laptop plug

Does this count as hardware? ha.

One of my daughters was plugging in the adapter to her laptop and she saw a blink, or a flash of light. It was not plugged in to her laptop at the time. Just plugging the plug into a surge protector.
I brought the cord to a better lit area and there was an area that looked burnt. But, I was able to scrape some off, like it was sticky... so...
I took the surge protector off the wall/outlet to inspect.

There was something spilled on that side of the surge protector. She has no idea what, or how... which is weird. No spill on the wall or the floor. Where did this dark brown sticky substance come from, and how long had it been there???  I may not figure that out.

Anyway... I scraped stuff off the plug itself... and used a cotton swab and some oil to sort of scrub it cleaner. Got a lot off and it didn't look as burnt as I had originally seen. However, it does look just a little damaged. It left a mark.
My question... Should I just buy her a new power adapter now and NOT try plugging in to the computer?

I'm not sure how I could clean the outlets on the left side of the surge protector, especially inside the outlet itself. So, I will probably just get a new one of those for her...

 Screenshot 2024-02-04 180322.png   1.17MB   1 downloads

Hi, can try it.  Do not think it will harm anything.  Plug into another outlet though.

There still appears to be junk all over the plug.  Wash with alcohol then soap water and let dry.

Is that rust being seen or did you go through a protective layer ?

As to spill it could be old, could be a rodent in the walls or a bug got fried,

The plug must be as clean as when you purchased it.  If it doesn't work as expected within 5 seconds, get rid of it.

The socket must be clean as well, but for that, the casing must opened.  If you don't want to go there because of the inherent risks, just block the socket forever, and any other sockets that may have failed as well.  Since this is only a surge protector, not a big cost, just replace it to be safe.

Edited by Dominique1, 04 February 2024 - 08:27 PM.

Hi, can try it.  Do not think it will harm anything.  Plug into another outlet though.

 

There still appears to be junk all over the plug.  Wash with alcohol then soap water and let dry.

 

Is that rust being seen or did you go through a protective layer ?

 

As to spill it could be old, could be a rodent in the walls or a bug got fried,

Sure seemed like I got all the junk off that would come off... and, it's quite possible the discolored area is the outer layer is worn off. Is it copper or some alloy underneath?
I will try to get a better picture... as with the naked eye, I really think the orangy stuff is NOT the junk I cleaned up but the plug itself.
Wish I had better eyesight... stinking astigmatisms...  ha.

Yes understand the clean and what I was looking at and you cite.  There was stuff all over the plug in the picture perhaps lint. 

So to clean the plug do as suggested as something must have been spilled.  The alcohol to get rid of sticky, soap/water on a clothe to finish and then dry.

Do not plug into the same socket to test.

Would not use the socket for anything else do to spillage or.....

Tried the q-tip and some tea tree oil(it's good at getting sticky stuff off, typically) a bit more and, I was wrong... a lot of that discoloration is in fact sticky stuff. Which is good news. I think the shiny finish of the metal is a LITTLE off in that area, and I still have more to clean, but it looks in good enough shape that I might go ahead and give it a try.
I would have gone with alcohol, just didn't have any in the house.
I will try soap and water a little and see if it gets any better, and allow it to dry thoroughly before plugging it in.
And, the surge protector, I'm just ordering a new one as I don't feel like trying to clean all of, whatever it is, off it.
Theoretically, if the plug isn't actually burned, I'm thinking that outlet might still be okay, but I wont try it.
I get side tracked with a million other responsibilities(including 4 kids... ) but I'll get to it. ha

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Theoretically, if the plug isn't actually burned, I'm thinking that outlet might still be okay, but I wont try it.

No! Never assume!  If you removed sticky stuff from the plug, sticky stuff is still in the socket.  And remember, that sticky stuff is electricity conducting somehow, and did cause a flash spark.  Just get rid of the surge protector as your instinct tells you.