Poor quality USB-C cables which can destroy a smartphone or laptop in spectacular (and dangerous) fashion have been blocked from sale by Amazon.

The online retailer has faced criticism in recent months for permitting third-party dealers to sell cut-priced USB-C cables, with often faulty power distribution, to early adopters of the technology.

The latest version of the USB standard is both reversible and can deliver large quantities of both power and data to a wide range of devices. This introduces a new danger, as a substandards cables can draw too much power from a laptop when charging another device, doing serious damage to circuitry.

The move comes as more and more laptop manufacturers introduce USB-C to reduce device size, ports and weight – for example Apple’s latest MacBook, which includes virtually no other physical ports.

USB-C cables have been added to Amazon’s prohibited products list (along side GPS jammers, laser pointers and radar shifters) and can not be sold unless compliant with standards set by the USB Implementers Forum.

Find out more about IT hardware supplies, support, and expertise from Lineal.

Here at Lineal we’re seeing more and more users ask for upgrades to Solid State Drives (SSDs) in our Repairs & Upgrades Shop. What is this best kept secret?

Solid State Drives are the modern replacement for your old computer hard disk, superceding the traditional magnetically-written hard disk with an integrated flash-based system more like a memory stick. Without fragile moving pieces any laptop equipped with an SSD is much more durable in the real world, where computers receive frequent accidental knocks, scrapes and shocks which could damage a traditional hard disk. No laptop is invincible, and for businesses looking to avoid expensive hardware repairs, upgrading to an SSD can be a shrewd investment.

Operating through intricate circuitry rather than a spinning mechanism, SSDs run silently and are much more power efficient, more environmentally friendly, and offer users extended battery life.

“No moving parts means an SSD is much more practical than your old computer hard disk.” explained Ian Meredith, Network Analyst at Lineal: “SSDs are more advanced, reading and writing data quicker, running cooler and less likely to need maintenance.”

Manufacturers are already pushing boundaries: Samsung recently announced the world’s fastest SSD ever. Weighing in at just 10 grams, the Samsung 950 Pro is a 1 TB monster SSD boasting read speeds of 2.5Gb per second, and write speeds of 1.5Gb per second.

“It’s straightforward for us to replace the drives on both MAC and Windows Devices” added Ian: “SSD prices have plummeted recently and in our Repairs & Upgrades shop we can move all a client’s existing data across to the new drive once we’ve built it into their laptop.”

“With a routine SSD upgrade we can provide improved performance to users who need it, or peace-of-mind to those clients who fear their indispensible laptop’s hard-drive may be reaching the end of its life.”

Contact Lineal about upgrading your organisation’s IT with a Solid State Drive (SSD) today – call us: 01271 375999.