My young son's friend came around to our house the other evening with his
notebook pc. The friend's battery started running low, so my son took the
transformer from my wife's laptop and plugged it into his friends computer.

I was horrified that he hadn't checked the voltage the amperage or the
polarity. He knows more than me about computers, but was he right to not
check these things or does a few volts, the polarity or the likely
difference in amperage between notebook computers not matter much.
grateful for other opinions on this. thanks.

JWBH wrote:

My young son's friend came around to our house the other evening with his
notebook pc. The friend's battery started running low, so my son took the
transformer from my wife's laptop and plugged it into his friends computer.

I was horrified that he hadn't checked the voltage the amperage or the
polarity. He knows more than me about computers, but was he right to not
check these things or does a few volts, the polarity or the likely
difference in amperage between notebook computers not matter much.
grateful for other opinions on this. thanks.


It matters a lot.
The wrong voltage or polarity could potentially destroy the laptop, the
power supply or both. The wrong size plug could damage the plug or the
jack.
Using an adapter with the correct voltage, plug and polarity but not
enough current probably would not work well or has a chance of
overheating the power supply as it tries to provide more current than it
is designed to.
In all or most modern laptops, the power supply is integrated on the
motherboard so the cost of repairing the damage could be very high.

"JWBH" wrote in message
...
My young son's friend came around to our house the other evening with his
notebook pc. The friend's battery started running low, so my son took the
transformer from my wife's laptop and plugged it into his friends
computer.

I was horrified that he hadn't checked the voltage the amperage or the
polarity. He knows more than me about computers, but was he right to not
check these things or does a few volts, the polarity or the likely
difference in amperage between notebook computers not matter much.
grateful for other opinions on this. thanks.



I just cut and strip the end of an extension cord and put the wires in
whatever holes look convenient.

Obviously you know the answer.

JWBH wrote:
My young son's friend came around to our house the other evening with his
notebook pc. The friend's battery started running low, so my son took the
transformer from my wife's laptop and plugged it into his friends computer.

I was horrified that he hadn't checked the voltage the amperage or the
polarity. He knows more than me about computers, but was he right to not
check these things or does a few volts, the polarity or the likely
difference in amperage between notebook computers not matter much.
grateful for other opinions on this. thanks.


It's reckless to use the wrong adapter. Will probably work over a big
range of voltages, but it's generally a BAD idea.

But did you check your assumptions before jumping to conclusions?
It's possible that he's done that a bunch of times with that adapter
and lapotp. If you check it once, probably don't need to do it again.
Maybe what you judge as reckless might just be a good memory ;-)
Yeah...what am I thinking...
mike

--
Return address is VALID!
Bunch-O-Stuff Forsale He
http://nm7u.tripod.com/homepage/sale.html

But did you check your assumptions before jumping to conclusions?
It's possible that he's done that a bunch of times with that adapter
and lapotp. If you check it once, probably don't need to do it again.
Maybe what you judge as reckless might just be a good memory ;-)
Yeah...what am I thinking...
mike

Humorous post ... although you might not have intended that. Old farts are
often dismayed when their old-time logic and knowledge crashes and burns in
front of the kids that they raised. It's OK BTW; they are more tolerant.

"Jumpster Jiver" wrote in message
news:nYgKh.16531$2%3.15177@trndny06...
JWBH wrote:

My young son's friend came around to our house the other evening with his
notebook pc. The friend's battery started running low, so my son took
the transformer from my wife's laptop and plugged it into his friends
computer.

I was horrified that he hadn't checked the voltage the amperage or the
polarity. He knows more than me about computers, but was he right to not
check these things or does a few volts, the polarity or the likely
difference in amperage between notebook computers not matter much.
grateful for other opinions on this. thanks.
It matters a lot.
The wrong voltage or polarity could potentially destroy the laptop, the
power supply or both. The wrong size plug could damage the plug or the
jack.
Using an adapter with the correct voltage, plug and polarity but not
enough current probably would not work well or has a chance of overheating
the power supply as it tries to provide more current than it is designed
to.
In all or most modern laptops, the power supply is integrated on the
motherboard so the cost of repairing the damage could be very high.

Jumpster

With respect I have not seen a Laptop/Notebook with the 'Power Supply'
integrated on the motherboard since the days of 486's (Toshiba for example)
'Power Supply' being the components that convert the AC mains from the wall
socket to the DC voltage required to run the Laptop / Charge it's battery.
These days universally an 'external' power brick or 'transformer' as
described by the OP.

