My wonder
by Volker Weber
Today, my month-old iMac G5, which I purchased in the U.S., wouldn't start. It's been working fine plugged into a powerstrip with a breaker, which is plugged into a 220 to 110 transformer. I am an American working overseas. There are also some issues with the American standard of 60hz and the overseas standard of 50hz.
So, when the iMac wouldn't fire up on the transformer, I put an adapter on the plug and tried straight 220v. Pop! Smoke!
Comments
I have little sympathy here -- he didn't bother to read the power supply sticker that will (its the law) clearly state the input voltage?
Every block adapter I have, every power supply, every electronic gadget has a sticker or imprinted information. I know, I actually go to the trouble of checking before I buy block adapters so I don't get stuck with the transformer requirement when I travel.
My car did not start this morning. So I fueled it with Unleaded Premium instead of Diesel. Pop. Smoke. :-)
This story is not realy helpful to destroy the stereotype that the average american is not that clever...:-)
Hehe Volker, i like your comment.
in the moment reading Andrews comment i had to think about the tshirt that i know.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/generic/65a4/ (intentionally left unlinked)
which reads:
Obey gravity, It's the law!
Honestly, when i was young i bought a computer in the states, and had big trouble to use it here in europe (that was in the early 90s). today most powersupplies are dualpowerable - either by their own feature or by a toggle which lets you choose between 110V/220V.
nontheless i'd still try to read what some printing on a particular device states before i'd try it in some other country, where i know that voltage/frequency is different.
Well, most of all the devices one purchases now do have a range between 110V and 240 volts - 50/60hz. Costs? How much does such a power supply cost? 5 bucks in manufacturing? Less? How much is a power supply which only works with 110V or 220V? Two third of the costs (3 bucks)??
I have seen medical devices with a power supply failure. These devices worked for about 10 hours and then the power supply failed (usually with this typical smell :-)). Oh well, these were those 110V/220V ones. And were competitive products, so I didn't care :-)
In Germany we call this kind of issue "Geiz is Geil".
