I recently bought a new laptop and besides Windows 8 shifting my open program windows to different spots randomly, things have been going pretty good. Recently I was surfing the Internet on the couch with my dog next to me and out of the blue she immediately awoke from her slumber and flew out of the room. I had preached about not watching Paranormal Activity before her bedtime but when I reached over to where she was sitting I felt an insanely hot laptop cord. I had never noticed this before but made sure to stay alert to my surrounding hardware and sure enough every time I had my computer plugged in the laptop power cord gets hot.
Recently Tips4pc published an article about laptop batteries overheating, but this was a power cord.
The Symptoms
There are some things to look at when a laptop power cord gets hot. First off, age of both the laptop, the battery, and the cord can all work together to cause excessive heat. It would coincide with my luck if my 2-week old laptop had a faulty power cord but it’s pretty rare in new devices. Also, when the laptop runs really over temperature, it has a trickle down effect and eventually the laptop power cord gets hot but this wasn’t the case. There was no temperature issues in my laptop, the fan never came on, and my Second Life character was getting shot down with Second Life women at a record pace.
Personally, I’m just going to keep using my hot laptop cord until it blows up and spills hot battery acid on my dog turning her into the Toxic Dogvenger that vows revenge on everyone who ever wronged her…plus it’s under warranty for another 10 months. Here are some things that others can look at when the laptop power cord gets hot.
Connectors
The part of my cord that got excessively hot is what’s referred to as ‘the brick’, the part where the two cords meet. Electronics experts have said that this component is supposed to get somewhat hot, although not burning to the touch. That being said, another popular complaint with a hot laptop cord is the ends where it actually plugs into the computer. If this area is hot after use, it could be that the metal part inside has been bent or damaged in some other way. Some people might notice that their laptop doesn’t recognize the battery unless they physically bend that end or wiggle it around and that’s another good indicator of a bad connector.
Solution: There aren’t many options in the case of a damaged connector. You might just have to shell out some money and buy a new laptop power cord.
Whole Computer Is Hot
If your whole computer’s temperature is running high and it’s not just a hot laptop cord then a few issues could be at hand. The first thing to do is take note on whether the computer is running hot during all programs. Sometimes older computers don’t have the internal capacity to keep up with current games and their detailed graphics and the internal processor has to run extra hard which produces the heat.
Solution: Use different programs and see if the laptop cord gets hot during all of them. If it runs hot only while playing games or watching videos, perhaps those activities will have to be curbed on this computer.
Wall Outlet Causing A Hot Laptop Cord
Sometimes the problems of when the laptop power cord gets hot has nothing to do with the actual computer, yet what it’s plugged in to. I’ve talked to people who have ran their 120V computers off a line with 240 volts coming out of it and the ‘brick’ gets hot in minutes. Sometimes older homes have different voltage or there is a crossed up wire somewhere in the home.
Solution: First try plugging in your computer to different outlets within the house and then in a different building all together. If this remedies the situation you may want to contact an electrician just to get a clean bill of health for your home.
Sometimes your hot laptop power cord may just be caused by a battery on it’s last leg in the laptop or a number of other internal errors. The easiest solution is to borrow a new cord from a friend or have the computer and cord inspected at a tech store. Either way, make sure to keep a close eye on your hot laptop cord and keep it away from flammable objects like blankets, pillows, and Jack Russel Terriers. Image credit: ZNET
