I was sent to him. The Chinese fake was issued with light weight, the absence of an engraved round frame with the inscription DELL and a single pasted photo of characteristics and a bar code (on the original bar code strip is a separate label). As it turned out, there is just no such magic chip inside.
Happy, I stick it in a laptop and while loading BIOS I see messages similar to this content (translation):
You are using a power adapter other than the branded DELL. Choose one of the options:
As you know, there is no choice. Indeed, the laptop from this power supply works, but the battery does not charge and the processor runs at 30% of the maximum.
At the official DELL forum, quite a few people ask questions on this topic, but of course there are no official comments, except for “buy a branded power supply unit”. Some people even say that the warranty expiration date is recorded on the chip, and therefore the power supply unit fails immediately after its termination. I already consider it paranoid, but nevertheless my power supply unit died exactly one month after the expiration of the warranty period.
Here www.laptops-battery.co.uk described a hard way to treat this problem - the chip is soldered from the burned-out power supply and soldered directly to the motherboard. After this operation with a laptop, you can use any power supply (with the appropriate parameters). But this is still too difficult for me, I will leave it for the future.
In the meantime, one thing is the purchase in the states of a branded power supply (note the price): accessories.us.dell.com
I do not understand the marketing schemes, but the scheme invented by DELL marketing specialists on my example led to the following:
PS The information given here, apart from me, really helped my colleague. He also has a DELL laptop of just another model (it seems 1520). If my power supply burned out in the most obvious way (an extinguished light bulb), then, apparently, only the “magic chip” failed. No messages appeared to him, the laptop continued to work, but at one-third of the power and without charging the battery. Naturally, he even had no suspicions about the power supply. He took the laptop to repair, where he was given a verdict - to change the motherboard. He was about to order a new motherboard, when I told him in my random conversation my epic. And when we connected my new branded power supply unit to his laptop, a miracle happened - the laptop started working.
A year and a half ago, I became the proud owner of a DELL Inspiron 1720 laptop. I purchased it in the USA (I sometimes go there on a business trip) and ordered directly to DELL.
Story 1.
One of the important moments for me was the availability of the S-Video output - I was still used to watching movies on TV with my old computer (I have a normal TV without HD). Seeing in the specification for a laptop that the video card is equipped with an S-Video output, I didn’t go into particular details before the purchase. As it turned out - in vain. My adapter did not fit the connector.
Breaking the mountain of information on the Internet and having run around all the local IT shops, I realized that the problem was serious. The fact is that the output of S-Video is not standardized, so each manufacturer interprets it in its own way. And despite the same name, such connectors are similar only in appearance - a 5-millimeter circle with holes for contacts inside. But the contacts of these (pins) there can be from 4 to 10 (in fact, there are all! Combinations). The most common we have is a 4-pin connector (which, apparently, and most standardized).
In my laptop, the connector was 7-pin. The information that 4 of these 7 pins fully correspond to the 4-pin connector (for example, radeon.ru here) turned out to be incorrect. First, the 4-pin plug is simply impossible to plug into my 7-pin socket due to the different size of the plastic “tongue”. Secondly, the maximum that I managed to achieve by connecting these 4 contacts with wires and the corresponding contacts on a 4-pin plug is a black and white image on the TV.
I tried pieces of 20 different plugs and connectors. I found the same adapter with (as it were, the standard) 7-pin connector to 4-pin, but this did not help. So, the conclusion: the DELL 7-pin S-Video connector is not standard, and only the branded DELL adapter is suitable for it: accessories.us.dell.com .
Understand me correctly - I was ready to buy it immediately, even before the start of these experiments, if it was available at least in one store in our city or was sold at an adequate price in some online store.
In the end, in my regular visit to the states I ordered from DELL and bought this adapter, which still works fine.
')
History 2.
A few months ago, my power supply unit died (the light is off, the battery is not charging). Knowing that the shops are full of all kinds of power supplies, incl. universal, I'm not really upset. Again, as it turned out - in vain. There was no suitable power supply unit for my laptop in the whole city (although in many stores unscrupulous managers tried to fool me with various obviously unsuitable power supplies, claiming that this was exactly what was needed). Even an authorized DELL dealer can buy a branded power supply unit only with a laptop, since they do not deliver power supplies separately.
It would seem - it is enough to take any suitable power supply unit on the voltage and amperage and solder the plug from the burned one. However, it turned out not so simple. In the connector of the branded power supply unit DELL there is another contact - the so-called Data Line. And inside the power supply there is a chip that transmits some data. What is the data, only DELL knows.
What happens if there is no such chip, I was lucky to check it out. I ordered a new power supply through eBay, choosing the cheapest. After 3 weeks (3 weeks without a computer!) I was sent to him. The Chinese fake was issued with light weight, the absence of an engraved round frame with the inscription DELL and a single pasted photo of characteristics and a bar code (on the original bar code strip is a separate label). As it turned out, there is just no such magic chip inside.
Happy, I stick it in a laptop and while loading BIOS I see messages similar to this content (translation):
You are using a power adapter other than the branded DELL. Choose one of the options:
- Continue work. In this case, the processor frequency will be limited to 30% and the battery will not be charged.
- Turn off computer
- Do not show this message again.
As you know, there is no choice. Indeed, the laptop from this power supply works, but the battery does not charge and the processor runs at 30% of the maximum.
At the official DELL forum, quite a few people ask questions on this topic, but of course there are no official comments, except for “buy a branded power supply unit”. Some people even say that the warranty expiration date is recorded on the chip, and therefore the power supply unit fails immediately after its termination. I already consider it paranoid, but nevertheless my power supply unit died exactly one month after the expiration of the warranty period.
Here www.laptops-battery.co.uk described a hard way to treat this problem - the chip is soldered from the burned-out power supply and soldered directly to the motherboard. After this operation with a laptop, you can use any power supply (with the appropriate parameters). But this is still too difficult for me, I will leave it for the future.
In the meantime, one thing is the purchase in the states of a branded power supply (note the price): accessories.us.dell.com
Summary
I do not understand the marketing schemes, but the scheme invented by DELL marketing specialists on my example led to the following:
- Due to the non-standard output of S-Video, I was forced to purchase a branded adapter (plus $ 20 for DELL)
- Because of the protection built into the power supply, I was forced to purchase a branded power supply (plus $ 70 for DELL)
- Now I'm going to buy another laptop for my son - and it definitely will not be DELL (minus $ 1500 for DELL).
PS The information given here, apart from me, really helped my colleague. He also has a DELL laptop of just another model (it seems 1520). If my power supply burned out in the most obvious way (an extinguished light bulb), then, apparently, only the “magic chip” failed. No messages appeared to him, the laptop continued to work, but at one-third of the power and without charging the battery. Naturally, he even had no suspicions about the power supply. He took the laptop to repair, where he was given a verdict - to change the motherboard. He was about to order a new motherboard, when I told him in my random conversation my epic. And when we connected my new branded power supply unit to his laptop, a miracle happened - the laptop started working.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/67213/
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