Quite agree with your first two points though.


Best
Paul.

"PeeCee" wrote in message
...

"Jumpster Jiver" wrote in message
news:nYgKh.16531$2%3.15177@trndny06...
JWBH wrote:

My young son's friend came around to our house the other evening with
his notebook pc. The friend's battery started running low, so my son
took the transformer from my wife's laptop and plugged it into his
friends computer.

I was horrified that he hadn't checked the voltage the amperage or the
polarity. He knows more than me about computers, but was he right to
not check these things or does a few volts, the polarity or the likely
difference in amperage between notebook computers not matter much.
grateful for other opinions on this. thanks.
It matters a lot.
The wrong voltage or polarity could potentially destroy the laptop, the
power supply or both. The wrong size plug could damage the plug or the
jack.
Using an adapter with the correct voltage, plug and polarity but not
enough current probably would not work well or has a chance of
overheating the power supply as it tries to provide more current than it
is designed to.
In all or most modern laptops, the power supply is integrated on the
motherboard so the cost of repairing the damage could be very high.

Jumpster

With respect I have not seen a Laptop/Notebook with the 'Power Supply'
integrated on the motherboard since the days of 486's (Toshiba for
example)
'Power Supply' being the components that convert the AC mains from the
wall socket to the DC voltage required to run the Laptop / Charge it's
battery. These days universally an 'external' power brick or
'transformer' as described by the OP.

Quite agree with your first two points though.


I believe the point he was trying to make isn't the power transformer and
ac/dc conversion being on the motherboard of the laptop, but with the
charging circuits, and the voltage converters/regulators, etc., being
integrated internally in the laptop. I've seen a number of adapters with
multiple voltage outputs, but more and more I see these single voltage
barrel plug connectors with 19V or whatever. Knowing that the components in
the PC actually run primarily on 5 and 12 volts, the conversion is being
done in the laptop. Mess that up, and you've got an expensive repair.

"Captain Midnight" wrote in message
...
"JWBH" wrote in message
...
My young son's friend came around to our house the other evening with his
notebook pc. The friend's battery started running low, so my son took
the
transformer from my wife's laptop and plugged it into his friends
computer.

I was horrified that he hadn't checked the voltage the amperage or the
polarity. He knows more than me about computers, but was he right to not
check these things or does a few volts, the polarity or the likely
difference in amperage between notebook computers not matter much.
grateful for other opinions on this. thanks.



I just cut and strip the end of an extension cord and put the wires in
whatever holes look convenient.

Obviously you know the answer.

Love it! That would be quite the light show, eh?

WhzzKdd wrote:
"Captain Midnight" wrote in message
...
"JWBH" wrote in message
...
My young son's friend came around to our house the other evening with his
notebook pc. The friend's battery started running low, so my son took
the
transformer from my wife's laptop and plugged it into his friends
computer.
I was horrified that he hadn't checked the voltage the amperage or the
polarity. He knows more than me about computers, but was he right to not
check these things or does a few volts, the polarity or the likely
difference in amperage between notebook computers not matter much.
grateful for other opinions on this. thanks.


I just cut and strip the end of an extension cord and put the wires in
whatever holes look convenient.

Obviously you know the answer.

Love it! That would be quite the light show, eh?


I once bought a power brick at a swapmeet. Put it on the voltmeter.
Measured zero CD volts, but it shocked the pee out of me.
Turns out someone had tied the AC mains to the output and put a postit
note inside saying, "F...You!". Glad I tested it first.
I know who sold it to me, but he's much bigger than I am ;-(
mike

--
Return address is VALID!
Bunch-O-Stuff Forsale He
http://nm7u.tripod.com/homepage/sale.html

"mike" wrote in message
news:G1nKh.6055$Bi2.4609@trnddc01...
WhzzKdd wrote:
"Captain Midnight" wrote in message
...
"JWBH" wrote in message
...
My young son's friend came around to our house the other evening with
his
notebook pc. The friend's battery started running low, so my son took
the
transformer from my wife's laptop and plugged it into his friends
computer.
I was horrified that he hadn't checked the voltage the amperage or the
polarity. He knows more than me about computers, but was he right to
not
check these things or does a few volts, the polarity or the likely
difference in amperage between notebook computers not matter much.
grateful for other opinions on this. thanks.


