Wednesday, April 14, 2010

What To Do When You Lose Your Power Adapter

Being a modern business traveler, I carry with me more than my fare share of electronic gadgets. I've got a computer, two cell phones, two digital cameras and occasionally a second computer. Any way you look at it, I carry too many gadgets. Consequentially the more gadgets I have, the more power cords and cables I have to carry and possibly lose along the way.

It would be an inconvenience if I lost my phone adapter, but nearly disastrous if I lost my laptop power adapter. Fortunately I haven't lost any power adapters while traveling, but it could happen.

Since being prepared is often the deciding factor between being able to deal with a crisis elegantly and ripping your hair out, I have decided strike first and prepare for the inevitable. It feels good to have a plan and it took less effort than you might think. I'd like to share my plan with you.

My plan is not as involved as carrying a universal back up power adapter or knowing the addresses of the appropriate adapter venders at each of my destinations. My plan is much simpler: depend on someone more careless than myself.

Every day people leave power adapters behind at hotels. Most hotels collect these in box that acts as a sort of lost and found for power adapters. The odds of someone coming back and claiming one of these is fairly low so the collection slowly grows. Should I find myself in a power adapter situation, I'll head to the front desk and ask to see their box of power adapters. With any luck, I'll be able to borrow the correct adapter and be on my way.

I'll admit that this plan has a major flaw as it relies on someone having my device and losing their adapter at the particular hotel that I'm staying at. While it isn't perfect, it still feels good to have a plan.

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2 comments:

  1. I've accidentally left my whole Adapter Bag through my Train Ride in Russia from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Vladivostok!!
    Huhu,it's a real bad event, i was so happy with my trip, and this about losing my Adapter Bag is just really bad,=(((
    Help me, how can i start to recover themm,
    Now All I can think, except the little chance of having it back from Russia, is to contact EACH Company of the gadgets with the Power Adapters in the Bag to send me back new Adapterss,huhuu.The most important there is the Power Adapter for my Main External Hard Diskkk,Please help mee,i need the best advice

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  2. Your plan may seem unusual, but it definitely made my day. Your logic of losing your adapter and then finding another is just the truth speaking. But anyway, as someone who’s powerless against guilt, I just bring a universal adapter along whenever I travel.

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