I have owned a Switch since Feb. I have logged about 105 hours in BotW, and about 3 in Mario Odyssey. 98 percent of that time I have spent playing the device in handheld mode. The issue with the power cord happened a few days after I bought Odyssey. Being that Odyssey unlike BotW looks clearly much more fantastic in docked mode, I decided to play it on the big screen.
To my surprise and disappointment my HDTV didn’t receive any signal from the docking station. After trying different solutions for the problem I decided to test the power cord on the tablet device in order to charge it. The Switch didn’t charge, so I tried using a spare USB-C cell phone charger and the tablet began to charge. I tried playing docked again with the cell phone charger but this time I got a message on the tablet's screen telling me that the docking station was receiving “insufficient power” or something along those lines.
Being that I have no patience for online shopping and the subsequent wait for the items to arrive; I drove my self to Walmart. I found the official Nintendo power cord for 32 dollars (expensive), but right beside it I saw Balckweb's (Walmart brand) own power cord for the Switch for just 14.99. I carefully read the specifications and found that both cords have the same voltage and specs. So I bought the cheapest one. I have been playing docked since (1 day).
My questions are: has anyone’s official Nintendo Switch power cord died on them for no apparent reason? Has anyone’s Switch received damage from using a third party power cord?
Nintendo has a rep for building Tonka tough hardware ( My N64 runs like a dream) and accessories but I am frankly disappointed at this situation especially since I barely used the power cord for anything other than charging the switch while it was off or on rest mode. There most have been a power fluctuation in the house or something while I was charging the switch the night before but my PS4 was also on at the time and it still works fine.