I just cut and strip the end of an extension cord and put the wires in
whatever holes look convenient.

Obviously you know the answer.

Love it! That would be quite the light show, eh?


I once bought a power brick at a swapmeet. Put it on the voltmeter.
Measured zero CD volts, but it shocked the pee out of me.
Turns out someone had tied the AC mains to the output and put a postit
note inside saying, "F...You!". Glad I tested it first.
I know who sold it to me, but he's much bigger than I am ;-(
mike

Yow! I think I'd be pretty ****ed g

WhzzKdd wrote:
"mike" wrote in message
news:G1nKh.6055$Bi2.4609@trnddc01...

WhzzKdd wrote:

"Captain Midnight" wrote in message
. ..

"JWBH" wrote in message
...

My young son's friend came around to our house the other evening with
his
notebook pc. The friend's battery started running low, so my son took
the
transformer from my wife's laptop and plugged it into his friends

computer.

I was horrified that he hadn't checked the voltage the amperage or the
polarity. He knows more than me about computers, but was he right to
not
check these things or does a few volts, the polarity or the likely
difference in amperage between notebook computers not matter much.
grateful for other opinions on this. thanks.



I just cut and strip the end of an extension cord and put the wires in
whatever holes look convenient.

Obviously you know the answer.


Love it! That would be quite the light show, eh?



I once bought a power brick at a swapmeet. Put it on the voltmeter.
Measured zero CD volts, but it shocked the pee out of me.
Turns out someone had tied the AC mains to the output and put a postit
note inside saying, "F...You!". Glad I tested it first.
I know who sold it to me, but he's much bigger than I am ;-(
mike


Yow! I think I'd be pretty ****ed g




Yikes, I'd think that would be a criminal offense, someone could be killed.

At some time in 1962, some Japanese EE designed the first piece of
crap with one of those tubular jacks.

If he would have thought ahead, he would have realized the huge
problem he was creating.

It seems nobody went to the trouble of coming up with some sane
standard for these connectors, so we ended up with idential-looking
connectors, some with AC, some with DC, of either polarity, and
unfathomable amperage. I have a weed-whacker charger that puts out
1.5 volts, and a HP printer brick that puts out 37 volts. Madness.

You may be able to luck-out, as most laptops have very flexible power
supplies,a s they haev to be able to run off batteries, charged or
almost discharged. So most laptops can tolerate a modicum of voltage
ranges. Many even have a diode or four to protect against reverse
polarity.

But in general it's best to make mismatching difficult to impossible.
Like putting green paint on the connector and on the laptop socket.
And blue on the printer and printer cord. And so on, all the way
through your modems, routers, bridges, usb hubs, weather stations,
radios, boomboxes, and whatnots.

"Robb" wrote in message
gee-cord.info...

Should we have our right legs tattooed "right" and the same for our
whatnots?

A friend had to go in for an operation on her foot. She and another friend
wrote on the other foot in felt pen, "WRONG FOOT".

Guess which one they operated on?

USA: "We have the finest xxxxxxxxxx in the world"!

Yeah, right.

"Homer J Simpson" wrote in message
news:VKAKh.53317$lY6.29712@edtnps90...

"Robb" wrote in message
gee-cord.info...

Should we have our right legs tattooed "right" and the same for our
whatnots?

A friend had to go in for an operation on her foot. She and another friend
wrote on the other foot in felt pen, "WRONG FOOT".

Guess which one they operated on?

Yeah, but can't you just /smell/ "lawsuit"? g

Bet they got the correct foot fixed for free, plus some extra pocket cash.

"Ancient_Hacker" wrote in message
oups.com...
At some time in 1962, some Japanese EE designed the first piece of
crap with one of those tubular jacks.

If he would have thought ahead, he would have realized the huge
problem he was creating.

It seems nobody went to the trouble of coming up with some sane
standard for these connectors, so we ended up with idential-looking
connectors, some with AC, some with DC, of either polarity, and
unfathomable amperage. I have a weed-whacker charger that puts out
1.5 volts, and a HP printer brick that puts out 37 volts. Madness.

You may be able to luck-out, as most laptops have very flexible power
supplies,a s they haev to be able to run off batteries, charged or
almost discharged. So most laptops can tolerate a modicum of voltage
ranges. Many even have a diode or four to protect against reverse
polarity.

