I bought this item last year. www.ebay.com/itm/331250999094 I didn't have an
occasion to use the power adapter until last month when I had a SATA
notebook drive to check. (When I bought it, I was mainly interested in the
PATA adapter which does not require the separate power supply as the power
is derived through the USB port.)

I had everything wired to go when I plugged in the AC cord into the adapter.
Kaboom and poof. I saw a nice spark from the AC terminals as it first made
contact with the adapter. I remembered when I purchased it and did some
research into the feed back of the seller and found a few similar comments
like this:

"Plugged In..Smoked..Almost Caught
Fire..Garbage..BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Buyer:
USB 2.0 to IDE SATA S-ATA 2.5 3.5 Hard Drive HD HDD Converter Adapter Cable
New (#331250999094) US $8.75"

I think if someone else reported this happening, then this must be happening
often. Before I opened the case of the power box, I could hear what sounded
like a part rattling inside. I think it what was left of the fuse. Inside
there was a component labeled F1 on the pc board except all that was left
were the two pico(?) fuse terminals (maybe it was just a thin jumper wire?).
I also found that the pc traces had melted near the AC input. It didn't take
long to find three of the four bridge diodes were shorted (I removed them
from the board to check for other shorts as shown in the photo) as well as
the switching power transistor, and a 0.22 resistor in series with it. The
photo is here.
http://webpages.charter.net/mrfixite...ta-adapter.jpg

I decided to contact the seller and let them know that their device was a
fire hazard. I'm fairly certain that the internal fuse is supposed to blow
before the pc traces melt. I got a response that offered me a free
replacement even though it was more than a year old. I took them up on their
offer and have received the replacement which I haven't plugged in yet.
(When I do, it's going to be in a series with 60 watt light bulb!) The issue
of it being a fire hazard wasn't address by the seller. I looked for some
kind of government approved sticker but did not find one. Would it make any
sense or would it be just a waste of time to make some kind of consumer
report about this device? How large a fuse would have to be in the circuit
to allow the traces to burn up?

Thanks for your reply.
--
David Farber
Los Osos, CA