Power cords and Charging Devices: Best Tips and Practices

Prince William County Schools is a 1:1 district, meaning every student and staff member receives both a device and a charger. Because these chargers are used daily and often moved between locations, it’s important to handle them with care. Below are simple tips to help keep power adapters and charging cables safe and working properly

Here are some tips to prolong the battery life of the device:

1. Laptops and iPad's should be turned off and on at least once a day (this also helps catch any pending updates), save any open work and perform a full shut down and then turn your device back on.
2. Leaving devices on inside of bags/cases can cause the device to overheat and put added stress on the battery
3. Tightly wrapping up power cords can cause extra pressure on the wire itself and lead to degraded charging
4. Ensure all parts of the charging cable are secure and plugged in all the way (cable from wall to power adapter box plugged securely into power adapter box, cable from power adapter box to device securely plugged into the device)
5. DO NOT, attempt to plug in any charger with any visible damage into a device, and also applies to if the charge port on the device is damaged/obstructed; this is an electrical hazard and charger/power cable must be brought to your school's I.T. office immediately to swap out/repair the defective device. Here are some examples of different types of cable damage to keep an eye out for:

Wire exposed at charging end

Charging tip is bent

Base of charging tip bent/kinked

Bent Laptop charging tip

Base of charger cable at power adapter showing visible wiring

Things to look out for regarding charging your device

1. Devices will indicate once it is fully charged via steady white light or the battery bar will be filled on the screen, if so, please unplug from the charger to prevent battery degradation from over charging
2. If you plug in the charger cable and notice, there is no indication of the electrical charge going through to the device, then try using a different wall outlet, make sure all connections are plugged in all the way, if still no indication of a charge then bring by your school's I.T. office as it might be non-functional despite not having any visible physical damage  
3. If you plug in a charging cable and notice a burning smell, remove IMMEDIATELY and bring both device and charger to your school's I.T. office (for students, let nearest adult know immediately, so they can handle the device to prevent injury)