But in general it's best to make mismatching difficult to impossible.
Like putting green paint on the connector and on the laptop socket.
And blue on the printer and printer cord. And so on, all the way
through your modems, routers, bridges, usb hubs, weather stations,
radios, boomboxes, and whatnots.

Don't you be color coding MY whatnots! g

Okay - I know what you mean, and totally agree. While there have been a good
number of altered barrel connectors (different OD, different post ID, some
color coding, etc.) it's still way too haphazard.

Truth is, in a pinch, I've used some pretty weird connector combinations
myself...whatever was in the junk box at the time

"WhzzKdd" wrote in message
...

"Homer J Simpson" wrote in message
news:VKAKh.53317$lY6.29712@edtnps90...

"Robb" wrote in message
gee-cord.info...

Should we have our right legs tattooed "right" and the same for our
whatnots?

A friend had to go in for an operation on her foot. She and another
friend
wrote on the other foot in felt pen, "WRONG FOOT".

Guess which one they operated on?

Yeah, but can't you just /smell/ "lawsuit"? g

Bet they got the correct foot fixed for free, plus some extra pocket cash.



Have a friend who bought a pickup truck with his part of the settlement.
Have no idea what the lawyers bought. His knees weren't labeled though. IIRC
he let the same doctor do the correct knee. At least he knew he had good
malpractice insurance.

with so many proprietary stuff around, u lucky u didnt have to buy another
replacement laptop!

"JWBH" wrote in message
...
My young son's friend came around to our house the other evening with his
notebook pc. The friend's battery started running low, so my son took the
transformer from my wife's laptop and plugged it into his friends
computer.

I was horrified that he hadn't checked the voltage the amperage or the
polarity. He knows more than me about computers, but was he right to not
check these things or does a few volts, the polarity or the likely
difference in amperage between notebook computers not matter much.
grateful for other opinions on this. thanks.

"Captain Midnight" wrote in message
...
"WhzzKdd" wrote in message
...

"Homer J Simpson" wrote in message
news:VKAKh.53317$lY6.29712@edtnps90...

"Robb" wrote in message
gee-cord.info...

Should we have our right legs tattooed "right" and the same for our
whatnots?

A friend had to go in for an operation on her foot. She and another
friend
wrote on the other foot in felt pen, "WRONG FOOT".

Guess which one they operated on?

Yeah, but can't you just /smell/ "lawsuit"? g

Bet they got the correct foot fixed for free, plus some extra pocket
cash.



Have a friend who bought a pickup truck with his part of the settlement.
Have no idea what the lawyers bought. His knees weren't labeled though.
IIRC
he let the same doctor do the correct knee. At least he knew he had good
malpractice insurance.

Tested and proven g! Still...I'd be a little concerned...

Hi!

With respect I have not seen a Laptop/Notebook with the 'Power Supply'
integrated on the motherboard since the days of 486's (Toshiba for
example)
'Power Supply' being the components that convert the AC mains from the
wall
socket to the DC voltage required to run the Laptop / Charge it's battery.

There's not a "whole" line voltage to DC power supply in a modern laptop,
but there is very often a power supply known as a "DC-DC converter" that
takes the single voltage from the power adapter and provides all the
different voltages the computer will need. This supply usually also has the
majority of the battery charging circuitry on it.

Some (very few) laptops actually have power bricks that put out more than
one voltage. I haven't seen any recent ones, though.

William

Hi!

I was horrified that he hadn't checked the voltage the amperage or the
polarity. He knows more than me about computers, but was he right
to not check these things

No! You were *definitely* correct. I'm here to say that substituting laptop
power supplies between different models and makers (as long as the
connectors are completely compatible!) is generally OK as long as you have
checked the voltage (both listed and what is actually being put out when
unloaded), current rating and polarity *first*. The voltage should be exact
and the polarity had better match as well. Current supply can be higher or
equal to what the computer expects.

There is some leeway in most designs for current draw and possibly voltage,
but you can't always count on this and won't find it documented anywhere
short of personal experience.

If you don't check these factors before plugging things in, you're looking
at the possibility of causing anything from instant destruction on up to
slow cumulative damage to the computer.

William

Hi!

I had a 1960 five -or- six-transistor radio with an optional external
power cord/wire/plug-in device thingy. Matched perfectly with the
input of an immersion coffee re-heater, but that only worked once. :/

Hmm...impressive bang? Lots of smoke? Sudden bright light from within? Sound
output equivalent to a 1,000 watt home theater system but only for a second?
g

William