Hi all, forgive me if this is a ridiculous question. I'm really not
sure if electricity isn't just a fancy word for magic!
I have a ac charger for my laptop that is 19V and 6A
I also have an ac charger that is not made for my laptop, but is 19V
and 3A
Is it safe to use the second charger with my laptop, or will the
battery explode, killing me and those I hold dearest?
Cheers in advance!
Tony

The 19V 3A charger will not make your battery explode, but probably it
will not be powerful enough for your laptop, especially since the
original is 19V 6A.

I think it is safe to try it. Probably can recharge the battery when
laptop is off; may or may not have enough ooomph to run the laptop.

Do check the polarity of the connector. You want + or plus going to
+, - or negative going to -.

lsmartino wrote:
The 19V 3A charger will not make your battery explode, but probably it
will not be powerful enough for your laptop, especially since the
original is 19V 6A.

"Brotherwarren" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi all, forgive me if this is a ridiculous question. I'm really not
sure if electricity isn't just a fancy word for magic!
I have a ac charger for my laptop that is 19V and 6A
I also have an ac charger that is not made for my laptop, but is 19V
and 3A
Is it safe to use the second charger with my laptop, or will the
battery explode, killing me and those I hold dearest?

The voltage rating of a power supply tells you what voltage (electron
pressure) it outputs, and the amp rating tells you how much current it can
output (how many electrons per second, where 1 A = some enormous number of
electrons per second).

If your computer needs 6 A then 3 A will not power it adequately.

The battery won't explode: The inadequate power supply will probably
overheat and may be a fire hazard. If you're lucky, it will just fail.

If you exceed its current requirements, it may also not regulate the
voltage properly and may damage your laptop.


Brotherwarren wrote:
Hi all, forgive me if this is a ridiculous question. I'm really not
sure if electricity isn't just a fancy word for magic!
I have a ac charger for my laptop that is 19V and 6A
I also have an ac charger that is not made for my laptop, but is 19V
and 3A
Is it safe to use the second charger with my laptop, or will the
battery explode, killing me and those I hold dearest?
Cheers in advance!
Tony

On 10 May 2006 10:09:25 -0700, "Brotherwarren"
wrote:

Hi all, forgive me if this is a ridiculous question. I'm really not
sure if electricity isn't just a fancy word for magic!
I have a ac charger for my laptop that is 19V and 6A
I also have an ac charger that is not made for my laptop, but is 19V
and 3A
Is it safe to use the second charger with my laptop, or will the
battery explode, killing me and those I hold dearest?
Cheers in advance!
Tony

I seriously doubt that your laptop will consume 114W of power while
operating (P =19V x 6A). I suspect the 6A rating is the maximum surge
rating for the charger but it would normally be required to output
around 50% of that I would first check that the 3A charger has the
same plug type/size and polarity as the original and then give it a
go. I am sure it will work ok but if it tends to run HOT then you know
it isn't satisfactory.

"Mike Berger" wrote in message
...
The battery won't explode: The inadequate power supply will probably
overheat and may be a fire hazard. If you're lucky, it will just fail.

If you exceed its current requirements, it may also not regulate the
voltage properly and may damage your laptop.


Agreed. That's basically what I was going to say, especially the second
part. Plugging a well under rated adapter into a laptop would be extremely
foolish.

Dave

"Ross Herbert" wrote in message
...
I seriously doubt that your laptop will consume 114W of power while
operating (P =19V x 6A).


You'd perhaps be surprised. Many modern 'desktop replacement' laptops with
desktop CPUs, lots of RAM and powerful video chips/lots of video RAM use
that sort of power. I've seen many laptops with Athlon 3000+ cpus etc with
huge power requirements, and they commonly have battery lives of an hour or
even less when running hard.

If the manufacturer supplied a 6 Amp adapter then it's blatantly obvious IMO
that running a 3 Amp adapter is asking for trouble. It's not just the
adapter that is at risk, the laptop could be destroyed if the adapter
decides to freak out and go into an overvoltage state.

Dave

Am I wrong in thinking that as far as the laptop is concerned, it would
just see an underpowered charger as a dead battery - no harm there.
And don't these chargers have short circuit/overload protection that
will shut them down if the load is too great?

Dave D wrote:
"Mike Berger" wrote in message
...
The battery won't explode: The inadequate power supply will probably
overheat and may be a fire hazard. If you're lucky, it will just fail.

If you exceed its current requirements, it may also not regulate the
voltage properly and may damage your laptop.


Agreed. That's basically what I was going to say, especially the second
part. Plugging a well under rated adapter into a laptop would be extremely
foolish.

Dave

Bennett Price wrote:

Am I wrong in thinking that as far as the laptop is concerned, it would
just see an underpowered charger as a dead battery - no harm there.

No. It would try to work after a fashion.

And don't these chargers have short circuit/overload protection that
will shut them down if the load is too great?

Good ones may do ! Would you risk it ?

Graham

"Bennett Price" wrote in message
. net...
Am I wrong in thinking that as far as the laptop is concerned, it would
just see an underpowered charger as a dead battery - no harm there.
And don't these chargers have short circuit/overload protection that will
shut them down if the load is too great?


Well speaking from experience- an overloaded switchmode laptop psu can pulse
on-off-on-off or hunt as it fails to maintain a steady regulated output, and
this can cause serious damage to the laptop. Yes, some power supplies may
just shut down safely, but I wouldn't chance it with such an expensive load!

Regardless of all this, it simply isn't good practice to replace the correct
power supply with a lower rated one. Manufacturers are rarely hugely
generous with ratings of PSUs, certainly not by a factor of 100%, and if
they supply a 6A one, it's a good bet there's a compelling reason not to use
a much lower rated one.

Dave