Fire up Your Laptop with Compaq

Laptop power supplies are starting to seem like dangerous little beasts. It was only a few months ago that we heard about power supplies in Dell laptops going up in flames and now it looks like Compaq is having the same problem with certain AC adapters. Last week, the company announced that it is voluntarily recalling come 594,000 AC adapters used with certain Compaq notebook computers in the U.S. It's part of a worldwide recall of more than 1.4 million AC adapters. Compaq says that the gadgets can overheat, posing a fire hazard and that it has received five reports of fire caused by the adapters. The recall involves AC adapters with the model series number PPP003SD, PPP003 and PP2012, located under "Compaq Computer Corporation" on the adapter label. The AC adapters were sold individually and with the Armada M300, Armada 3500, Armada M700, Armada E500s, Armada E500, Armada V300, Prosignia 170, Prosignia 190, Presario 800 (South Korea only), Armada 100s, Armada 110, and Notebook 100 mobile computers. The adapters (and computers that included the adapters) were sold from September 1998 through July 2001. Compaq says that if you have one of these adapters (an example is shown above) you should stop using it and contact the company to order a free replacement. For more information, call Compaq at (888) 302-7689, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m U.S. Central time Monday through Friday or get info via the Compaq website .