Used a Laptop in Europe on a trip, had an adapter and when plugged in a spark occured.?
I just got off the phone with one of my friends who was on a trip to Europe. He had the power adapter and when he plugged the laptop in he experienced a spark. Now, whenever he tries to boot his computer he experiences a blue screen very briefly then the computer restarts. I am unsure as to how far into the boot process he gets because he is very computer illiterate. What would be some probable causes of the problem? How could I go about fixing those problems?
Laptops & Notebooks - 2 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Oh this is probably not going to be good. Although adapters are available and fit in European outlets, there is more you should do than just use the adapter. The spark occurred because there was probably no ground on the item. I don't mean ground as in the third prong on our outlets, but a ground to prevent too many volts into the computer. Unfortunately we have a lower voltage than Europe, so if they try to plug something in here, it will just not run or sound like it's dying. If we plug something in over there it will overload. With a normal adapter, there is still the European amount of voltage going to the computer and this is what caused the spark. The reason that you can use something like a hair dryer in different countries is because they have a switch on them that increases the number of resistors that the electricity passes through to prevent overloading. Laptops have this also, but your friend mostly likely did not change it. At least the majority of laptops that I have seen have a switch that does the same thing as the hair dryer switch. As far as fixing it, I would take it down to a computer repair place, because they have tools that can find the problem of where the break in the circuit is and may be able to fix it. They will be able to tell you what to do though. Hope this helped.
2 :
i would say his motherboard is toast or else some of his components are toast and if hes computer is making a beeping noise hes memory(ram) or hard drive is broken
