so yeah.. this is my "Genuine" HP adapter from newmp3technology.com

[pwnt]

I lost one of my adapters (had one for home, one for taking it to places and stayed in my bag) and I bought one online, from a vendor called www.newmp3technology.com

Update: August 2010:
From the way it looked inside and out, I believed it is counterfeit. It was sent to HP for authentication and they confirmed it is counterfeit.

It was sold as Genuine HP AC Adapter, came complete with HP logo and everything.

It looked like this when I got it first.




Only after a few months of use, the label starts blistering. I decided to tear it down.

It's built like a poor quality PSU.

After a few month of use, the label started to blister like crazy. I peeled it off, then put it back on, but it blistered again.

Typically a power supply will have an inductor right where the jumpers are to minimize conducted EMF emissions in order to satisfy FCC requirements as well as reduce interference.

Does this look like HP OEM product quality soldering job? One of the SMD was actually not seated all the way with way too much solder as well as being crooked. Not what you'd expect from quality automated manufacturing. The artifacts from manual trimming with diagonal cutters are obvious on larger components.

This looks like a practice circuit board from an electronics 101 class.

Discoloration was obvious along the capacitors on the output stage.

 

[YeuEmMaiMai]

I have a genuine dell adapter that the lablel has bubbled up a little (it came with my studio 15) and all i did was move the bubbles to the side thus making the label flat again. that sucker gets amazingly hot too

 

[pwnt]

Could a genuine HP have soldering quality that bad? There was a whisker of wire sticking out output cord where it enters the holes at circuit board. There are huge blobs of solder on the board and signs of component legs being trimmed by hand using hand tools.

 

[Bahamut]

HP doesn't "make" such products, just as no other major OEM does - they all drop a contract with their requested specs on some east Asian product manufacturer/supplier and do their best with what they get when the order is filled.

I don't see anything that stands out as bad or horrible in those pics; I've had Dells, HPs, Gateways, Toshibas, pretty much every modern OEM computer maker to speak of and I've cracked open most all of their AC adapters and they all look pretty much just like those pics.

Fairly simple devices, really, doesn't require a high level of precision or sophistication to make them.

And a lot of those things are still made by hand, keep that in mind as well. Not a lot of profit in 'em so, nobody is going to use an entire factory of high-end robotics/automated machine construction when they can pay some very poor folks very little money to make 'em by hand and dedicate the high-end machinery for the more profitable items.

 

[Trepidati0n]

That is typical soldering/assembly for a shit electronics like power adapters. Don't feel offended that they didn't give you an aerospace grade converter in a completely touchless enviroment.

It is a typical flyback converter and done fairly well considering what it is. The fact that there is soldermask (the green stuff) on both sides of the board really indicate it is legit OEM. If it was a knockoff, you usually wouldn't see that. Also, they did a standard reflow on the bottom for the SMT parts, inserted the through hold parts then hand soldered. Makes a bit of sense and not unexpected.

Power adapters usually get hot, if the glue on the label is weak, it will bubble.

 

[pwnt]

I don't see anything that stands out as bad or horrible in those pics; I've had Dells, HPs, Gateways, Toshibas, pretty much every modern OEM computer maker to speak of and I've cracked open most all of their AC adapters and they all look pretty much just like those pics.

Do you have close up pics of guts of known genuine adapters that came with a new computer and not as an accessory on eBay or some website?

Fairly simple devices, really, doesn't require a high level of precision or sophistication to make them.

And somehow skip an input RFI reduction choke?


Many of the SMT components are not even lined up correctly and some are even noticeably floating.

I've seen crap construction like this on generic stuff, but not on factory OEM accessories.

If the retail price is well over $60 and the company in question has a large quantity of "genuine" OEM accessories at a deep discount($20 shipped) despite not being an authorized dealer and have a basically bottomless supply, where do you think they're coming from?

If they want to sell crap generic compatible adapter, thats fine, but since they're selling as genuine HP, I've got an issue.

The two adapters I've had (the one that came with this laptop) and another I got with a spare broken laptop do not have label peel issues. The output cord is also not half the length.

 

[Bahamut]

Do you have close up pics of guts of known genuine adapters that came with a new computer and not as an accessory on eBay or some website

Not presently but, if any clients drop off a dead adapter in the near future for replacement I'll gut it open and take some shots - after I verify it really is dead, however. Been finding a lot of ones in the past few years with crappy wiring or even a few with bad barrel plugs or whatnot. It's not always the actual circuitry that goes out, more likely it's a cabling issue based on my recent experiences.

It's pretty frustrating tearing a laptop apart and not finding anything and then thinking, "Ok, let's check the AC adapter..." only to find it was a shorted cable or something in the adapter.

Rookie errors but we all make 'em even after decades of working with this stuff.

 

[pwnt]

HP responded. They believe it is counterfeit based on the same pictures I submitted them. The Corporate Security office in Houston, TX, USA responded:

"From the pictures attached, it does appear that the product you purchased is counterfeit. We have had reports of some counterfeit power adapters catching on fire, so we urge you to discontinue use of this product. "

 

[pwnt]

So, many users were not convinced it is not a counterfeit. I just found out for sure that is is definitely counterfeit.

It was returned to HP for authentication and I'm told it's definitely a fake.